Awards work in many ways and have different meanings especially when it comes to photography. You have many kinds of awards and the most common two are "Top Class" where you don't win, but you’re in the top 10,20 or 30 and that's a pretty uncommon award and hard to get depending on the number of photographers entering the competition. then the other award is a "Winners award" and that is of course where you win the competition and that is a very hard Award to achieve.