2025
HAPPY MOMENTS
GIANLUIGI GUERCIA / AFP
From more than a million AFP photos shot by 400 photographers in 150 countries, we selected 30 images capturing joyful moments from around the world in 2025.
Visitors, wearing stuffed costumes, fight in the "sumo arena" at the HaHaHouse museum of laughter in central Zagreb, on January 21, 2025. The 450-square-metre (4,844-square-feet) museum, which opened in January, offers eight interactive zones and also has an educational part featuring the history of humour from ancient to modern times and via different formats, theatre, film or Internet. DAMIR SENCAR / AFP
US actress Julia Roberts waves after receiving an Honorary Award during the 50th edition of the César Film Awards ceremony at the Olympia venue in Paris on February 28, 2025. BERTRAND GUAY / AFP
Children play rugby during a training camp with France's Stade Toulousain academy in Abidjan on February 26, 2025. ISSOUF SANOGO / AFP
Women dance for a video next to flowers and a windmill by the Jialing River in Yuzhong District in Chongqing in southwestern China on March 6, 2025. HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP
Girls are smeared with coloured powder during Holi celebrations, the Hindu spring festival of colours, in Kolkata on March 14, 2025. DIBYANGSHU SARKAR / AFP
Indigenous children play in the Solimões River during the Alvarães Indigenous Intercultural Games and Dances at the Marajai Village in Alvarães, Amazonas State, northern Brazil, on April 16, 2025. MICHAEL DANTAS / AFP
Competitors take part in the Bog Commander endurance event near Ashbourne, in the Peak District moorlands, in northern England, on May 17, 2025. Featuring over 30 man-made obstacles, the Bog Commander is a 6 km muddy obstacle race through the Peak District's Manifold Valley that started in 2014. OLI SCARFF / AFP
Participants wearing Smurf (schtroumpf) costumes share a beer in a bar on the sidelines of an attempt to break the world record for the largest gathering of Smurfs, in Landerneau, western France, on May 17, 2025. Landerneau, on May 17, attempts to break the world record for the largest Smurfs gathering, a record held by Lauchringen in Germany, after two failed attempts over five years. FRED TANNEAU / AFP
Paris Saint-Germain's players light smoke flares as they parade on a bus on the Champs-Élysées avenue in Paris on June 1, 2025, a day after PSG won the 2025 UEFA Champions League final football match against Inter Milan in Munich. THIBAUD MORITZ / AFP
Attendees share a laugh with 102-year-old WWII and D-Day Landing US veteran Jake Larson, also known as "Papa Jake", before a memorial ceremony held as part of the 81st anniversary of the World War II D-Day Allied landings in Normandy, at the American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, northwestern France, on June 6, 2025. LOU BENOIST / AFP
US player Coco Gauff celebrates after winning her women's singles final match against Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka on day 14 of the French Open tennis tournament on Court Philippe-Chatrier at the Roland-Garros Complex in Paris on June 7, 2025. THIBAUD MORITZ / AFP
Dancers prepare to perform during the Eksotika Bromo cultural event near Mount Bromo in Probolinggo, in East Java on June 21, 2025. JUNI KRISWANTO / AFP
Domestic tourists visit the beach at Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area in Wonsan, North Korea’s Kangwon province, on July 1, 2025. North Korea opened a massive resort area on its east coast, state media said on July 2, with the tourism pet project of leader Kim Jong Un reportedly set to welcome Russian guests later this month. KIM WON JIN / AFP
A Kathakali classical dancer (2L) watches artists rehearse the traditional folk dance Pulikkali (Tiger Dance) as they wait backstage before their performance at a cultural festival in Chennai on July 12, 2025. R. SATISH BABU / AFP
Spectators jump in a makeshift swimming pool set up along the race route as the pack of riders (peloton) cycles past, during the 9th stage of the 112th edition of the Tour de France cycling race, 174.1 km between Chinon and Chateauroux, central France, on July 13, 2025. MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP
81-year-old Madelein Mansson, aka "DJ Gloria", performs at Josefina, an outdoor summer bar and club in Stockholm, Sweden, on July 18, 2025. She drops the beat and gets her groove on, spinning discs like a pro as her head-to-toe sequins twinkle under the lights: at age 81, DJ Gloria is filling dancefloors across Sweden. JONATHAN NACKSTRAND / AFP
