Angoulême’s major comics gathering is scheduled to return as Angoulême Bande Dessinée, opening to the public from Thursday, January 28 through Sunday, January 31, 2027. A professional day is planned for the preceding Wednesday. The new event replaces the former Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Angoulême, whose 2026 edition was cancelled amid a prolonged conflict involving creators, publishers and the previous organizers.
The relaunch is more than a name change. The incoming team has laid out changes to awards, exhibitor layout, artist compensation, safety provisions and eligibility rules for comics made with artificial intelligence. It is an unusually comprehensive attempt to rebuild a festival that functions both as a public convention and as an important meeting point for publishing: a place where creators, editors, rights representatives, translators, printers, distributors and retailers convene.
A new operator after a disrupted 2026
The 2026 cancellation followed opposition to the longstanding operator, 9eArt+, and its director Franck Bondoux. The dispute included concerns about commercialization, management and creators’ working conditions. It also involved controversy around the dismissal of an employee who had reported a rape in 2024. The city’s mayor called for cancellation, major publishers withdrew, and the French Ministry of Culture cut subsidies.
In place of the cancelled official festival, an author-led event called the Grand Off went ahead. The later path toward a replacement operator was cleared when an Angoulême court rejected an effort by 9eArt+ to block the change. The Association pour le développement de la bande dessinée à Angoulême selected the Morgane Group to operate the new event for five years.
Morgane has experience organizing music festivals, including Francofolies de La Rochelle and Printemps de Bourges. Its comics subsidiary, M:BD, is co-directed by Marie Parisot and Céline Bagot. The team has characterized the festival as a shared cultural asset serving both the profession and the public, while also acknowledging that the first edition is being assembled from scratch and may be adjusted in later years.
That combination matters. A comics festival of this scale cannot be restored simply by booking tents and selling tickets. The controversy that preceded the cancellation was tied to who gets heard, who gets paid, who feels protected and who has access to the event’s commercial opportunities. The 2027 plan directly addresses several of those questions, although the actual results will only become clear when the festival opens.
Creators are promised payment, support and dedicated safety measures
One of the clearest commitments is that artists will be paid for signings, meetings and official festival participation. This is significant because public appearances are a major feature of comics conventions, yet creators can be expected to give time and labor without equivalent compensation. The new directors have put remuneration and creator visibility at the center of their stated approach.
The program is also expected to include legal support and training concerning authors’ rights. In publishing, authors’ rights cover the legal and contractual interests attached to a work, such as how it can be reproduced, translated, adapted or licensed. For comics creators whose work may travel across languages and formats, practical support on those matters can be as meaningful as a high-profile panel or exhibition.
A refuge space for authors and a dedicated group focused on preventing sexist and sexual violence have also been announced. These plans do not erase the circumstances that led to the festival’s reset, but they establish concrete structures that visitors and professionals can assess once the event is underway.
The festival’s AI rule is unusually direct
Angoulême Bande Dessinée plans to ban artificial intelligence from its own communications and make works suspected of significant AI use ineligible for official selection. The wording is consequential: this is not merely a preference for human-made work or a promise to review the question later. It is an eligibility rule connected to selection.
“Official selection” refers to the chosen group of books from which awards are considered. Restricting that pool sets a standard for the festival’s most visible critical recognition. The rule does leave an important practical question for implementation: what threshold constitutes significant AI use and how will it be evaluated? No process has been detailed here. Still, the stated policy gives publishers and creators a clear signal about the festival’s intended position.
That stance also fits the wider emphasis on authorship and working conditions. Debates about generative AI in comics frequently touch on consent, creative credit and whether a tool has been trained on artists’ work. The 2027 festival has chosen an exclusionary policy for selection rather than attempting to treat every use of AI as interchangeable.
