The Beat is very proud to announce that we will be the US sponsor for the Sophie Castille Awards for Comics in Translation.
The awards are presented to honor a much overlooked aspect of the comics industry: translators, who help bridge the gap between comics cultures and bring important work to a global audience.
The brainstorm of all around friend of comics Ivanka Hahnenberger (herself an award winning translator), the SCAs are presented in eight languages, Brazilian Portuguese, English, French, Greek, Italian, Polish, Slovenian and Spanish/Catalan. And now The Beat is sponsoring the US version.
Deadlines and procedures for submitting work for these awards, as well as the line-up of judges, will be announced shortly, but we are also proud to announce that the US SCAs will be run by administrator Augie De Blieck Jr., whose Pipeline Comics website has been spotlighting European comics for years. Augie is a comics journalist and connoisseur with decades of experience, and I can’t think of a more qualified person.
The winner and finalists for the 2026 Sophie Castille Awards will be presented at the 2026 New York Comic Con in October.
For more about the awards, I direct you to the website, but here’s who the award is named after:
They have been created in honour of Sophie Castille, international rights director and V. P. of licensing for Mediatoon and cofounder and director of Europe Comics, who died unexpectedly in 2022. Since the late nineties, Sophie built bridges for bandes dessinées and their authors from France and around the world. She was a constant source of creativity, motivating publishers from all over the world and encouraging them to exchange ideas. She became a key figure in the growth of comics and graphic novel translations around the world.
Comics and graphic novels, considered in France as The Ninth Art, are a diverse and dynamic international medium that is growing in popularity every year and is loved the world over. Spreading these works internationally through translation is a way to bring the world together.
Currently, the global sponsors for the awards include:
Association of Comic Book Artists and Cartoonists of the State of São Paulo (AQC-ESP) through the Angelo Agostini Awards angeloagostini.com.br
The Greek Comics Awards, https://ebk.gr/
Comicon Napoli, Italy, https://www.comicon.it/
Łódź International Festival of Comics and Games, Poland, https://komiksfestiwal.com/
Tinta Comics Festival, Ljubljana, Slovenia, https://www.tinta.si/
Comic Barcelona, Spain, https://www.ficomic.com/en/comic-barcelona.cfm
SoBd, France https://sobd.com/
And now, The Beat!
For more information, including sponsorship information, contact Ivanka Hahnenberger at i.hahnenberger @vip-licensing.net
