3rd Edition 2016

The distinction was granted for the volume "Regina Maria. Puterea amintirii" (Queen Marie. The Power of Memory) and for his entire body of work, explained the jury president, Academician Dan Berindei.

"All those nominated stand in the faith on which the greatness of the Romanian nation is built. I must confess that all my ancestors on my mother’s side were servants at the Brâncoveanu Monastery in Sâmbăta de Sus. It is an important element of my biography," said the painter.

The award was presented to her by Nicolae Dabija, editor-in-chief of the Bessarabian publication Literatura și Arta, who in the late 1980s supported the return to writing the Romanian language in the Latin alphabet and its declaration as the state language in the Moldavian SSR.

"Through his concerts we are caught in the chain of love for beauty," said Grigore Leșe, a member of the jury, in his presentation. For health reasons, Valentin Gheorghiu could not attend the ceremony. His award was collected by his wife.

"My whole career was marked by my professors at the faculty. They had trained as sculptors and engineers in the interwar period. Their lessons in professionalism were incredible, but their lessons in conduct towards kids like us, the way they saw our potential and encouraged us, marked me forever." (Romeo Ștefan Belea)

A brilliant actor, with a 60-year career, who brought to life the theatre stages and cinema screens of Romania.

The director of "Reconstituirea" and "Balanța", "films which, despite his conviction about the perishability of cinema, refuse to become outdated or mere cinematheque exhibits, (…) has become the founding father of the New Wave of filmmakers who emerged in Romanian cinema after 2000, with whom he shares the same irrepressible need to build his films on the foundation of what he calls the substance of life." (Cristina Corciovescu)