Sirmione-Catullo Prize Revives with New Focus on Media Recognition
New Format and Objectives of the Sirmione-Catullo Prize
First selections, tomorrow in Sirmione, of the revived Sirmione-Catullo Prize, which reemerges with a new format: no longer a literary award as in the past eighteen editions (it was suspended in 1999), but restructured on a dual track.
The first focuses on recognizing foreign publications that have promoted, especially in Europe, awareness of our treasures, stories, and qualities abroad. The second is aimed at awarding national television productions that have successfully stimulated Italian interest in broad cultural horizons, divulgating the value of our historical, artistic, and environmental heritage.
The Comune di Sirmione has boldly decided to reevaluate the Prize with this new formula, certainly ambitious, which places the initiative in spheres that go beyond Lake Garda borders to look further and wider.
“If this change of course proves to be the right decision – says the Mayor of Sirmione, Maurizio Ferrari, patron of the Prize – we will know over time. For now, the choice seems necessary to us. After many editions dedicated to literature, we have moved away from books, in which we obviously continue to believe.
But faced with the multiplication of many, too many, small literary awards, we thought of looking elsewhere: no longer at novels but at television images, no longer at fiction but at the fresh pages of newspapers.
The goal remains the same: to find our identity and be recognized.”
The Juries and the Award Ceremony
Today, the two juries will meet, both chaired by Bruno Vespa.
The first jury, which will award the foreign journalist or publication, includes: Carmen Lasorella (Berlin), Antonio Caprarica (London), Antonio Foresi (Brussels), and Corradino Mineo (Paris).
The second jury, which will propose to the grand popular jury (one hundred jurors) the shortlist of national television programs deemed deserving of the «Sirmione-Catullo» award, includes: Mino Allione (director of L’Arena), Maurizio Cattaneo (director of Bresciaoggi), Gian Battista Lanzani (director of Giornale di Brescia), Paolo Ghezzi (director of L’Adige from Trento), Bruno Manfellotto (director of Gazzetta di Mantova), and Giulio Giustiniani (director of Il Gazzettino).
In the halls of the Sirmione castle, at 11:30 a.m., Bruno Vespa will communicate to the one hundred popular jurors and guests the first evaluations of the Juries.