The Affiliation for the Improvement of BD in Angoulême (ADBDA) retained, on Tuesday, a brand new undertaking to prepare an occasion from 2027, after the cancellation of the International Comics Festival (FIBD) in 2026. This choice is a part of a context of lasting disaster which is weakening one of many most important world occasions within the sector.
The chosen undertaking is led by Marie Parisot and Céline Bagot, backed by the Morgane group, already concerned in Francofolies of La Rochelle and the Spring of Bourges. The ADBDA believes that it “meets the expectations of the complete sector when it comes to creative requirements, variety of aesthetics” and that it “confirms the central place of authors”.
Authorized motion continues to be pending
4 functions had been in competitors, together with that of the West Coast group. The selection of the ADBDA comes after the ousting of the historic organizer 9e Artwork +, strongly criticized by many authors for its administration of the competition lately.
The corporate 9e Artwork + and the FIBD affiliation are contesting this choice and have taken authorized motion. They denounce a “brutal appropriation” of the occasion and evoke an “try at dispossession”. Their motion goals particularly to cancel the decision for initiatives and to forestall the holding of a competing occasion.
A serious financial and cultural challenge
A listening to is scheduled for Might 20 in Angoulême. The candidates imagine that the state of affairs “endangers the holding of the FIBD in 2027”, whereas saying they’re “open to a negotiated resolution” to emerge from this governance disaster.
Weakened by controversies in 2025, a name for a boycott and the withdrawal of private and non-private companions, the competition couldn’t be held in 2026, a primary outdoors the Covid-19 interval. Normally frequented by almost 200,000 guests, it represents a significant financial problem for the town and the cultural sector.
