Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême
The Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême is a lifetime achievement award given annually during the Angoulême International Comics Festival to a comics author. Although not a monetary award, it is considered the most prestigious award in Franco-Belgian comics.
It has been awarded mainly to French and Belgian authors, but also to international authors. Recipients are, on average, 50 years old. Five women, Florence Cestac, Rumiko Takahashi, Julie Doucet, Posy Simmonds, and Anouk Ricard have been awarded the prize.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref name=Ricard>Template:Cite news</ref>
History
The prize was first awarded during the first Angoulême festival in 1974. Traditionally, the winner has been selected as the president of the board and the prize jury of next year's festival. Since 1982, the winners have also drawn the next year's festival poster. In 1984, cartoonist Claire Bretécher received a special tenth anniversary award apart from the main prize, a practice since repeated on subsequent anniversaries.
After 1989, the prize was awarded by a jury of all previous winners, except for the time from 1997 to 1999 when all creators attending the festival voted on the winner. The jury system was criticized for favoring cronyism and Franco-centrism, and was abandoned after 2012. Subsequent years have seen a variety of changing award mechanisms. In 2015, the winner was again selected by vote of all registered comics creators, based on a list of nominees.
In January 2016, 12 of the 30 nominees for the 2016 prize withdrew their names from consideration in protest against a shortlist of exclusively male nominees.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=Vulture-BoycottNoWomen-2016>Template:Cite news</ref> Following media reports, the festival's board first announced 6 additional female nominees, <ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Le festival d'Angoûleme aime les femmes mais ne peut pas refaire l'histoire de la bande dessinée - Official statement, 6 January 2016.</ref> then retracted all nominees, allowing registered professionals to vote for any person.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Winners
1970s
- 1974 André Franquin<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> (Gaston, Marsupilami, Spirou et Fantasio)
- 1975 Will Eisner<ref name=Passion>Template:Cite book</ref> (A Contract with God, The Dreamer, To the Heart of the Storm)
- 1976 René Pellos (René Pellarin)<ref name=Passion/> (sports cartoonist)
- 1977 Jijé (Joseph Gillain)<ref name=Schuiten/> (Spirou et Fantasio, Jerry Spring, Tanguy et Laverdure)
- 1978 Jean-Marc Reiser<ref name=Passion/> (cartoonist)
- 1979 Marijac (Jacques Dumas)<ref name=Passion/> (youth comics)
1980s
- 1980 Fred (Othon Aristides)<ref name=Passion/>
- 1981 Moebius / Jean Giraud<ref name=Passion/>
- 1982 Paul Gillon<ref name=Passion/>
- 1983 Jean-Claude Forest<ref name=Passion/>
- 10th anniversary Claire Bretécher<ref name=Femmes>Template:Cite book</ref>
- 1984 Jean-Claude Mézières (Valérian and Laureline)<ref name=Passion/>
- 1985 Jacques Tardi<ref name=Passion/>
- 1986 Jacques Lob<ref name=Passion/>
- 1987 Enki Bilal<ref name=Passion/>
- 1988 Philippe Druillet<ref name=Passion/>
- 15th anniversary Hugo Pratt
- 1989 René Pétillon
1990s
- 1990 Template:Ill
- 1991 Gotlib (Marcel Gotlieb)
- 1992 Frank Margerin
- 20th anniversary Morris (Maurice de Bevere)
- 1993 Gérard Lauzier
- 1994 Nikita Mandryka
- 1995 Philippe Vuillemin
- 1996 André Juillard
- 1997 Daniel Goossens
- 1998 François Boucq
- 1999 Robert Crumb
- Special prize of the millennium Albert Uderzo
2000s
- 2000 Florence Cestac<ref name=Femmes/>
- 2001 Martin Veyron<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- 2002 François Schuiten<ref name=Schuiten>Template:Cite news</ref>
- 2003 Régis Loisel<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- 2004 Zep (Philippe Chappuis)<ref name=Zep>Template:Cite news</ref>
- 30th anniversary Joann Sfar
- 2005 Georges Wolinski<ref name=Zep/>
- 2006 Lewis Trondheim<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- 2007 José Antonio Muñoz<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- 2008 Dupuy and Berberian<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- 2009 Blutch<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
2010s
- 2010: Baru<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- 2011: Art Spiegelman<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- 2012: Template:Ill<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- 2013: Bernard Willem Holtrop (Willem)<ref name="willem">Template:Cite news</ref>
- 40th anniversary Akira Toriyama<ref name="willem" />
- 2014: Bill Watterson<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- 2015: Katsuhiro Otomo<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- 2016: Hermann Huppen<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- 2017: Cosey (Bernard Cosendai)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- 2018: Richard Corben<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- 2019: Rumiko Takahashi<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2020s
- 2020: Emmanuel Guibert<ref name="LeMonde29012020">« Bande dessinée : Emmanuel Guibert, Grand prix 2020 d’Angoulême », Le Monde, 29 janvier 2019.</ref>
- 2021: Chris Ware<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- 2022: Julie Doucet<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- 2023: Riad Sattouf<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- 2024: Posy Simmonds<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref>
- 2025: Anouk Ricard<ref name=Ricard/>