Members of the Ministry of Culture's Supreme Council for Culture (SCC) voted for this year's State Award winners on Sunday night by using digital devices, an initiative championed by the Cultural Development Fund (CDF) two years ago. The winners were selected in three categories, literature, art and the social sciences, and for four awards: the Nile Award (LE500,000); the State Merit Award (LE200,000) or Gold Medal; the State Distinction Award (LE100,000) or Silver Medal; and the Incentive Award (LE50,000). The Nile Award, the most prestigious, saw fierce competition before it went to film director Ali Badrakhan in the arts category, late critic and Andalusia studies specialist Al-Taher Makki in literature, and professor of management at the American University in Cairo Sabri Al-Shabrawi in the social sciences. State Merit Awards in the arts went to artists Samir Khafagi, Ahmed Shiha and Sabri Mansour. Three were awarded in literature to writers Mustafa Al-Damarani, Nabil Abdel-Hamid and Zakaria Anani. In the social sciences, the State Merit Awards went to former minister of culture Shaker Abdel-Hamid, late professor of Islamic philosophy Mustafa Labib and Mohamed Riad. There were six recipients of the State Distinction Awards. In literature, the award went to novelist Gar Al-Nabi Al-Helw, while the arts award went to cinematographer Tarek Al-Telmessani and visual artist Soheir Othman. In the social sciences, the awards went to Mohamed Shouman, Mona Haggag and Nabil Luca Bebawi. The Incentive Awards in art went to graphic designer Al-Sayed Kandil for his work on an exhibition on Sudan and photographer Ayman Lotfi for his work as a whole. In the field of music, Hani Al-Badri won an award for his work entitled “Saksola with the Cairo Opera Orchestra”, a work for the Arab flute, the ney, while Amr Al-Ashraf won the award for theatre design for his play The Blue Elephant. Gerges Shokri won the award in theatre criticism for his book Going out in Theatre Clothes. In folklore, Ibrahim Al-Baraidi won the award for his collection Al-Leila Al-Kabira (Gala Night), while Ramez Azmi and Emad Mikhail won the award ddd architecture and development for the restoration of the Great Mosque of Siwa in the oasis of the same name. The awards for the novel were given to Shaaban Sayed for his work of criticism Arab Novels from 1960 to 2010, novelist Ayman Taher for his Al-Kott (The Cat) and Samir Al-Feel for his story collection Gabal Al-Narguis (Narcissus Mountain). The award for poetry went to poet Salma Fayed for her Zakeret Nabi lam yorsal (Memory of a Prophet not a Messenger), and the translation award went to Abdel-Rehim Youssef for his Three Studies on Morality and Virtue. Mohamed Atteya won the award for children's books for his collection Karim and his Magical Story. The awards for filmmaking, media, books and publishing, administrative science, philosophy of law, history, commercial law, Middle East studies, politics, finance and fighting racism were withheld. Magda Shalabi won the award for social equality and economic policy for her book General Finance, Economic Policy and the Role of Government in Training. In the field of citizenship and human rights, Sherif Khater won the award for his book The Freedom of Exchange of Information. In the social sciences Mahmoud Fadl received the award for his Al-Adid fi Aswan (Several in Aswan), while in youth studies Hatem Al-Gohari won the award for his Taamolat fil Masala Al-Yahoudeya (Admiration and the Jewish Problem). In history, Wael Desouki won the award for his The History of Egyptology, while in science Ahmed Al-Bassyouni won the award for his Al-Taaleem fi Masr (Education in Egypt). SCC Secretary-General Hatem Rabea said that this year the voting has seen some changes as parliament had agreed to raise the amount of the Nile Award from LE400,000 to LE500,000 and to raise the maximum age for the Incentive Award winner to 40 years old. It also eliminated voting by Ministry of Culture employees. Some observers were angry about the number of prizes that were withheld this year, but Culture Minister Helmi Al-Namnam said that this was less than it had been last year. He said he would look into the reasons for the non-designation of the awards. “This year several prizes in different fields have been withheld because of a lack of suitable candidates,” Al-Namnam said, adding that this too would be looked into.
