Comics: Riad Sattouf wins the Grand Prix of the Angoulême Festival
Franco-Syrian author Riad Sattouf won the Grand Prix de la Ville d’Angoulême at the international comics festival, the 50th edition of which has just started. The creator of “The Arab of the Future”, designated by his colleagues, will therefore be honored with a major retrospective next year for the next edition.
He needed this award only to be definitively consecrated as a pillar of world comics. By winning the Grand Prix de la ville d’Angoulême this Wednesday, which marks the opening of the 50th edition of the International Comics Festival, Parisian Riad Sattouf sees his work being praised by his peers and takes charge Successor to the Canadian Julie Doucet, who, in keeping with tradition, presented him with the award herself.
The grand prize #FIBD2023 will be given to… @RiadSattouf !
He was born in 1978 and is a comic writer and director. His childhood took place between Libya, Syria and Brittany. He studied applied arts in Nantes, then animated film in Paris at the Ecole des Gobelins. pic.twitter.com/18w1LP23rU
— Feast of Angoulême (@bdangouleme) January 25, 2023
The Grand Prix, the highest award in the world of the 9th art, will allow him to be honored with a major retrospective during the next edition of the festival.
“That’s very impressive,” said the 44-year-old author after a standing ovation. He paid tribute to his maternal grandmother, who first believed in his talent. “I wanted to make a comic and imagine that she would like to read it, she who didn’t like it,” explained the cartoonist of Future Arab. This autobiographical series in 6 volumes, the last of which was published at the end of November, has brought him worldwide fame with more than 3 million copies sold and a translation into more than 20 languages.
Successfully from the box to the screen
He is also the author of another very successful series, “Les Cahiers d’Esther”, a funny and tender chronicle of a teenager, each volume of which tells the anecdotes of a year of life.
After his original job, he found instant success in cinema, directing the films Les Beaux Gosses (2009) and Jacky in the Kingdom of the Girls (2014), always with his favorite actor and friend Vincent Lacoste.
With the presentation of this award, the festival officially opens and lasts until January 29th.
