diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 45a1b3f..26aaba0 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-1.1.2
+1.2.0
diff --git a/scripts/release b/scripts/release
index a6a97ac..ec7505b 100755
--- a/scripts/release
+++ b/scripts/release
@@ -13,6 +13,6 @@ subprocess.check_call(["git", "add", "VERSION"], cwd=project_dir)
 subprocess.check_call(
     ["git", "commit", "-m", f"Updates VERSION: {version}"], cwd=project_dir
 )
-subprocess.check_call(["git", "tag", version], cwd=project_dir)
+subprocess.check_call(["git", "tag", f"v{version}"], cwd=project_dir)
 
 # manually push commit and tags