Yearender 2020: Top 2020 awards, books, rankings, achievements

 From Legion of Merit Award to PM Modi to Delhi Crime becoming the first Indian series to win the International Emmy award, go through the list of achievements, awards, books, rankings of the year 2020. 

Apart from the pandemic, the year 2020 was eventful in every other sense. On the one hand, where PM Modi was honoured with the prestigious award by the US President, the wait was finally over for the actor Brad Pitt as he took his first-ever Oscar home. 

To keep you up to date as we bid goodbye to this year, we have come up with the list of top awards, honours, rankings, achievements, prizes that recognized the hard work and efforts in various fields. These recognitions assure that pandemics cannot stop the innovations and the hunger for achieving more. 

PM Modi awarded Legion of Merit by the President of United States

• The President of the United States, Donald Trump has honored PM Modi with the Legion of Merit Award.

• The honor has been given for PM Modi’s leadership in elevating the strategic partnership between India and the US as well as for the emergence of India as a global power.

• The award by the US government is only conferred to the Head of the State of the Government.

Golden Globe Awards 2020: Renee Zellweger and Joaquin Phoenix bags the best actress and actor award

• The 77th Golden Globe Awards were conferred on January 5, 2020, at the Beverly Hill Hotel in California.

• The Golden Globes are the annual awards that honor the best performance in Television and Motion Pictures. The awards were hosted by Richard Gervais, a British actor, and host who hosted the event for the fifth time.

• Among the winners was the movie ‘1917’ which won the Best Picture Drama Award. The best actress award went to Renee Zellweger for her performance in ‘Judy’ and the best actor to Joaquin Phoenix for his work in ‘Joker’. 

Padma Awards 2020: Winners of Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, and Padma Shri

• The Indian government announced the winners of the Padma Awards on January 26, 2020.

• Seven prominent personalities were chosen for Padma Vibhushan, 118 for Padma Shri award, and 16 for Padma Bhushan Award.

• The most notable was the former late ministers Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj who were named for the Padma Vibhushan award for their extraordinary work.

Grammy 2020 winners: Billie Eilish bags major awards

• The 62nd annual Grammy Awards were presented on January 26, 2020, at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles.

• Billie Eilish became the first artist to win Record of the Year, Album of the year, Best New Artist, and Song of the Year in the same year after Christopher Cross in 1981.

• She won maximum awards with Finneas, her brother, including the best record and song of the year for ‘Bad Guy’.

Raj Kamal Jha honored with Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize 2020

• Raj Kamal Jha, Indian Journalist-author for his novel ‘The City and The Sea’ has been honored with Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize.

• The winner was announced virtually in Denmark and the prize comes with a cash prize of $5000.

• The book by Raj Kamal Jha is based on December 2012 Nirbhaya rape and murder case.

SAG Awards 2020: Parasite makes history as the first foreign-language film to win the award

• The 26th Annual SAG-Screen Actors Guild Award was presented on January 19, 2020, in Los Angeles, California.

• Parasite, a South Korean film, created history by becoming the first foreign-language film to win the SAG award. The film won for the outstanding performance by the cast in a motion picture.

• In Television, Jennifer Aniston won the best actress for her performance in ‘The Morning Show’ and Peter Dinklage won the best actor for his iconic work in ‘Game of Thrones’.

Nobel Peace Prize 2020 awarded to the World Food Programme

• The Nobel Peace Prize 2020 went to the World Food Programme for its work and efforts on combating world hunger.

• The organisation has been especially honoured for its contribution and work to better the conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas. It also acted as a driving force in preventing the use of hunger as a weapon of conflict and war.

• The decision of awarding the World Food Programme was taken by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Oscars 2020 awards: Brad Pitt wins his first award as best supporting actor

• The most prestigious film awards were announced at the Dolby Theatre in the US in February 2020.

• Brad Pitt won his first and highly anticipated Oscar award for the best supporting actor for the film ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’.

• The best actor award went to Joaquin Pheonix for Joker and best actress to Renee Zellweger for the movie ‘Judy’.

India drops down by two places, ranks at 142 at World Press Freedom Index 2020

• Out of 180, India has ranked 142 at the World Press Freedom Index 2020. The report was released in the annual Reporters Without Borders analysis.

• As per the index, no journalists were murdered in India in 2019 while in 2018, the number was 6.

• Reporters without borders is basically a non-profit organisation that works on documenting attacks on journalists all over the world.