Check out the winners of the 39th edition of the OCB December 31st Awards

PalmThe Balearic Cultural Association (OCB) has announced the winners of the 39th edition of the December 31st Awards, which recognize the work, merits, or commitment to the Catalan language and the Balearic Islands by individuals, companies, groups, organizations, and projects. The awards will be presented at the Night of Culture. The jury, chaired by Lluís Segura Ginard and composed of Rosa Planas Ferrer, writer; Ruth Mateu Vinent, member of the OCB; and the organization's representatives, Neus Picó Veny and Maties Garcies Salvà, has decided to award the 2025 December 31st Awards, in the different categories, to the following individuals, projects, or organizations:

• Josep M. Llompart Award

The prize, intended to recognize "an individual who has distinguished themselves in the Balearic Islands for their dedication to the standardization of the language, culture, or state identity," will be awarded to Gabriel Janer Manila, "for his long and prolific career as a writer, essayist, educator, and cultural promoter in service to the country, literature, education, and defense." The jury emphasizes that "this career is based on a large body of novels, short stories, children's books, memoirs, and literary, pedagogical, and anthropological studies, written and published from the 1970s to the present day and widely recognized by the juries of numerous awards, by critics, and by the reading public throughout the Catalan community."

• Francesc de Borja Moll Prize

Intended to recognize "an entity, company or public or private body that has stood out in the Balearic Islands for its dedication to the normalization of the language, culture or state identity", this year it will go to the Embat Bookstore, "for its work of cultural dissemination over 50 years ahead of that which has been Gloria Forteza-Rey Borralleras and Francesc. Over decades, the bookstore has become an intellectual and literary reference not only for Palma, but for all of Mallorca, with special attention to creation and thought in the Catalan language."

• Emili Darder Prize

Intended to recognize "an initiative, experience, or personal trajectory in the field of education, teaching, or leisure, and especially those that promote the use of Catalan in formal and non-formal educational settings," the award will go to the 'Don't Exclude Me' campaign by the Josep Sureda i Blanes Secondary School. The video was produced by students and teachers of the Josep Sureda Blanes Secondary School in Son Gotleu, Palma, a school located in a neighborhood and school environment where Catalan is not widely used as a language of communication. The jury emphasized that "the video's message demonstrates that, despite the diverse backgrounds of many young people at the school and in our society, communication in Catalan is possible, and that refusing to speak Catalan with these young people in their formative years is an unjustifiable act of exclusion, a waste of the values and knowledge embodied by these young Mallorcans."

• Climent Garau Award

Intended to recognize "individuals or projects that contribute to the social use of the Catalan language in the field of communication," this year's award will go to Accent Obert "for its advocacy of the Catalan language and culture in the digital sphere, continuing the initiatives previously promoted by Fundació.cat." Of particular note is "its project called Galaxia, a platform that gathers and organizes more than 250 digital tools in Catalan, serving citizens, businesses, and public administrations that wish to use Catalan in the digital environment in a standardized way."

• Bartomeu Oliver Award

Intended to recognize "a civic initiative for cultural revitalization, linguistic recovery, or the revaluation of popular culture," the award will go to the School of Music and Dance of Mallorca "for its 50-year dedication to the recovery, teaching, and dissemination of music, dance, and other heritage and traditional elements." For five decades, the school "has trained generations of musicians and dancers who have filled squares and stages, halls and open spaces, popular festivals and special celebrations in Mallorca and beyond, with the sounds, costumes, and rhythms born of the land and crafted through creativity."

• Miquel dels Sants Oliver Award

Intended to reward "a work published during the period between the call for the awards of the previous year and the present one and whose object of study is any of the Balearic Islands", it will be awarded to Climent Picornell Bauçà for his set of five books that deal "with the landscape, human, social, cultural and linguistic changes of the peoples, this quintet of texts, Shrinking landscapesPublished by El Gall and illustrated by Vicenç Sastre." In addition to this volume, the series includes the following titles: Notes from Pla de Mallorca (2009), Deep Mallorca? (2015), Up the Hill (2019) and The end of a world (2023).

• Bartomeu Rosselló-Pòrcel Award

Intended to recognize "a young person or group who has excelled in the field of research, creation, or cultural promotion," the award will go to Pitxorines "for their innovative, dynamic, and stimulating contribution based on the traditional musical repertoire and for their contribution to creating shows that bring quality to the old songbook of past generations." The group is made up of nine young women with musical training: Aina Tramullas, María Adrover, Rosa Garcias, María Antonia Gili, Sinéad Cormican, Carmela Cristos, Masé Jara, Silvia Rechac, and Bel Miquel.

• Aina Moll Award

Intended to reward "a person or entity that has distinguished itself by carrying out, through volunteering, activities promoting, disseminating or enhancing the prestige of the Catalan language in any part of its linguistic domain", this year it will go to the Brújula Project of the Casal Petit of the Oblate Sisters, "for its work of social integration among vulnerable women from the world of volunteering by people who, despite the difficulties inherent in the project, do not neglect the teaching of the Catalan language and the cultural reality of Mallorca, so that language and culture become two elements that can facilitate the integration and rooting in Mallorca of the recipients of the social project."

• Gabriel Alomar Award

Awarded by the Board of Directors of the OCB and intended to recognize "the civic, cultural, and linguistic contributions promoted or carried out by individuals or entities throughout the Catalan-speaking territories," this year it will be awarded to Damià Pons Pons "for his long and fruitful intellectual and civic career. As a disseminator of contemporary literature and of the cultural movements and defense of the Balearic language, Damià Pons has given to society his work as a researcher and thinker through books, articles, presentations, lectures, debates, and countless initiatives aimed at organizing working groups and platforms for action and thought." Through these awards, the OCB recognizes the work of individuals, entities, and projects that work for the dissemination and prestige of the Catalan language, from literature, music, and education to social integration, digital communication, and cultural revitalization in Mallorca and throughout the Catalan-speaking territory.