The Masi Award n. 42 to the director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad and the authors of the manga “The Drops of God”

For the “Civiltà Veneta” the internationally renowned lexicographer Mario Cannella, the hydraulic engineer Andrea Rinaldo, recently awarded the “Stockholm Water Prize”, and the Stevanato Group, a historic Venetian company leading manufacturer of glass containers for medicines, were awarded. The “Civiltà del Vino Award” is given to two Japanese authors, Yuko and Shin Kibayashi, who created the original manga “The Drops of God” about wine culture. Finally, the “Grosso d’Oro Veneziano” will be awarded to Iranian director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, who has been active in the fight to promote democracy and women’s civil rights, particularly in her home country. Here are the Masi Award n. 42 winners, who will sign the iconic barrel of Amarone della Valpolicella on October 27th, in the winery of the brand led by Sandro Boscaini, personalities who, due to their skills and experience, best interpret the common thread “Roots and Perspectives”, identified by the jury of the Masi Foundation prizes.
As stated in the motivations for the awards, the “Grosso d’Oro Veneziano” is reserved for personalities who have contributed to spreading a message of culture in the world, generating that understanding between peoples which develops in solidarity, civil progress and peace, and in this sense Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, “Iranian film director and screenwriter, with her films and documentaries has managed to tell the daily life and dramatic events of her country like no one else, giving her stories and characters universality: she is rewarded for the high artistic value of her work as well as her defence of civil rights and democracy in Iranian society”.
The “Civiltà del Vino Award”, instead, is dedicated to the great world of viticulture and honours the most representative personalities who have contributed at an international level to exalting the ancient culture of vines and wine. Yuko and Shin Kibayashi, “siblings authors of the seinen manga - for young and adult readers - about wine “Kami no shizuku” (“The Drops of God”), with their work, published in over 500,000 copies per week and translated into several languages, tell the story of the discovery of wine as an initiation and revelation. They are recognised for their significant contribution to the understanding and promotion of wine’s ancient culture through an original and completely new form of communication capable of conveying an unconventional message to a new audience interested in wine and its culture”.
Finally, the “Civiltà Veneta” Award honours Venetians by birth, family, or adoption who have distinguished themselves in the fields of literature, art, journalism, science, entertainment, and economics, and who have promoted and enhanced the abilities of the Venetian people in the broadest fields of human activity, becoming bearers of this land’s fundamental values. It goes to Mario Cannella, “Trieste lexicographer, editor of the Zingarelli vocabulary, inquisitive and tireless investigator of the Italian lexicon for decades, who helped to affirm and spread, even among younger generations, the concept of our language as a living and constantly evolving organism that cannot be arbitrarily deformed or artificially preserved. He is recognised for his contribution to the preservation and evolution of the Italian language”; to Andrea Rinaldo, “Venetian hydrologist engineer, professor of hydraulic constructions at the University of Padua, director of the Ecohydrology Laboratory of the École Polytechnique Fédérale of Lausanne, and the first Italian to have won the “Stockholm Water Prize”, the “Nobel” for water studies. One of the pioneers of ecohydrology, who studies the relationship between river water and living communities, whether human, animal or plant, awarded for the importance of his extremely important studies aimed at a fair distribution of water, one of the great global themes of today and tomorrow”; and to Stevanato Group, “pharmaceutical industry based in Padua: the incredible story of a small Venetian glass factory - the Soffieria Stella of Zelarino near Venice, heir to the centuries-old culture of Murano glass art - which, from 1949 to today, manages to become a world-leading company in the medical sector, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with its highly specialized products for insulin, vaccines and many other drugs. It is rewarded for the company’s global success in the form of a vocational continuity that draws on Venetian culture and techniques”.
“The underlying theme of the 2023 Masi Award is “Roots and Perspectives”. A contradiction in terms. It is, and it must be: in fact, it is the only way for all of us who cherish our precious traditions to look forward and innovate together”, explains the president of the Masi Foundation, the writer and journalist Isabella Bossi Fedrigotti. “Anchoring to the roots cannot be a chain that inhibits change in an era where uncertainty pervades thoughts and behaviours, but rather the certainty of having a lifeblood that fuels the exploration of new paths”.
As the vice-president of the Foundation and president of Masi, Sandro Boscaini, recalls, “The International Civilization of Wine Award jury couldn’t be more in tune with “Roots and Prospects”. Indeed, it has rewarded a means of communicating wine, manga, which, since its inception in Japan and, potentially, in many newly opened to wine, proposes its appreciation with respect for an ancient cultural symbol. A more appealing communication for young people in general”. Finally, Marco Vigevani, secretary of the Masi Foundation, underlines that “the Grosso D’Oro Veneziano has always brought to light a message of culture, solidarity and civil progress worldwide. It seemed extremely timely to draw attention to the discrimination that women face in Iran and elsewhere, and we do so with the sensitivity of a great Iranian director who has dedicated profound thoughts to human rights in her long and award-winning work”.