Learn Polish: To właśnie jury wręczyło mu statuetkę. - It was precisely the jury that presented him with the statuette.

A standard, neutral sentence would just be Jury wręczyło mu statuetkę. By putting to właśnie at the very beginning, we create a cleft sentence. This structure acts like a spotlight, telling the listener that the most important information is the word immediately following it: the jury.

Can I just use to without właśnie to get the same emphatic effect?

Yes, saying To jury wręczyło mu statuetkę still translates to It was the jury that presented him with the statuette. Adding właśnie just turns the emphasis up a notch, meaning It was precisely the jury or It was exactly the jury.

Why does the verb wręczyło end in -ło here?

The verb must agree in gender with the subject, which is jury. Even though it refers to a group of people, jury is a neuter noun in Polish. It is also an indeclinable borrowed word, meaning it never changes its spelling for different cases, but it still forces neuter agreement on past tense verbs and adjectives.

Why is the pronoun mu placed before statuetkę and not at the end of the sentence?

mu is a short, unstressed pronoun. Unstressed pronouns sound unnatural at the very end of a sentence when there is another object available to take the final position. They strongly prefer to tuck in right after the verb or near the beginning of the clause.