The 2026 Pirelli School Award goes to Rai Scuola

The jury for Il Premiolino, which met at the Bicocca degli Arcimboldi in Milan, has announced the winners of the 66th edition of Italia’s oldest and most prestigious journalism award. Sponsored by Pirelli, Il Premiolino is one of the leading awards for journalism in Italy, recognising each year individuals who stand out for their professional rigour, quality of writing, independence, ability to interpret the complexities of the present day and civic commitment.

The winners of the 66th Premiolino awards are Anna Foa (‘La Stampa’), Viviana Mazza (‘Corriere della Sera’), Gabriella Colarusso (‘la Repubblica’), Stefano Feltri (‘Revolution’ podcast on Rai Radio 3), Floriana Bulfon (freelance journalist, contributing to various publications and Rai) and Sacha Biazzo (video reporter, contributing to ‘Report’, Rai 3).

The jury also awarded the 2026 Pirelli Prize for Schools to Rai Scuola, represented by Fabrizio Zappi, Director of Rai’s Culture and Education Department, and Lorenzo Ottolenghi, Head of the Education Unit within Rai’s Culture and Education Department.
The jury announces that Silvia Sciorilli Borrelli, winner of the Premiolino in 2022, will join the jury from this edition onwards.

Furthermore, the jury has appointed Benedetta Tobagi, winner of the Premiolino in 2024, as Vice-Chair of the Prize, working alongside Chair Chiara Beria di Argentine. Chaired by Chiara Beria di Argentine, the jury comprises solely journalists who have previously won the Prize and have subsequently been appointed for life: Benedetta Tobagi, Vice-Chair; Giulio Anselmi; Piero Colaprico; Francesco Costa; Ferruccio de Bortoli, Mattia Feltri, Milena Gabanelli, Enrico Mentana, Donata Righetti, Gian Antonio Stella, Carlo Verdelli and Silvia Sciorilli Borrelli. Antonio Calabrò sits on the jury on behalf of Pirelli, specifically for the Pirelli School Award.

According to Chiara Beria di Argentine, Chair of the jury for Il Premiolino: “In a world savouring growing prosperity alongside its newly regained freedom, one evening in 1960 in Milan, a group of men born in the 1920s and 1930s – from vastly different backgrounds and with diverse experiences, having lived through Fascism, the war and the post-war period. Good wine, excellent food, lively discussions, and a spirit of camaraderie. They were united by their profession – they were all journalists – and the fact that most were originally from Emilia-Romagna, working in Milan, the capital of publishing. And above all, they were all men. It was the Verganis – the famous father Orio and his very young son Guido – who insisted that a prize dedicated to journalism should be created as an offshoot of the Bagutta Literary Prize, founded in 1956; that is, to recognise a thoroughly researched investigative piece, a particularly brilliant article, a cartoon, a headline and, above all, young colleagues who stood out for their commitment and freedom from conformism. With a few lire from ‘Reader’s Digest Selection’ – the first sponsor – the Journalist of the Month Award was thus born; the first chairman of the jury was Enzo Biagi. For the 1960 edition, all 12 winners were men, from Arturo Carlo Jemolo to Gianni Granzotto to Mauro De Mauro, the valiant reporter from *L’Ora di Palermo* who would later be murdered by the Mafia. The only female presence that year was ‘the editorial team of *La Stampa*’, which, given the times and certain publishers, would still deserve praise today. That said, as early as the second edition, in January 1961, the prize was awarded to a promising female editor at the weekly magazine *L’Europeo*. Her name was Oriana Fallaci, for her article ‘La sirena dei vent’anni’ (‘The Twenty-Year-Old Siren’), a profile of the singer Mina.