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Jean-Baptiste Kempf receives the European SFS Award 2025 at SFSCON
on: 2025-11-07
The FSFE and LUGBZ have recognized VLC president and core developer with this European award for his long-term dedication to the project. What began as a student initiative has, through his continuous effort, evolved into one of the most widely used media players, with billion of users worldwide.
Picture by NOI Techpark - Marco Parisi CC-BY-SA 4.0.
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), together with the Linux User Group Bolzano‑Bozen (LUGBZ), is proud to recognize Jean-Baptiste Kempf with the European SFS Award 2025, in recognition of his outstanding and lasting contributions to the Free Software movement and his long-term dedication to the VLC project.
Born as a student project in 1996, this software has evolved into an essential, all-in-one media player that plays almost anything effortlessly. Originally a simple network streaming client, it has grown into a powerful universal media player that continues to evolve and impress.
“For many people running non-free operating systems, it was the very first Free Software they ever installed. For many people running Free Software, it saved them from installing and booting into a proprietary operating system”, declared Matthias Kirschner, president of the FSFE during the Award ceremony.
Jean-Baptiste Kempf joined the project as a student, and when it faced the risk of dying after the graduation of its original developers, he took the reins. With the help of other core developers, he transformed it into the indispensable media player we rely on today.
Over the years, Kempf has become not only the president of the VideoLAN non-profit but also one of the lead developers of VLC Media Player and the founder of VideoLabs. “It’s small, fast, friendly, and seems to "understand everything you throw at it. I have always thought of it as "the program that eats everything", said Raphael Barbieri, a member of LUGBZ, during the winner’s announcement.
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