It is called Angoulême Bande Dessinée. At a press conference this morning, the Association for the Development of Comics in Angoulême (ADBDA) and the Morgane Group were finally able to reveal the successor to the defunct Angoulême International Comics Festival. The festival will take place in the town’s traditional slot of January 28-31, 2027 – so pack warm clothes, good shoes, and waterproofs.
This has been the first public engagement by the new organisation since the conclusion of the legal case mounted by the previous organiser and original festival assocation last month. The original festival spectacularly collapsed this time last year when Association FIBD and 9e Art+ broke faith with the entire Franco-Belgian (and international) comics industry, triggering a widespread boycott and withdrawal of public funding. Already in existence as a mediation point, the ADBDA made a full restructure into a more robust organisation and began the process of establishing a new event representing the interests of all stakeholders. An open call process culminated in the five-year operating contract going to the Morgane Group with Céline Bagot and Marie Parisot serving as co-directors.
The Morgane Group is an audiovisual production and events company with diverse in house expertise. The in-house group for the new festival is referred to as Morgane: Bande Dessinée (or M:BD), led by co-directors Bagot and Parisot. Both have years of experience in the event and comics publishing space. Céline Bagot, who originally hails from Angoulême, is an events organiser with over a decade of experience in the field. Bagot is perhaps best known for up-and-coming feminist arts and culture event Pop Women Festival, which has been taking place annually since 2022. An industry insider, largely in the field of marketing, Marie Parisot has built a resume that is a who’s-who of major Franco-Belgian publishing houses and imprints.
The new festival has been given a very direct and simplified name over the mouthful that was the Angoulême festival international de la bande dessinee (or Angoulême FIBD). Note that in French the term ‘comic’ is ‘bande dessinée’, aka BD.
Angoulême Bande Dessinée has been set up to broadly continue the spirit of the original comics festival that has built international renown but with significant improvements that better represent the interests of authors, publishers, and attendees. Mentioned at the press conference were measures to combat sexism, sexual violence and harassment; accessibility considerations; and a genuine receptiveness to feedback. AI was explicitly banned, with penalties for exhibitors being mentioned.
Although the festival itself was announced today, the ADBDA and the Morgane Group had been hard at work putting the 2027 edition – and the groundwork for future editions – in place since they received the contract in April 2026. Much of the secrecy (or at least lack of publicity) up to now had been due to the ADBDA’s wish for caution while the lawsuit by Association FIBD and 9e Art+ was making its way through the court.
Some additional takeaways:
- Six exhibitions – exclusive to the festival weekend – were named, including the belated retrospective of 2025’s Grand Prix awardee author Anouk Ricard. The others include explorations of the collaborations and works by prolific French comics writer Xavier Dorison; a 20-year retrospective for artist Florence Dupré la Tour; the work of artist and animator Ugo Bienvenu; an introduction to the creative work of France-based, South Korean artist Yoon-Sun Park; and international feminist comics anthology Hairspray. Coinciding with these will be the currently running exhibitions at the town’s comics museum highlighting LGBT Comics and the Thorgal art of Grzegorz Rosiński set to close in March and May 2027.
- Prizes return, will feature bronze trophies and – newly introduced – prize money. There will be nine awards.
- Reflecting the strength of manga in the French comics market (still around 50% market share vs around 4% for Anglo-originated comics), the festival has a dedicated Tokyo office for international cooperation and exchange. There may also be some touring exhibitions.
- Rates for exhibitors have gone up. While there has been word of some grumbling by smaller publishers and authors, it has been broadly accepted as there has seemingly been more dialogue concerning the decision.
- Next press conference to take place in early December.
- Tickets are now on sale and the official website is now live.
