Angoulême International Comics Festival


The Angoulême International Comics Festival is the second largest comics festival in Europe after the Lucca Comics & Games in Italy, and the third biggest in the world after Lucca Comics & Games and the Comiket of Japan. It has occurred every year since 1974 in Angoulême, France, in January.

History

The Angoulême International Comics Festival was founded by French writers and editors and Jean Mardikian, and comics writer and scholar. Moliterni served as co-organizer of the festival through 2005.

Attendance

More than 200,000 visitors come each year to the fair, including between 6,000 and 7,000 professionals and 800 journalists.
The attendance is generally difficult to estimate because the festival takes place all over the town, and is divided in many different areas that are not connected to each other directly.

Official prizes

The four-day festival is notable for awarding several prestigious prizes in cartooning. The awards at Angoulême were originally called the Alfred awards, after the pet auk from Zig et Puce by Alain Saint-Ogan. In 1989, the name changed to the Alph-art awards, honoring the final, unfinished Tintin album by Hergé. In 2003, the Alph-art name was dropped, and they are now simply called "The Official Awards of the International Comics Festival". In 2007, Lewis Trondheim created a mascot for the festival, Le Fauve, and since 2008 the prize winners have received wildcat statuettes, with the Best Album statuette coated in gold. Since this year, the award is called the fauve and the best album, the fauve d'or. The prizes were reorganized too, to create a pool of 40-60 albums, called "official selections," from which are awarded the "Best Album" prize, five "Angoulême Essentials," one "Revelation Essential", and one Essential chosen by the public. The Heritage Essential and Youth Essential are selected from separate nominee pools.
Additionally, the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême is awarded each year to a living creator honoring his/her lifetime achievement, and the Grand Prix winner becomes president of the next year's festival. Traditionally, the president heads the prize jury of the next year's festival, illustrates the festival poster, and is given an exhibition of his or her work.
In 2015, the main prizes awarded were:
with Yann Blake in Angoulême during the festival

Other prizes