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Voting for the 2024 Best Illusion of the Contest is now open! Submit your votes now! LINK

For any questions, please contact Susana Martinez-Conde.


Voting for the 2024 Best Illusion of the Contest is now open! Submit your votes now! LINK

For any questions, please contact Susana Martinez-Conde.


Voting for the 2024 Best Illusion of the Contest is now open! Submit your votes now! LINK

For any questions, please contact Susana Martinez-Conde.

Submit to the 2025 Contest

Submissions for the Best Illusion of the Year Contest 2025 are now open! Submit your 1-minute illusion video by September 15, 2025.
For any queries, please contact Susana Martinez-Conde.

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2024 Platinum Sponsor
2024 Platinum Sponsor
2024 Platinum Sponsor

Support the contest!

The Contest relies on your donations

About the Contest

The Best Illusion of the YearSM Contest is a celebration of illusions and perception, created by the ingenuity of the world’s premier illusion creators. Illusions are perceptual experiences that do not match the physical reality.

How we see the outside world―our perception―is generated indirectly by brain mechanisms, and so all perception is illusory to some extent. The study of illusions is critical to how we understand sensory perception, and many ophthalmic and neurological diseases.

Last Year’s Finalists

Discover incredible illusions from past contests! Since 2005, the Best Illusion of the Year Contest has celebrated mind-bending visual and cognitive illusions, highlighting the creativity of artists, scientists, and enthusiasts worldwide. Explore our archives to experience the wonders of perception and creativity.

Top 10 finalists in the 2005 Contest

Top 10 finalists in the 2010 Contest

Top 10 finalists in the 2015 Contest

Top 10 finalists in the 2023 Contest

Call for Illusion Submissions

The Best Illusion of the Year Contest

Contestants are invited to submit 1-minute YouTube or mp4 videos featuring novel illusions (unpublished or published no earlier than 2023) of all sensory modalities (visual, auditory, etc.) and/or cognitive nature. Novel variants of known illusions are welcome.

Sponsors

We welcome sponsorship of the contest from interested parties. Donations will have a lasting impact on vision research and public knowledge of illusion-based research. Please contact Susana Martinez-Conde for details.

Exploring Visual Illusions and Perception

Exploring Visual Illusions and Perception

Watch illusions that show how visual perception works in the mind.

The Science of Illusions
How to Create a Visual Illusion
Understanding Visual Perception
Perceptual Illusions Explained

Support the contest!

The Contest relies on your donations.

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