Filmmaker Steve McQueen has been awarded the 2026 Erasmus Prize, themed ‘Ecce Homo, Behold the Human Being’, presented each year by the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation.
The Erasmus Prize is awarded annually to a person or institution that has made an exceptionally important contribution in the fields of the humanities and the arts. His Majesty the King serves as Regent of the Foundation. The Erasmus Prize consists of a monetary award of €150,000. The prize will be presented in the autumn of 2026.
“McQueen is known for exploring who we are in moments of vulnerability, how we treat each other, and how history shapes our present, without judgment nor fear of moral complexity,” said the Foundation in a statement.
“This humanist approach resonates deeply with the spirit of Desiderius Erasmus. In his writings, Erasmus encouraged people to question injustice while never letting go of empathy and humanity. Steve McQueen continues that tradition in visual form.
Steve McQueen who has made a career of blending art and film, was born and raised in London to a father from Grenada and a mother born in Trinidad. He first gained recognition in the 1990s as a visual artist with experimental video works such as Bear (1993), and went on to win the prestigious Turner Prize award in 1999.
In 2008, McQueen made his debut as a feature film director with Hunger, followed by Shame (2011), 12 Years a Slave (2013), Widows (2018), and Blitz (2024).
His 2023 documentary Occupied City re-frames Amsterdam’s streets as living memory, juxtaposing wartime occupation with daily life during a pandemic, and the 34-hour version was recently shown on the façade of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. In his new work, Atlas (2026), he explores the boundaries of space, perspective, memory, and time.
In their announcement, the foundation emphasized, “In a world marked by polarization and inequality, McQueen’s work asks us to look carefully and without prejudice—ecce homo—and to recognize ourselves in others. For his unwavering commitment to the human spirit, the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation awards the 2026 Erasmus Prize to Steve McQueen.”
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