Photo courtesy of organiser
The first of this year's five awards goes jointly to Oscar-winning director Andrzej Wajda has been jointly awarded with his wife Krystyna Zachwatowicz, set designer and actress
Every year the City of Kraków honours its most distinguished citizens for rendering outstanding services to the city in the area of science, culture and arts as well as sport. This year, artistic achievements have been recognised to a large extent. This year’s awards go to distinguished artists from the field of film, theatre and opera led by the Oscar-winning director Andrzej Wajda, and his wife Krystyna Zachwatowicz, a set designer and actress. Two artists associated with the Stary Theatre in Kraków have also been distinguished: Dorota Segda, an actress who performed in, among others, "Hamlet (IV)", Wyspiański’s "Wedding" and Dostoyevsky’s "Crime and Punishment" directed by Wajda, as well as Józef "Żuk" Opalski, a theatre director and lecturer at the Theatre Academy and Jagiellonian University in Kraków, who used to work as a literary director at the Stary Theatre in the time when Andrzej Wajda was one of its full-time directors.
The youngest recipient, Mariusz Kwiecień, a Kraków-born opera singer performing at the world’s greatest opera houses: Metropolitan Opera, Vienna, Covent Garden Theatre or Paris Opera, will soon perform in Moniuszko’s "Halka" staged at the Kraków Opera.
The only recipient recognised this year in the field of science is Professor Antoni Jackowski, an outstanding scientist, one of the founders of the Polish post-war school of geography and tourism, who works at the Geography of Religion Department at the Jagiellonian University (he served as the Department’s head for 11 years). It is yet another edition in which the award in the field of sport has not been presented. Previously, Robert Korzeniowski and Maciej Żurawski were awarded.
In the previous years the Award of the City of Kraków was granted to such remarkable citizens of Kraków as: Jerzy Bereś, Jan Błoński, Jan Boba, Stanisław Bryndza-Stabro, Jerzy Fedorowicz, Zofia Gołubiew, Aleksander Koj, Janina Kraupe-Świderska, Krystian Lupa, Ewa Lipska, Andrzej Mleczko, Jerzy Nowosielski, Jan K. Ostrowski, Jerzy Panek, Jan Pieszczachowicz, Zbigniew Preisner, Jerzy Skarżyński, Jerzy Stuhr, Jan Józef Szczepański, Elżbieta Towarnicka, Jerzy Trela, Janusz Trzebiatowski, Adam Zagajewski or Franciszek Ziejka.
The amount of the prize is PLN 30,000
source: press materials