Nine new prizes will replace the Fauves
The former Fauves awards will not continue under the new structure. Instead, Angoulême Bande Dessinée will present nine prizes, each carrying €2,500 and a bronze trophy:
- Jury Prize
- Complete Narrative
- Heritage/Matrimoine
- Revelation
- Series
- 8–10 years
- 11–14 years
- 15+ years
- Fanzine & Micro-edition
The inclusion of youth awards in the main Friday ceremony at the Théâtre d’Angoulême is a structural change. So is the intention to reduce the official selection to roughly 40 books, rather than using the broader lists seen in recent years. The stated goal is better visibility for the selected titles. The selection is expected to be announced in Paris in early December.
The former Grand Prix, a career-recognition honor, is also changing in timing. Its successor will be announced on Sunday afternoon instead of at the beginning of the festival. The profession will continue to choose the recipient via a platform, and the winner will collaborate with the festival through the following year. The France Télévisions prize remains, now with Villa Médicis as a partner and a residency for winners.
For readers, a more selective list may make it easier to navigate an enormous annual field of comics. For creators and publishers, however, a smaller selection means fewer formal slots. The tradeoff is therefore straightforward: concentration can increase attention for chosen books, but selection becomes correspondingly more competitive.
Exhibitions span major names, LGBTQ+ comics and all-ages work
The first announced exhibitions suggest a broad program across styles and audiences. Anouk Ricard, the 2025 Grand Prix recipient, an early supporter of the boycott and the artist behind the 2027 festival poster, will receive Éclatos at Vaisseau Moebius.
Other announced exhibitions include:
- Ugo Bienvenu: l’usage du Temps at Médiathèque de l’Alpha
- Florence Dupré la Tour: pas gentille at Musée d’Angoulême
- Xavier Dorison: le Maître des Univers at Espace Franquin
- Matous, toutous, joujoux: bienvenue chez Yoon-Sun Park at Chais Magelis
- Fanatic Female Frustration x Hairspray at CNAM/ENJMIN
- LGBTQomics at Cité internationale de la BD
- Thorgal, les vies d’un héros at Cité internationale de la BD
An American exhibition is planned, while a major manga exhibition has yet to be identified. The team has also opened a Tokyo office and hired translators connected with the largest Franco-Belgian bookstore in Japan. Alongside planned guest delegations from Taiwan, Ukraine, the United States, Poland, Brazil, Italy, Canada, Spain and the Czech Republic, that move indicates a concerted push for international participation and stronger representation of Japanese comics.
For broader entertainment planning around the same date, readers can also check the site’s games releasing today roundup.
A citywide layout is being reorganized
The new operators describe the physical plan as a logistical puzzle and intend to place all publishers together on the Plateau, the upper part of Angoulême. This ends the prior separation between large publishing groups and independent publishers. In practical terms, it could make browsing feel less segmented and allow readers to move between major releases and smaller presses without treating them as entirely separate destinations.
The familiar temporary “bubble” tents are being rethought, including new locations at Champ-de-Mars, Place Saint-Martial, Place New-York and the Halles. There will no longer be a structure at L’Houmeau near Halle 57. A new tent is planned in the parking area at Frères-Lumière near the cinema, while the international rights market will shift to Square des Villes Jumelées, opposite the Maison des Auteurs.
The rights market is the business-facing side of comics publishing, where participants can discuss translation and publishing rights across territories. Moving it near the Maison des Auteurs, a space associated with creators, is a notable part of a plan that repeatedly emphasizes professional infrastructure alongside public programming.
Dates and ticket prices
Public access is planned from January 28 to 31, 2027. Single-day tickets are listed at €25 for Thursday or Friday, €30 for Saturday and €23 for Sunday. Two-day passes and additional discounted options are planned, while children under 12 will be admitted free. These prices are slightly higher than those of the previous festival.
Angoulême Bande Dessinée enters 2027 carrying the weight of a cancelled predecessor but also a specific mandate for change. Paid official participation, author-rights support, anti-violence measures, a firm AI exclusion for official selection, redesigned awards and a less divided publisher floor are not cosmetic alterations. They are promises that respond to the issues that made the old arrangement untenable. Whether they create a festival that feels more equitable, welcoming and sustainable for creators as well as audiences will be the defining test of its first January edition.
