2026 edition of the Angoulême Comics Festival officially cancelled

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00:00For the past months, uncertainty had loomed over whether Angoulême's International Comics

00:05Festival would go ahead next year, and Monday's announcement has burst the last bubble of

00:11hope.

00:12Authors, including last year's winner, had planned a mass boycott over concerns about

00:16the festival's governance.

00:18French newspaper L'Humanitire published a report accusing the director of the company

00:22in charge of the event, Novium R Plus, of mismanagement.

00:27It added that an employee was dismissed shortly after reporting being raped at the festival

00:31two years ago.

00:33The reports left many pushing for new organisers, and publishers pulled their support last week.

00:39Added to that, local authorities, which fund half of the festival's budget, called for

00:44next year's edition to be cancelled.

00:46There can be no festival without authors, and no festival without publishers.

00:53It's the authors, together with their publishing houses, who make this festival what it is.

01:00Without them and without festival-goers, there is simply no festival, and without a festival,

01:05there's no public funding.

01:07Therefore we are asking the Comics Festival Association and the organisers to draw the conclusions

01:13that this reality imposes.

01:19Organisers have put the blame on those withdrawing the funds, and for authors and fans, it's

01:24a bombshell decision.

01:26The festival's been held since 1974, and brings together 200,000 people, including cartoonists

01:32and writers from across the world, some of whom leave with one of Ogulem's prestigious prizes.

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