Young ballet students (4-6 years) at Mballet Dance Academy dance outside the studio before starting their lesson in Tembisa on July 26, 2025. Mballet Dance Academy is a small, deeply rooted dance academy in Winnie Mandela's section of Tembisa township, created not just to teach ballet but to open doors in a community where resources are few and dreams often feel out of reach. PHILL MAGAKOE / AFP
A man on horseback rides alongside the pack of riders (peloton) during the 17th stage of the 112th edition of the Tour de France cycling race, 160.4 km between Bollène and Valence, southern France, on July 23, 2025. LOIC VENANCE / AFP
People dance to music playing on the Quai de l'Hôtel de Ville along the River Seine in Paris on August 10, 2025. JULIE SEBADELHA / AFP
People swim at the Bras Marie safe bathing site on the River Seine in Paris on August 12, 2025. France continues to suffocate under an exceptional heatwave, with 14 departments in the southwest and southeast on red alert, prompting authorities to increase precautionary measures. DIMITAR DILKOFF / AFP
Players of Rubas (in blue) and Jenesano (in green) fight for the ball in a football tournament during the Botas, Ruana and Sombrero cultural and sport festival in Jenesano, Boyacá department, Colombia, on August 18, 2025. Eight women’s teams made up of residents and farmers from Jenesano, a rural village in the mountains of Colombia, participate every year in the amateur football tournament called "Botas, Ruana y Sombrero" (Boots, ruana and hat), in which they play wearing traditional clothing. LUIS ACOSTA / AFP
A corgi arrives for the costume contest as part of the Corgi Race Vilnius 2025 gathering, in Vingis Park, Vilnius, on August 23, 2025. For the fourth time, Vilnius hosts the two-day Corgi Race and costume contest inviting corgis from across Europe. PETRAS MALUKAS / AFP
Chinese Indonesian Buddhists throw fake money to honour their ancestors during the Hungry Ghost Festival, held on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month and observed in Chinese communities with offerings of food, incense, and paper money to wandering spirits, at Gunung Timur Temple in Medan, North Sumatra, on September 6, 2025. YT HARIONO / AFP
US comedian and writer Stephen Colbert accepts the Outstanding Talk Series award for "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" from US actor Bryan Cranston (R) during the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theatre at LA Live in Los Angeles on September 14, 2025. VALERIE MACON / AFP
A rider laughs as she lines up for the start of the 5th edition of the Normandy Beach Race event, in Ouistreham Riva-Bella, on September 20, 2025. Normandy Beach Race is a 200-meter demonstration race from a standing start featuring classic American and European cars and motorcycles built before 1947. LOU BENOIST / AFP
Paris Saint-Germain's French forward Ousmane Dembélé celebrates with supporters after receiving the Ballon d'Or award at the end of the 2025 Ballon d'Or France Football award ceremony outside the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on September 22, 2025. FRANCK FIFE / AFP
Protesters rally during the "No Kings" national day of protest in New York City on October 18, 2025. From New York to San Francisco, millions of Americans are expected to hit the streets to voice their anger over President Donald Trump's policies at nationwide "No Kings" protests. TIMOTHY A.CLARY / AFP
Lea Werner, riding Viola, celebrates after winning the Cow Race Grand Prix, a two-round race exclusively for female jockeys and the only event of its kind in Switzerland, held in the Alpine resort of Flumserberg on October 19, 2025. FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP
This picture taken on October 29, 2025 shows Shan ethnic artists performing a traditional dance on the opening day of the week-long Tazaungdaing Light Festival in Taunggyi, Myanmar's northeastern Shan State. SAI AUNG MAIN / AFP
Kaapse Klopse minstrels dance as their troupe moves forward during the annual Kaapse Klopse parade, also known as "Tweede Nuwe Jaar" (second New Year), in Cape Town on January 4, 2025. Thousands of colourfully costumed minstrels paraded through Cape Town on Saturday in an exuberant century-old carnival rooted in the South African city's history of slavery that drew large crowds of spectators. In glitzy uniforms matched with flashy hats, parasols and face paint, the marchers walked and danced through the city's historic centre in an annual event that an organiser said had grown to become the biggest such parade on the continent. GIANLUIGI GUERCIA / AFP