At a ceremony organized as part of this year's edition of the Mittelfest festival in Cividale del Friuli, Italy, Ema Andrea received the “Premio Adelaide Ristori 2025” award.

We are delighted that this award was given to Andrea for her role in our production "Negotiating Peace", an international theatre co-production featuring artists and theatre groups from Ukraine, Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Czech Republic, Albania, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, and Estonia.

Each year, since 1998, Soroptimist International d’Italia - Club Cividale del Friuli has awarded the prestigious “Adelaide Ristori” prize to the best female artist of the previous edition of the Mittelfest Festival. For the year 2024, this prize was awarded to actress Ema Andrea for her role in Jeton Neziraj’s play "Negotiating Peace", directed by Blerta Neziraj.

The Adelaide Ristori Award is named in honor of the actress born on January 29, 1822, who became one of the most significant women in European and Western theatre of the 19th century.

“For me, a professional recognition coming from the place where I ‘wrote’ liberty 30 years ago, and where I wove threads of dreams, is a boundary of water and land — a safer path on the road I have walked without knowing how lucky I truly am,” said actress Andrea about the award.

Inspired by Richard Holbrooke’s book “To End a War” and Ismail Kadare’s “The General of the Dead Army”, NEGOTIATING PEACE attempts to confront the audience with the behind-the-scenes, the challenges, fears, and hopes that accompany the achievement of a peace agreement, while also raising important questions: Who can negotiate peace?

"Negotiating Peace" is produced by Qendra Multimedia, in collaboration with Teatro della Pergola (Italy); euro-scene Leipzig Festival (Germany); Prague City Theatres (Czech Republic); R.A.A.A.M (Estonia); Mittelfest (Italy); Kontakt (Bosnia and Herzegovina); Black Box Teater (Norway); and My Balkans (USA/Serbia).