Carlos Conceição, director who was born in the province of Cunene and grew up in the city of Lubango and also has Portuguese nationality, won the cinema and audiovisual category.
The PNCA 2023 edition jury justifies the attribution of the prize, in its deliberation to which Lusa had access this Wednesday, for the body of work by Carlos Conceição, highlighting the film "Nação Valente" for its "aesthetic, cultural, historical and due to the international dimension".
"Nação Valente", the director's second feature film produced in 2022, invokes the ghosts of Angola's colonial past, while embracing the symbolic power of horror cinematography.
For the visual and plastic arts category, the jury decided to award the prize to Angolan artist Ana Susana David "Kiana" for her work based on "constant experimentation with sustainable materials that do not harm the environment".
In the literature category, the winner was the writer João Tala, an Angolan poet and prose writer, who "stands out for the prestige and critical fortune that his artistic production possesses, as well as his thought of multifaceted value", argues the jury.
The musician, composer and instrumentalist Miguel Francisco dos Santos Rodolfo "Kituxi", with more than fifty years of career, was awarded in the music category "for his journey and contribution to the preservation of traditional Angolan musical styles and instruments".
His appreciation and preservation of the hungo, puita, kissanji, dikanza, mukindo and ngoma (traditional musical instruments from Angola), as a way of affirming and safeguarding Angolan culture, also contribute to the distinction of the well-known leader of the "Agrupamento Kituxi e seus acompanhantes".
In human and social sciences, the collective of authors of the collection "Várias Línguas, uma Nação: Construamos o Futuro" was distinguished because, observes the jury, the work composed of nine inseparable titles is worth its interconnection.
The jury of the 24th edition of PNCA, chaired by Maria José Faria Ramos, also awarded the group "Palasa Dance Company", in the dance category, for the "prominence and excellence" that presented their show "Dose Dupla" at Casa das Artes, a "shorter version that did not lose the narrative line of two shows from his repertoire".
And in the theater category, the jury decided to award the prize to the Amostra Nacional de Teatro project for the "continuous effort made in promoting and valuing theatrical activity in Angola, its social, didactic, cultural and artistic impact".
The Amostra Nacional de Teatro is an event that aims to promote Angolan theater with training actions, tourism and shows, encourage unity between theater groups in Angola and showcase the theater that is produced in the province of Uíge to the national and international community.
The National Culture and Arts Prize is the Angolan State's most important cultural distinction to recognize and encourage artistic, cultural and human and social science excellence.
