The first edition of the Digital Arts Awards was held on November 7, specifically honouring for the first time the digital arts and media industries in the Maltese Islands.

The awards celebrate creativity and excellence in a variety of disciplines, such as advertising, graphic design, print, audiovisual, photography and the World Wide Web.

Apart from the trophy, winners also have the right to carry the prestigious Digital Arts Awards 2009 icon. The full list of winners is available at www.daexpo.eu.

The organisers expressed their satisfaction at the quality of the entries and the support of the sponsors, namely the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport; iCentre, the Apple-authorised service providers; Nexos Lighting; Playcraft; Mailbox Services Group; Air Malta; PBS and DigiGraphics. The judging panel consisted of both local and international experts in their respective fields. The judges based their votes on three criteria. Submitted entries had to be highly original with inspiring ideas, exceptionally well executed and relevant to their context.

The line-up of judges included Volker Trapmann, vice-president of marketing Europe, Middle East and Africa of Heidelberger; Simone Angelica Wolf, director Type Events, Italy; Nicolai Troshinsky, Ars Animación teacher, Spain; Ingo Mesche, director and lead designer of AV Technologies Ltd; and Alastair Graham, marketing director of 5 Grams of Plastic.

Innovation, creativity and eye for detail are the three basis elements of a good digital creation, according to Mauro Pirrone, winner of the Best Student of the Year Award together with his colleagues James Abela, Brian Fenech and Keith Galea. Their entry was the same one that won the local Imagine Cup competition by Microsoft.

"We believe that Malta and its technical infrastructure do give students like ourselves a very good head start to be creative and innovative. It is then up to the individual to make the most out of the resources available in order to be successful," Mr Pirrone told i-Tech.

While he concedes there is always room for improvement, he thanked the University of Malta and the Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA) and cited them as an example of how students can benefit from support from local organisations.