Country North Korea | ||
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Awarded for Best achievements in creative fields Date September 8, 1958 (1958-09-08)–present Presented by People's Prize Awarding Commission | ||
The People's Prize (Korean: 인민상) is a North Korean arts and sciences award. It is awarded by the People's Prize Awarding Commission, which is working directly under the Cabinet of North Korea. The prize can be granted to works of art or people. People's Prize has been an important award in the field of North Korean cinema.
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The works and people that have received the People's Prize cover such varied fields as literature, gymnastics, Korean revolutionary opera, acupuncture and sculpture. The People's Prize has been received by people abroad.
History
The People's Prize was instituted on 8 September 1958.
The first North Korean feature film My Hometown (1949) was directed by Kang Hongshik. It was the first of a film series to be awarded People's Prize. Kim Il-sung praised many of People's Prize winning movies from 1960s and 1970s of supplying an exhaustive answer to the issue of people's Chajusŏng. The Workers' Party gives the award to those North Korean films and film-makers seen as fulfilling the role of an "excellent textbook" for the workers party.
Some of the works, which did not become recognized as "Immortal classics", did earn People's Prize meant only for the best productions. One such production is a three-part film Five Guerilla Brothers (1968) directed by Choe Ik-gyu, and overseen by Kim Jong-il himself. Other films overseen by Kim to win the People's Prize were A Flowering Village and A Family of Workers (1971). In the case of the A Family of Workers, Kim Jong-il was reportedly not satisfied with the application of the seed theory. However, some of Kim Jong-il's movies, such as Sea of Blood (1968) and Flower girl (1972), became "Immortal classics".
In 1965 the Chongryon established Chosun University's teaching staff in Japan received the prize.
Many of the works to obtain People's Prize are still highly regarded in North Korea. Reminiscences of the Anti-Japanese Guerillas is regarded as classic of literature of the Workers' Party, and was awarded People's Prize in 2012. It is still used in daily ideological study sessions at workplaces, and many of the memoirs have later been made into movies.
People's Prize winner Kim Song-gun's major work Waves of the Sea Kumgang was used as a background for a group photo with Kim Jong-il and Bill Clinton during Clinton's visit to North Korea in 2009. Kim Song-gun received the award for his painting Waves of the Sea Kumgang in 1999.