A double Lifetime Achievement Award for cinema and fiction goes to Pupi Avati for the Franco Cuomo International Award, presented on December 4th at the Sala Zuccari in the Palazzo Giustiniani in Rome: the recognition goes to the great Italian director, author of numerous masterpieces for the Big screen that has always managed to surprise the audience and provide emotions. But also for a master of storytelling: his novels are often the other side of the coin of his films, they interpenetrate each other, sometimes one anticipates the other, but also vice versa.
For the theater, the Franco Cuomo Awards go to Paola Gassman, daughter of an artist who began her career with Luca Ronconi in “Orlando furioso” and an artistic and private partnership with another important actor, Ugo Pagliai and the actor and director Massimo De Rossi. He received his education at the Scuola del Piccolo in Milan. He worked with the greats of the theater, including Luca Ronconi, Giorgio Strehler and Franco Cuomo himself in “Una notte di Casanova” and “Nero”. The special award for the show goes to Gaia Riposati for her ability to combine different artistic languages between theater, music, art and literature, and new technologies. In the field of art, this year’s prizes go to the sculptor Paolo Borghi and the painter Marco Rossati.
Awards were also given to other important intellectuals who represent excellence in the fields of non-fiction, journalism and good politics: Stefania Palma, Washington correspondent of the Financial Times, Valerio Nicolosi, journalist, awarded by the European Center for Peace and Development – University of Peace for his commitment to telling today’s migration drama, Antonio Varsori, one of the most important historians of European integration, the rector of the University of Roma Tre, Massimiliano Fiorucci, for his studies in social and intercultural pedagogy, the mayor of the municipality of Belgioioso Fabio Zucca, For good Politics and good administration.
The special awards, selected jointly with the Association of the Best of Apulia, go to Giovanni Lo Storto, General Director of Luiss Guido Carli in Rome, for his commitment to the “connection” of the Social Capital of the South, and to Luigi Cantamessa, General Director of the FS Foundation since 2013, for enhancing the enormous heritage of the State Railways by transforming it into an exceptional opportunity, to the Municipality of Deliceto, Province of Foggia, for sustainability, to the Provincial Council for Legality of Foggia, for supporting the initiatives to combat organized crime, Luciano Toriello, producer and Director of humanitarian issues related to social and cultural changes, which he addresses in his documentaries. Finally, this year’s Memory Award goes to Father Arcangelo Maira for his commitment to refugees and the most vulnerable on the planet from Cologne to Africa to the landscape of Foggia.
These are all winners of the IX. Edition of the Franco Cuomo International Award, named after the writer, journalist and playwright who died in 2007, and chaired by Velia Iacovino and Alberto Cuomo. A recognition aimed at promoting new forms of cultural, social and human expression in the name of Cuomo’s work, a sensitive and sophisticated intellectual who knew how to analyze human actions and the world from different points of view and who lived his time through news told, history, his novels and his plays.
The prize is awarded by a renowned, international jury headed by the Hispanic and art critic Otello Lottini, which includes, among others, Grazia Francescato, politician and environmentalist, Emilia Costantini, journalist from Corriere della Sera, theater critic and writer, Paolo Acanfora, Samir Al Qaryouti, professor of contemporary history at the Sapienza University of Rome, journalist, dean of the foreign press, columnist for France24; Piero Gambale, parliamentary official.
The ceremony will take place on Monday, December 4, 2023, at 3:30 p.m. in the Sala Zuccari of the Palazzo Giustiniani in Rome (Via della Dogana Vecchia, 29). Introduced by Professor Fabio Zucca, who will give a lecture on the topic “United States of Europe”. An answer to the global crisis?’. Journalist and presenter of Rai Tre Giampiero Marrazzo will moderate the event. Also in this edition the event received the patronage of the Senate, the Ecpd, the University of Peace, the Puglia Region, the Network of Sustainable Communities, the Teatro Pubblico Pugliese and the City of San Severo.
