CORDIS Archive

Europe needs Europrix!

Thierig, producer of CD-ROMs from Berlin/Germany, works for Tivola, the company which won the Europrix98 in the category First Steps. The winners of Europrix98 yesterday were introduced to the press at the IST in Vienna Austria Center.

First Gerrie Villon of Real World MultiMedia (RWMM) spoke of the difficulties of producing the CD-ROM Ceremony of Innocence, big winner of Europrix98. ‘Only perfect co-operation between designers, story tellers and cyberpeople can lead to this kind of result’, said Villon. British-based RWMM is part-owned by the famous rock musician Peter Gabriel.

Director R. Frans de Bruine (European Commission) said, ‘Europrix shows that new technologies do not make the rest of the world American, as many critics have written. Local values become more important in Europe, especially when powered by multimedia and Internet’. De Bruine is satisfied that ‘Europrix shows the high quality of our entertainment industries’.

‘Would Europrix remain in Austrian hands during the next years?’, asked one of the participants. Frans de Bruine and Europrix inventor Peter Bruck (Salzburg Techno-Z) were unanimous in saying that Europrix is strictly objective and has no national ties. ‘An international jury takes care for best decisions, based on quality’, said Bruck.

Reinhart Koegeler, Austrian Ministry for Economic Affairs, compared European writers such as Martin Walser of Germany with Multimedia producers. ‘One day, multimedia people could be as popular as famous writers. Europrix is one step towards a future of new arts, performances and economics’ he said.