This is the highest award given by the state every year to a group of people for their outstanding achievements, creativity, contribution to national culture and development of knowledge.
On this occasion, the filmmaker Patricio Guzmán was honored in the Performance and Audiovisual Arts category; Cecilia Vicuña, in visual arts; and Gastón Soublette for his contribution to the humanities and social sciences.
Also recognized were Patricia Stambuk for journalism; Jaime San Martín, Exact Sciences; and Juan Eduardo García Huidobro, in Education.
Present at the event were the Ministers of Education Nicolás Cataldo and the Minister of Culture Carolina Arredondo.
Patricio Guzmán is a documentary film director and his work is dedicated to the fight for social justice, memory and truth. His most famous films include Salvador Allende; The Battle of Chile and the Fall of Pinochet.
Cecilia Vicuña is a poet, visual artist and filmmaker and her work focuses on saving her country's and the continent's ancestral roots, rituals and oral traditions.
In the case of Gastón Soublette, the National Prize was awarded for his work as a musicologist, art critic, researcher and essayist, his fight for peace, the search for knowledge and the connection between different cultures and worldviews.
Journalist Patricia Stanbuk has extensive experience as a reporter, correspondent, chronicler and researcher, particularly in the Magallanes and Valparaíso regions, and has written numerous books on Chile's indigenous cultures.
Civil engineer and mathematician Jaime San Martín is internationally known for his contributions to probability theory, differential equations and matrix algebra, as well as other branches of the exact sciences.
Another winner was Juan Eduardo García Huidobro, Doctor of Education and Philosophy, who worked for more than 50 years to implement public policies to achieve a fairer and more equitable education system and eliminate exclusion.
In Chile, the National Awards are announced at different times and the awards ceremony takes place in the last days of each year.
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