In December, HRH Prince Claus of the Netherlands honoured the winners of the 1999 Prince Claus Awards at the Royal Palace Amsterdam. The 1999 Principal Award went to three laureates who have paved the way for free social and cultural comment. They represent the spaces characterised as 'exile', 'margins' and 'the large-scale public platform' respectively. These are Mohamed Fellag (comedian and ex-director of the Théâtre Régional in Bougie, Algeria); the Cuban-based cultural magazine Vitral, and the satellite television channel Al-Jazeera based in Doha, Qatar.

The theme of the 1999 award ceremony was Creating Spaces of Freedom and one of the highlights was a lecture by South African judge, author and former anti-apartheid activist Albie Sachs who discussed A Conceited Look at Creating Free Space for the Artist. The ceremony was concluded by a multimedia presentation by South African artist and film-maker William Kentridge who made the installation Overvloed especially for the event and its location. In addition, he showed two of his existing works, Ubu and the Truth Commission and Stereoscope.