Jean-Baptiste Kempf, the man who leads the amazing VLC Media Player project, received the prestigious European SFS Award 2025. This award recognizes people who make significant and lasting contributions to Free Software across Europe.
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and the Linux User Group Bolzano-Bozen (LUGBZ) present this honour together.
They celebrated Kempf's long-term dedication to the VLC project on 7 November 2025, at SFSCON.
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VLC, the Program that Eats Everything
You probably know the VLC Media Player by its famous symbol: a bright orange-and-white traffic cone.
As you already know, VLC is a popular all-in-one media player. It plays almost anything effortlessly. Raphael Barbieri of LUGBZ called it "the program that eats everything".
VLC started modestly. In 1996, it was just a student project. The initial goal was simply to tinker and experiment. No one knew those first lines of code would eventually reach billions of users.
Furthermore, many people running proprietary operating systems installed VLC as their very first Free Software. For me, and many others using Free Software, VLC saved us from needing to use proprietary media players.
Saving the VLC Project and Maximizing Freedom
Like many student efforts, VLC nearly died. The original developers graduated, and they moved on to other things. But Jean-Baptiste Kempf, who joined the group in 2000, refused to let the project fade away.
He took the reins. He reorganised the code and inspired many new contributors. Slowly, he turned a student experiment into a piece of world-class software. Today, he serves as the president of the VideoLAN non-profit. He is also one of VLC Media Player's lead developers.
Kempf's success attracted lots of attention. He was offered tempting deals, including advertising, corporate buyouts, and big money. But, Kempf gently said "no" every time. He only focused on maximizing freedom for computer users, not maximizing profit.
Later, he founded a non-profit organization. This ensured the software would always belong to its community. This is such a wonderful example of integrity!
He showed the world that he values integrity and community more than fame or fortune. Kempf's "Holy Grail" is freedom: the freedom for billions to watch, listen, and share multimedia files without restrictions or surveillance.
A Knight of Free Software
Because of his contributions to free and open source, Kempf also earned a very special honour in 2018. He received the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite. He was the first Free Software developer ever to receive that distinction. Yes, Kempf is a real knight of software freedom!
This European SFS Award is truly well-deserved. His work follows the high standards set by previous winners, too.
Frank Karlitschek, founder of Nextcloud, won the award in 2023. Bram Moolenaar, who created the Vim editor, received the award posthumously in 2024.
Jean-Baptiste Kempf stands alongside these giants as a pioneer who champions open, universal access to media. He proves that Free Software remains powerful, useful, and fun.
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