The Taras Shevchenko National Award Committee named this year’s winners.
For the first time during the existence of the National Award named after Taras Shevchenko, the tradition was broken and on March 9, Taras Shevchenko’s birthday, the winners were not named.
“This year, the National Award Committee faced a problem that was obvious to everyone: according to the official regulations, works published no later than six months before the submission have the right to participate in the competition. Thus, the competition presents works created before the start of a full-scale war. It turns out that the main award of the country does not fully fulfill its main purpose: to record the trends of the development of national culture, to serve as a guide for the artistic community regarding the current directions of creative search,” he wrote on his Facebook page reported Yuriy Makarov, chairman of the award committee. In this way, they tried to explain why the winners were not announced.
This caused such a stir in society (another refutation of the thesis that culture is out of time) that the Committee published the names of this year’s winners on the Committee’s official website on the evening of March 11. They became them.
Kalytko Kateryna Oleksandrivna, poet – for the book of poems “Order of Silent Women”
KOMPANICHENKO Taras Viktorovych, Maksym BEREZHNIUK, DANILEYKO Severyn Volodymyrovych, KRYSKO Yaroslav Andreyovych, Okhrymchuk Serhii Mykhailovych, performers of the band “Horeya Kozatska” – for the audio album “Songs of the Ukrainian Revolution”
Mykhailo Yosypovych NAZARENKO, literary critic – for the book “Except for Kobzar”. Anthology of Ukrainian literature. 1792-1883″ in two parts
Vitaly Eduardovych PORTNIKOV, journalist — for journalistic articles and speeches in recent years
TSYLYK Iryna Andriivna, director – for the documentary “The Earth is Blue, Like an Orange”.
“Despite the somewhat blurry climax, I must say that the Shevchenko Prize is a great honor for me. Especially considering the fact that I got it for my debut film. I really hope that I will have another chance to create new worthy films, because there is a feeling that a dark cloud is coming over Ukrainian cinema. But I still believe that my colleagues and I will not let this cloud defeat all the light that has begun to awaken so clearly in recent years.” — reacted for greetings Iryna Tsylyk.
“The state award for a non-conformist author has always been an ethical dilemma, albeit a hypothetical one. Still, a difficult path had to be followed in order to regain Ukraine in the institutional dimension, even after the restoration of independence. But this year I will have the great honor of accepting the main decoration of my country of heroes, which is waging a decisive war. A country whose name makes your throat tighten every time you say it, and you don’t need to say anything else. And on behalf of that Shevchenko, who is fighting with us, who appears on the billboards of the de-occupied territories from under the enemy’s propaganda and reminds: fight…”, — wrote Kateryna Kalitko.
“I sincerely congratulate the laureates of the Shevchenko Prize of 2023 – the beautiful Kateryna Kalytko, the unique band Khoreya Kozatska, the sincere Iryna Tsylyk, the honorable Mykhailo Nazarenko. Thank you for the greetings!”, succinctly wrote Vitaly Portnikov.
The solemn ceremony of awarding the winners, as well as the announcement of the winner of the new nomination, will take place on May 22, the day of Kobzar’s reburial.
Natalka MARKIV
