Lovies return, handing out awards to the best of the European internet

Alan Martin September 29, 2016

Handing out awards for the best things on the internet is tricky business. And with the internet a global network, narrowing it down to a single continent is harder still, but the Lovie Awards have done just that for sixth year running.

Set up to “recognise the unique and resonant nature of the European Internet community”, a dizzying number of awards were given out on Tuesday night, covering a variety of categories from entrepreneurship to virtual reality.

To give you a vague idea of exactly how diverse the Lovie Awards are, you just have to take a look at the high-profile winners from this year’s event. The awards recognised media outlets such as The Guardian, Vice and Sky News, while also honouring the likes of pop group One Direction, and VR films allowing you to explore Abbey Road and Fukushima. SoundCloud and Deliveroo got mentions, as did Game of Thrones Territory for its “overall social presence.”

You can see a full list of award winners here, but perhaps the most notable winners were the Special Achievement Award honourees, who joined past winners Jamie Oliver, Björk, Stephen Fry, Sigur Ròs, Sophie Wilson, JR, Louis Pouzin, The European Space Agency, danisnotonfire and Lily Cole.

Annie Lennox won the coveted “Lovie Person of the Year” award for “expertly and relentlessly” using social media to “create a better world for others.” Meanwhile, head of AI at Facebook, Yann LeCun, earned a Lovie Lifetime Achievement award for his work in machine learning and neural networks.

The team behind the release of the Panama Papers was also recognised. Süddeutsche Zeitung “set a new standard for online research and reporting” to deal with the biggest data leak in history, and were justly rewarded with the Lovie Be Greater with Data award. Meanwhile, Bas van Abel, Miquel Ballester Salvà and Tessa Wernink of Fairphone were given the Lovie for Emerging Entrepreneurs for their “example of futurism put into practice.”

Finally, Romain Gavras was awarded the Artist of the Year trophy, for his internet-native video for Jamie XX’s song “Gosh”. “With the remarkable artistic decision to cast 400 people and to forgo any CGI or 3D effects, Gavras turned out a stunning work of art that ranks among one of the most visually appealing, and interesting, original online music videos today,” the judges concluded.

Congratulations to all the winners. Richly deserved.