The awards at the 64th International Belgrade Book Fair were officially presented in filled to the brim “Ivo Andrić” hall, which unfortunately could not accommodate all those interested in attending the event.

The panel of judges that worked side by side with Prof. Dragan Simeunovic PhD- President of the Panel of Judges, Ms. Jasmina Ninkov, Mr. Miljurko Vukadinovic, Prof. Zorana Opacic PhD and Ms. Marina Vulicevic decided to present the award to Laguna Publishing House, Belgrade for the Publisher of the Year in 2019.

The explanation reads that Laguna has prepared “as many as 80 new books for this year’s fair alone. Over the last 12 months it has published 372 new books, with no old ones on display. At this year’s Fair it boasts over 4,000 books.” Both last and this year, Laguna’s authors have received numerous awards. “Among them stands out this year’s Nobel Prize literature winner Mr. Peter Handke with the novel titled The Great Fall. Aside from this book, Laguna also publishes works by this year’s Booker Prize winner Margaret Atwood.

This year’s award for the Publishing Venture of the Year was equally presented to the Tenth Circle of the 10th Century Anthology Edition published by Matica Srpska Publishing Center from Novi Sad, and to Prose Works of Serbian Scholars – Official Gazette and “Svetozar Markovic” University Library.

As decided by the panel of judges, the Best Diaspora Publisher in 2019 award went to the University of Svetigor, Cetinje, Montenegro for the Selected Works of the Archbishop of Cetinje and Metropolitan of Amfilochy of Montenegro; Publisher of New Avenue Books for Branko Mikasinovic’s Great Serbian Short Stories and “Petar Kocic” Endowment, Republika Srpska for the work of the Old Serbian Charter and Letter by Mr. Ljubomir Stojanovic, phototypical edition edited by academician Mr. Rade Mihaljcic.

A special accolade for contribution in the field of science was presented to the works of “Rodolf Archibald Rice – Selected Works”, publishing houses “PE Textbook Institute” and the Criminal Police University, as well as to Mr. Zoran Avramovic for “Dobrica Cosic – Between Politics and Literature” book published by the “PE Textbook Institute”.

The members of the panel equally presented the award for the Children’s Book of the Year 2019 to Ms. Sonja Ciric for the book “I Don’t Want to Think of Prague” published by Laguna, and to Nikoleta Novak for “Invitation” published by Pcelica.

This year, a special accolade for the publisher, book or comic book went to the books titled “List of Military and Civilian Losses in the Kingdom of Serbia in World War I” published by Media Center “Defense”, and “78 Days of the Apocalypse – Truth Accuses NATO Bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999”, published by the Association “Serbian Connection”, Belgrade, and Prometej, Novi Sad.

The panel of jury consisting of Mr. Jugoslav Vlahovic, Prof. at the Faculty of Applied Arts, President, Ms. Olivera Batajic Sretenovic, Asst. to Faculty of Applied Arts, and Ms. Tijana Kojic, Asst. to Faculty of Applied Arts decided whom the award for the most beautiful book at the 64th International Belgrade Boook Fair will be presented to, for which reason the “Bogdan Kršić” award for the most beautiful book was presented to Creative Center Publishing House for “Dobrosav Bob Zivkovic” book for which graphic equipment of Mr. Dusan Pavlic was used.

The same panel came to conclusion that the award for the most beautiful children’s book should also belong to “Higgedly-Piggedly” book by Mr. Dragan Mladenovic, illustrated by Mr. Boris Kuzmanovic, and published by the Creative Center.

A special accolade for the young designer was given to Mr. Andrej Dolinka for the book “Playing with the Image” by Mr. Pavel Levi, published by the Multimedia Institute, Zagreb, and the Faculty of Media and Communications, Belgrade.

The official proclamation and award ceremony represents a constituent part of a decade-long tradition at Belgrade Book Fair.