Angoulême International Comics Festival

Angoulême International Comics Festival Festival international de la bande dessinée d'Angoulême
Pictures from 43rd Angoulême festival in 2016
Status	active
Genre	Comics
Date(s)	late January
Frequency	annual
Location(s)	Angoulême
Country	France
Years active	1974–present
Inaugurated	1974
Founder	Francis Groux, Jean Mardikian, Claude Moliterni
Attendance	around 200,000 on average and more than 220,000 in 2012
Leader	Franck Bondoux
Organized by	9eART+ Société Organisatrice du Festival
Website
BD Angouleme.com

Coordinates: 45°36′N 0°10′E / 45.6°N 0.16°E / 45.6; 0.16

The Angoulême International Comics Festival (French: Festival international de la bande dessinée d'Angoulême) is the second largest comics festival in Europe after the Lucca Comics & Games in Italy, and the third biggest in the world after Lucca Comics & Games and the Comiket of Japan. It has occurred every year since 1974 in Angoulême, France, in the month of January.

The Angoulême International Comics Festival was founded by French cultural ministers Francis Groux and Jean Mardikian, and comics scholar Claude Moliterni. Moliterni served as co-organizer of the festival through 2005.

More than 200,000 visitors come each year to the fair, including between 6,000 and 7,000 professionals and 800 journalists.

The attendance is generally difficult to estimate because the festival takes place all over the town, and is divided in many different areas that are not connected to each other directly.

The four-day festival is notable for awarding several prestigious prizes in cartooning. The awards at Angoulême were originally called the Alfred awards, after the pet auk from Zig et Puce by Alain Saint-Ogan. In 1989, the name changed to the Alph-art awards, honoring the final, unfinished Tintin album by Hergé. In 2003, the Alph-art name was dropped, and they are now simply called "The Official Awards of the International Comics Festival" (le Palmarès Officiel du Festival international de la bande dessinée). The prizes were reorganized in 2007 to create a pool of 40-60 albums, called "official selections," from which are awarded the "Best Album" prize, five "Angoulême Essentials," one "Revelation Essential" (given to rookie creators), and one Essential chosen by the public. The Heritage Essential (for reprinted material) and Youth Essential are selected from separate nominee pools.