"We agreed to participate in the committee with full belief that the Management Board was bound to abide by the opinions the expert committees had co-ordinated, and thus select award winners from among the nominees proposed by the expert committees," wrote committee members Nataša Barbara Gračner (the head of the committee), Tea Rogelj, Primož Jesenko, Samo M. Strelec, Jaša Jamnik, Jani Virk and Saša Tabakovič in their resignation letter.
As the members wrote, in its operation the committee followed instructions delivered by the secretary of the Prešeren Fund. In accordance with the instructions, we confirmed the final selection of our proposals (three for Prešeren Fund Awards and one for the Prešeren Award) through a majority vote and prepared the award commentary, argue the committee members.
As the head of the committee, Nataša Barbara Gračner, explained to MMC, the committee members believe the resignation statement clearly stated the reasons for their decision, which is why they do not wish to make any further comments.
The resignation statement points out that to the committee’s knowledge the fund’s management board had previously followed the established common practice in choosing award winners from among the nominees proposed by the committees.
"Also, we firmly believe that the ‘rules of the game’ have to clear, unambiguous and permanent (constant) from the beginning, as well as formulated in a way that prevents them from being bent, stretched and adapted to daily tendencies and needs," reads the resignation statement.
The management board allegedly disregarded the proposals of the committee on theatre art and awarded one of the Prešeren Fund Awards to Jože Možina, a Slovenian journalist and historian, for his documentary film Pedro Opeka – the Friend of the Poor (Pedro Opeka, dober prijatelj), about the Argentina-born Slovenian missionary Pedro Opeka who runs a mission in Madagascar.
Nominees for Prešeren Awards and Prešeren Funs Awards are proposed by four different expert field committees: the committee on music, the committee on literature, the committee on theatre art, and the committee on fine art. The final decision about the awardees is made by the management board.
Last year’s winners of Prešeren Fund Awards include Bernarda Fink, a mezzo-soprano, Marcos Fink, a bass-baritone, Gorazd Kocijančič, a poet, philosopher and translator, Regina Križaj, a ballet dancer, Metod Pevec, a film director and screenwriter, Jože Vidic, a baritone, and Marija Javoršek, a translator. The Prešeren Award was conferred on Marlenka Stupica, a painter, and Zorko Simčič, a writer, for their lifetime achievements and rich oeuvres.