ERASMUS-PRIZE
and
SILVER ROSES
to Chaplin and Bergman
In june 1965 Charles Chaplin and Ingmar Berg
man received in Holland the Erasmus-Prize.
The origin and object of this important prize
is as follows:
In the Netherlands during several years the
need was feit of establishing an institution
comparable in principle to the Nobel Prize.
The Nobel Prize is as known among the highest
awards in the form of a substantial sum of
money presented to eminent persons and
sometimes institutions active in the fields of
medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and in
the promotion of peace. The Prince of the
Netherlands established in 1958 the Founda
tion Praemium Erasmianum. The object of the
organisation is to confer one or more monetary
prizes if possible annually, as awards to in-
dlviduals or institutions having made a for
Europe particulary important contrlbution in
the cultural, social or social-scientific sphere.
The amount of the prize has been fixed at
Fis. 100.000,- (one hundred thousand guilders).
Unlike the Nobel-Prize, however, the Prae
mium Erasmianum shall, in consultatlon wlth
the Board, be partially expended in grants for
cultural, social, or social-scientific projects in
the cause of rallying or unifying the European
spirit and culture. The financing of the „Prae
mium Erasmianum" is for the time being
entirely from private sources, subscribed under
a special plan for obtaining funds in the
Netherlands over a period of several years.
The first awarding took place during the Milan
congress of the Foundation Européenne de la
Culture in december 1958. The Laureates were
in 1958 the Austrian people, in 1959 Mr. Robert
Schuman and Dr. Karl Jaspers, in 1960 Mare
Chagall and Oskar Kokoschka, in 1962 Pro
fessor Romano Guardini, in 1963 Professor
Martin Buber, in 1964 the „Union Académique
Internationale". It is for the first time that the
Erasmus-Prize has been awarded to a film-
artist. The Netherlands Cinema Organisation
(Nederlandsche Bioscoop-Bond) regards it as
a general sign of apprecation and as a recogni-
tion of the young filmart amldst the other arts.
The Board of the Nederlandsche Bioscoop-
Bond decided to offer the filmmasters the
distinction „The Silver Rosé". This Dutch
distinction has been established in 1960 by
the above-called cinema-organisation and has
been awarded since then three times. Chaplin
and Bergman received the Silver Roses be-
cause of outstanding merit for the art of fll-
ming. To hand over the prizes a brilliant dinner
was offered to the winners and to more than
ninety guests.
This special issue of „Film" means to be-
come a memory of these days, the awardings
and the state dinner.
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