On Friday of this week, the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), together with the Linux User Group Bolzano-Bozen-Bulsan (LUGBZ), presented the European SFS Award 2025 to VLC developer Jean-Baptise Kempf. The award ceremony is taking place as part of SFSCON 2025 (South Tyrol Free Software Conference) in Bolzano, Italy.
The association of open-source enthusiasts wants to honor Kempf for his outstanding and sustained contributions to the free software movement and his long-standing work on the VLC project. VLC started as a student project in 1996 and has evolved into an all-in-one media player that plays almost anything effortlessly. Originally, VLC was a simple network streaming client and h…
On Friday of this week, the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), together with the Linux User Group Bolzano-Bozen-Bulsan (LUGBZ), presented the European SFS Award 2025 to VLC developer Jean-Baptise Kempf. The award ceremony is taking place as part of SFSCON 2025 (South Tyrol Free Software Conference) in Bolzano, Italy.
The association of open-source enthusiasts wants to honor Kempf for his outstanding and sustained contributions to the free software movement and his long-standing work on the VLC project. VLC started as a student project in 1996 and has evolved into an all-in-one media player that plays almost anything effortlessly. Originally, VLC was a simple network streaming client and has grown into a powerful universal media player that “continues to evolve and impress”.
FSFE President Matthias Kirscher stated during the award ceremony: “For many people with non-free operating systems, this was their first contact with free software that they installed. For many people who use free software, it saved them from installing and running proprietary operating systems.”
Launch as a Student
Jean-Baptiste Kempf joined the project as a student, and when it threatened to die due to the original developers graduating, he took the reins, the FSFE explains. “Together with other lead developers, he transformed VLC into the indispensable media player we rely on today.” Over the years, Kempf has become not only president of the VideoLAN non-profit organization but also the lead developer of VLC.
Jean-Baptiste Kempf commented: “I feel extremely honored to receive the European SFS Award. The free software multimedia community is quite a niche and unknown one, but we work hard so that video content can be free and can be played and processed. The work done in and around the VideoLAN community is enormous despite its limited resources. I want to thank the VideoLAN and FFmpeg teams who have donated their time to the projects – often with little recognition.”
The European SFS Award aims to recognize individuals who make a significant and lasting contribution to the advancement of free software in Europe through their work. Originally launched in South Tyrol by LUGBZ, the award has been presented with FSFE since 2023. In previous years, the European SFS Award went to Frank Karlitschek of Nextcloud (2023) and to the 2023 deceased inventor and lead author of the Vim editor Bram Moolenar (2024).
(dmk)
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This article was originally published in German. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.