The awards system has been restructured in recent legislation. The Νational Literary awards have been reorganised, to allow for both recognising the contribution of a writer in his or her lifetime (through the special “great” literary prize) and the contribution of younger, less established writers, based on work published in the last twelve months. There are also awards for Children’s Literature, Translation and a Reader’s Award. A number of awards have been established for dance, and a major prize in commemoration of Melina Mercouri was introduced to reward cultural contributions of national importance. The Thessaloniki Song Festival has been recently revived, and provides an opportunity for typically non-established popular music composers and singers to compete and be publicly exposed.
There are also National Quality Prizes for movies and short films, in the context of the Thessaloniki Film Festival and the Short Film Festival of Drama. In 2010 the Hellenic Film Academy (HFA) was founded, gathering together accomplished professionals from the cinema sector. One of HFA’s most important tasks each year is to organise the conferment of the national cinematography awards, after a secret voting procedure among its members.
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