Excellence in culture will be awarded on Monday, May 4^th, 2026 on the Radio Hall stage during the 25^th edition of the Radio România Cultural Awards Gala. With more details about the event, Radu Croitoru - manager of Radio România Cultural - spoke with Ioana Țintea.

Mr. Radu Croitoru, the Radio România Cultural Awards Gala has reached its 25^th edition. What does this anniversary milestone mean for the institution and for the cultural scene în Romania?

Good afternoon, thank you for this discussion. What does this anniversary milestone mean? 25 years of accumulations. Accumulations mean credibility from those who receive the nominations and subsequently our awards, and then almost 1000 tickets sold at the Radio Hall, with a sold-out concert lasting about a month. It means a lot of joy and credibility for our radio station. The Radio România Cultural Awards Gala has become a very firm pillar on the Romanian festival map in recent years.

What are the main criteria based on which this year's nominees are selected?

Clearly, quality! In Romania, quite a lot is produced, despite the budgets and the economic problems we have. From a cultural point of view, public and independent actors produce a lot of quality and then quality is the main criterion. The selection is made, as you probably know, as follows: colleagues, who deal with all the fields awarded at the gala throughout the year at Radio România Cultural, make some proposals, and a final jury approves them and designates the winners. So quality, clearly, is our main argument when we put some names on the market.

Can you give us some pointers about the artistic moments prepared for the evening of May 4^th?

We have always surprised those who come to enjoy the Radio România Cultural Awards Gala and this year we are doing it again. I think it is one of the reasons why the gala has been sold-out for almost a month and everyone is asking us if there are any tickets left; unfortunately there are none.

We will have a concert held by the philologist and cobza player Bogdan Mihai Simion alongside Lăutarii de Mătase (The Silk Fiddlers), a concert of joy, a concert în which we will properly celebrate the awards we are offering.

To what extent can an award influence the course of an artist or a cultural project?

As long as these awards are so coveted and as long as people in the cultural market, actors in the cultural market are happy even for a nomination at the Radio România Cultural Awards Gala - not necessarily for an award - then surely, these distinctions and nominations are very important. But I think it's a fair question for them to answer.