Nearly 400 Artists Threaten to Boycott Angoulême Festival

[RedRajah]

Just started reading "The Daily Cartoonist" and this caught my eye. Anyone more familiar with this event have any insight?

Nearly 400 artists and 12 associations are signatories to a petition threatening to boycott the 2026 Angoulême International Comics Festival. The petition accuses the festival’s contracted management company, 9eArt+, of retaliating against a female employee who reported a rape at the 2024 event and criticizes the festival’s organizers (FIBD) for not only resisting efforts to replace 9eArt+ but is considering a merger with the company. The signatories state that if FIBD does not open the management contract to an open RFP, they will call for a “massive boycott” of the next festival to be held in January 2026.


Signatories include four of the last five Grand prix winners: Anouk Ricard (2025), Posy Simmonds (2024), Julie Doucet (2022), Chris Ware (2021), as well as notable American cartoonists: Art Spiegelman (Grand prix 2011) and Alison Bechdel. You can see the full list of associations, and signatories artists on MesOpinions. Additionally, at the time of this writing, 2,322 other individuals have signed the petition.

 

[Friendly Frog]

Ouch, that's not good.

Angoulème has a massive name in the European comic and BD world.

Although it's not the first time that the organisers blunder (source: AW link) and I caught a whif of vague disappointment earlier this year when this year's event ran. But I didn't follow up and a lot of my news on Angoulème came from participating publications who were verrry silent about any controversy.

But it appears there has been longer discontent (source: franceinfo.fr, in French) about what direction (source: website the comics journal) the event should move into: more art or more commerce. I daresay that's a balancing act that will never please everybody.

 

[RedRajah]

More updates on this...

https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2025/11/13/boycotting-angouleme/

 

[Friendly Frog]

Ouch, that's why we can't have nice things. [expletive] egos once more destroying a monument.

Likewise the Syndicat national de l’édition (SNE), which includes the major mainstream publishers of comics and graphic novels (including Casterman, Dargaud, Dupuis, Lombard, Delcourt) has released a statement that it will cease its ongoing relationship with the festival starting in 2027.

If you link through, it gets worse and worse. So you have not just price-winning artists withdrawing, but editors AND publishers. (Casterman, Dupuis and Lombard represent a vast part of the classic Belgian BD market).

Also, it goes quite a bit further than lack of ambitions or disagreement over direction.

Also on Monday, a statement from the 51-member alternative publishers group Syndicat des éditeurs alternatifs (SEA) condemned the decision, called for a change at the top but also made public that Bondoux had in late September sent threats of lawsuits to public bodies involved in the “open call” process if his company 9e Art+ were not given the contract.

I can not, for the life of me, understand how institutions and organisations can continue to stand behind organisers who eff up royally and end up alienating the very professionals they're supposed to work with. I can not.

 

[RedRajah]

Another update

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20251119-governance-and-rape-allegations-threaten-famed-french-comics-festival

“Given this large-scale (boycott) movement which they understand, publishers believe that the 2026 edition can no longer take place,” the French National Publishing Union (SNE), which represents 24 major publishers, said in a statement.
On Tuesday, the French government withdrew 200,000 euros ($231,000) of public subsidies for next year’s event, putting a major hole its finances before the scheduled start on January 29.
Culture Minister Rachida Dati said she wanted to avoid the festival “becoming a disaster starting with the 2026 edition.”

The 9eArt+ director, Franck Bondoux, was the subject of an investigation by left-wing magazine l’Humanite before this year’s event which accused him of mismanagement and an increasingly contested style.
It also reported that the company had dismissed an employee shortly after she reported being raped at the 2024 event.

 

[Friendly Frog]

Well, that does sound like a final nail, unless they can find other investors and with them alienating pretty much everyone, I wonder who would be bold enough to wade into this mire.

France is in the middle of big government spending cuts and thanks to the controversy the Angoulème subsidies might actually be a straight-forward cut for once.

 

[Alessandra Kelley]

Hmm. Is the Angoulême Festival the one that's notorious for being super sexist-misogynist?

Ah. Yup. https://www.parismatch.com/Culture/Livres/La-polemique-du-sexisme-du-Festival-d-Angouleme-891891

The festival was heavily criticized in 2023 for not having even one single woman cartoonist on its ballot of thirty finalists running for its Grand Prize, for only having ever awarded one woman cartoonist the Grand Prize in the entire half century plus of its existence.

I believe the festival first came to my attention a few years back when some dude associated with it sneered that Marjane Satrapi was not worthy of awards, possibly tied up with lots more dudes arguing that girls just can't write good comics, which is why they never gave girls any prizes.

Perhaps the festival is important, but my thinking, as a rather distant observer, is maybe good riddance.

 

[RedRajah]

And it's official

2026 Angoulême Comic Festival Cancelled​

According to Le Monde, Noémie de La Soujeole, commercial director and head of protocol sent the following message to the festival partners:

We would like to inform you that, as of today, production of the 2026 edition of the Angoulême Festival has been put on hold. We will get back to you very soon with further details. Thank you for your understanding.

The chance of cancellation has been growing all year and became almost inevitable this fall as nearly 400 acclaimed artists and publishers threatened a boycott and the French Government withholding subsidies that consist of nearly 50% of the festival’s organization budget.

 

[RedRajah]

Official Sequel For Angoulême Comics Art Festival Announced for 2027​

On Friday, the Mayor of Angoulême, Xavier Bonnefont, officially announced the creation of a comic book festival for 2027, to replace the discredited Angoulême Comic Art Festival or FIBD, as "a major international cultural event dedicated to comics within the city limits." He did so alongside the president of the Association for the Development of Comics in Angoulême (ADBDA), David Caméo and Denis Bajram, representative of comic book creator unions, stating "We were close to chaos" but that the new plan will "reaffirm Angoulême's role as the world capital of comics."