The organizing company of the Angoulême Comics Festival announced this Monday that it is canceling the 53rd edition of the contest, which should have opened on January 29, after the boycott by participating authors and publishers. The decision comes after weeks of controversy surrounding the company 9Art+, which has announced that the festival “will not be able to take place under appropriate conditions.”
More than 2,000 authors announced weeks ago that they would not participate in this edition in protest of mismanagement by the event organizers. They accuse the company 9Art+ of financial opacity and of having unfairly dismissed an employee who last year reported a rape by one of the festival’s collaborators. The publishers joined the authors’ boycott and a week ago the Government and local authorities announced that they were withdrawing public subsidies for the contest, which is 47% financed thanks to these revenues.
It is the first time that this festival, the most important comics festival held in Europe and the most prestigious in the world, has been suspended since it began to be held in 1974, except for the year of the pandemic. The decision seemed inevitable for weeks and the mayor of Angoulême himself, Xavier Bonnefont, admitted that it was “more than complicated” for it to take place.
The company 9Art+ has managed the contest since 2008 and its contract had been renewed for the next two editions. In a statement, which was revealed by the local media The free Charentethe company attributes responsibility for the cancellation to the public powers in charge of financing it “who have not stopped getting involved in the private management of the event.”
The contest had suffered other crises, but none so serious as to lead to its cancellation. Next year’s edition is also threatened, since its organization depends on the same company. The controversy could also end in litigation, since in the 9Art+ statement, signed by the company’s two lawyers, they recall that the management of the 2027 edition “belongs to it legally”, by contract, until “a solution that allows laying the foundations for a transition to a new management of the festival” can be negotiated. The mayor of Angoulême, Xavier Bonnefont, said last week that, “taking into account the situation”, it is difficult for an edition to be held in 2027 with the same people in charge.”
“Regardless of any legal framework, public actors have exercised their influence to prevent the renewal of the private contract that entrusts the company with the organization of the festival,” denounce the lawyers, Vincent Brenot and Ghislain Minaire. Last Tuesday, the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, announced a 60% cut (about 200,000 euros) in the subsidies that the State gives to the festival “due to the irregularities detected in terms of transparency.” In addition, the contest receives financial support from the region of New Aquitaine and the municipality of Angoulême.
Although the company blames the authorities for having caused this situation by withdrawing their funds, the authors participating in the festival have been denouncing the lack of transparency on the part of the aforementioned company for some time. The culmination was the dismissal last year of an employee who had filed a rape complaint. In a column published more than a week ago in the newspaper Humanity, 285 designers denounced “the degradation of working conditions” in the contest and criticized, after the dismissal of the aforementioned worker, that theirs “is not a unique case (…). There is a continuity in sexist and sexual violence in the profession,” the text noted.
Following the boycott by authors and publishers, the director of 9Art+, Franck Bondoux, presented his resignation, although he has always denied accusations of mismanagement. His departure has not served to prevent the contest from being cancelled. The decision is a blow to Angoulême, a municipality in the south of France known for the prestigious cartoon festival, which attracts 200,000 fans each year.