Journalist Victoria Morell (Palma, 1986) was immersed in a documentary about prostitution when some experts began telling her about the influence of pornography on the sexual practices men requested. An influence that, they told her, was on the rise. "Women in prostitution explained that men would simply pull out their phones and ask for what they had seen," Morell recounts, "and from that point on, I wanted to understand what was happening."

The City Hall's plenary hall hosted the official ceremony for the 2025 Ciutat de Palma Awards this Thursday, recognizing works in visual arts, narrative, poetry, comics, music, performing arts, audiovisuals, journalism, gastronomy, research, and architecture. The ceremony replaced the gala scheduled for January 20th at the Teatre Principal, which was cancelled following the Adamuz train accident. The event was presided over by the mayor, Jaime Martínez, and was also attended by institutional representatives, members of the cultural sector, award winners, and jury members. After the speeches and the presentation of awards, the group moved to the Casal Solleric to inaugurate the exhibition of the finalists for the Antoni Gelabert Prize and the exhibition. Chapter, by Andrea Canepa.

The story of a Mallorcan, Joan Ribot, who crossed the world in the last John Wayne film has led another Mallorcan, Jordi Nadal (Palma, 1992), to cross it half a century later to reconstruct this modern epic in the documentary The Last Cowboy of Hollywood, Awarded the 2025 City of Palma Maria Forteza Audiovisual Prize. "It's true that the feedback we received this summer, after the screenings, was very positive and that the whole team was very happy with the work done," Jordi Nadal told ARA Baleares on Monday morning, "but for the jury to agree is truly very exciting."

"Visits to family and friends in nursing homes have had a profound impact on me, one I felt compelled to express through poetry," explains Francesc Pastor (Mutxamel, 1962), "because I've encountered so many lost gazes. Gazes of people carrying so much inside, unable to express it." This is how the Valencian writer, who has worked as a teacher and professor at the University of Alicante, explains the content of his poetry collection. In paradisumAwarded the 2025 Joan Alcover Poetry Prize.

"I wanted to imagine the Mallorca where Captain Bayo landed and succeeded," says journalist Jaume Oliver Ripoll (Palma, 1975), summarizing the novelOne day we will storm the city with iron horsesThe Ciutat de Palma Llorenç Villalonga Novel Prize 2025, worth 26,000 euros, is a source of great joy for Oliver. "I'm very happy because it's one of the most prestigious prizes still around," says Oliver. "I have to admit that I think it's what I could have been most excited about. It's a prize that has managed to maintain its independence, and for me, that's very important," reflects the historian. However, he doesn't hide his surprise: besides being exciting, receiving the award was also unexpected. "Mainly because this isn't the kind of novel that's usually awarded in this competition, because it flirts shamelessly with science fiction, but that's why I'm also happy, that a work like this has been recognized," he explains.

"I wanted to imagine the Mallorca where Captain Bayo landed and succeeded," says journalist Jaume Oliver Ripoll (Palma, 1975), summarizing the novel One day we will storm the city with iron horsesOliver has won the 2025 Ciutat de Palma Llorenç Villalonga Novel Prize, worth €26,000. "I'm very happy because it's one of the most prestigious prizes still around," says Oliver. "I have to admit that I think it's what I was most excited about. It's a prize that has managed to maintain its independence, and for me, that's very important," reflects the historian. However, he doesn't hide his surprise: besides being exciting, the awarding of the prize also came as a shock. "Mainly because this isn't the kind of novel that's usually awarded in this competition, because it flirts shamelessly with science fiction, but that's why I'm also happy, that a work like this has been recognized," he explains.

The presence of women at the official San Sebastián events planned by the Palma City Council (Cort), all of which were cancelled this year due to the Córdoba train accident, is once again very limited. In the musical lineup for the festival announced by the City Council, women did not reach 25%.Among the winners of the Ciutat de Palma awards, women are even fewer: they don't even reach 15%. Only two women have been awarded prizes in this edition, across fourteen categories. One of them, the category for novels in Spanish, has been declared void, according to the press release published by the City Council in place of the awards ceremony, which was scheduled to take place this afternoon at the Principal Theater in Palma. According to a municipal announcement, an event will soon be organized at the City Hall itself to present the awards.

Son Puig-gros is the farm that Miquel, who played the piglet when he was a child, obtained with the profits from a souvenir in Palmanova. He has become the lord of the great estate and its hundreds of quartered estates. In Son Puig-gros, the new lords hold a dinner to celebrate the event with friends, family, former owners, and neighbors. This is the contextual region where the story ofThe butchers, by Guillem Frontera, his first novel, for which he was awarded the Ciutat de Palma Prize. It was 1969, when we all thought that a bright new world was opening up before our eyes, while the young former student of La porciúncula, aspiring poet and budding novelist, saw and explained to us what none of us were capable of seeing, intuiting, or anything similar. Therefore, The butchers It is not a premonitory work nor Son Puig-gros, merely a metaphor, but evidence that the horn of plenty came with a toll, many tariffs and no turning back.