Every year, the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême is awarded during the Angoulême International Comics Festival

Angoulême International Comics Festival

The Angoulême International Comics Festival is the largest comics festival in Europe. It has occurred every year since 1974 in Angoulême, France, in the month of January.The four-day festival is notable for awarding several prestigious prizes in cartooning...

 to an author for his body of work and/or for his achievement in the evolution of comics.

This author must be alive at the time the award is given, but must not necessarily be a Francophone

Francophone

The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....

 creator. This prize is juried

Juried (competition)

A juried competition is a competition in which participants' work is judged by a person or panel of persons convened specifically to judge the participants' efforts, either by the competition's stated rubric or by a subjective set of criteria dependent upon the nature of the competition or the...

 exclusively by past winners. Usually, when someone is awarded this Grand Prix, he or she becomes the president of the jury for the festival the next year. Some years, special prizes are awarded too, often on symbolic anniversaries of the festival.

1970s

• 1974 André Franquin
  André Franquin
  André Franquin was an influential Belgian comics artist, whose best known comic strip creations are Gaston and Marsupilami, created while he worked on the Spirou et Fantasio comic strip from 1947 to 1969, during a period seen by many as the series' golden age.-Franquin's beginnings:Franquin was...
  
  
• 1975 Will Eisner
  Will Eisner
  William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...
  
  
• 1976 Pellos (René Pellarin)
• 1977 Jijé
  Jijé
  Jijé was a Belgian comics artist, best known for being a seminal artist on the Spirou et Fantasio strip and the creator of one of the first major European western strips, Jerry Spring.-Biography:Born Joseph Gillain in Gedinne, Namur, he completed various art studies Jijé (13 January 1914 – 20...
  
   (Joseph Gillain)
• 1978 Jean-Marc Reiser
  Jean-Marc Reiser
  Jean-Marc Reiser, April 13, 1941 in Réhon was a French comics creator. He died November 5, 1983 in Paris, of bone cancer.-Biography:...
  
  
• 1979 Marijac
  Marijac
  Jacques Dumas , better known as Marijac, was a French comics writer, artist and editor.-Biography:Jacques Dumas was born in Paris in 1908. He started his career as a comics artist in te 1930s and used the pen name Marijac. His best known character in this period was the cowboy Jim Boum, which...
  
   (Jacques Dumas)

1980s

• 1980 Fred
  Fred (comics)
  Fredéric Othon Theodore Aristidès, known by his pseudonym Fred, is a French comics artist and comic book creator in the Franco-Belgian comics tradition...
  
   (Othon Aristides)
• 1981 Moebius / Jean Giraud
  Jean Giraud
  Jean Henri Gaston Giraud is a French comics artist. Giraud has earned worldwide fame, not only under his own name but also under the pseudonym Moebius, and to a lesser extent Gir, the latter appearing mostly in the form of a boxed signature at the bottom of the artist's paintings, for instance the...
  
  
• 1982 Paul Gillon
  Paul Gillon
  Paul Gillon was a French comics artist. He won the 1982 Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême.Born in Paris, he considered fashion, theater and cinema, and only by accident made a career as a comics author. In the magazine Vaillant, he continued the older series Lynx Blanc, and created Fils de Chine...
  
  
• 1983 Jean-Claude Forest
  Jean-Claude Forest
  Jean-Claude Forest was a writer and illustrator of comics and the creator of character Barbarella.-Biography:...
  
  
  • 10th anniversary Claire Bretécher
    Claire Bretécher
    Claire Bretécher is a French cartoonist, known particularly for her portrayals of women and gender issues. Her creations include the Frustrés, and the unimpressed teenager Agrippine.-Biography:...
    
    
• 1984 Jean-Claude Mézières
  Jean-Claude Mézières
  Jean-Claude Mézières is a French comic strip artist and illustrator. Born and raised in Paris, he was introduced to drawing by his older brother and influenced by comics artists such as Hergé, Andre Franquin and Morris and later by Jijé and Jack Davis...
  
  
• 1985 Jacques Tardi
  Jacques Tardi
  Jacques Tardi is a French comics artist, born 30 August 1946 in Valence, Drôme. He is often credited solely as Tardi.-Biography:After graduating from the École nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris, he started writing comics in 1969, at the...
  
  
• 1986 Jacques Lob
  Jacques Lob
  Jacques Lob was a French comic book creator, known for several Franco-Belgian comics creations, but most famously Superdupont.-Biography:...
  
  
• 1987 Enki Bilal
  Enki Bilal
  Enes Bilal is a French comic book creator, comics artist and film director.-Biography:Born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, to a Slovak mother and a Bosnian father who had been Josip Broz Tito's tailor, he moved to Paris at the age of 9. At age 14, he met René Goscinny and with his encouragement applied...
  
  
• 1988 Philippe Druillet
  Philippe Druillet
  Philippe Druillet is a French comics artist and creator, and an innovator in visual design.-Biography:Druillet was born in Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, France but spent his youth in Spain, returning to France in 1952 after the death of his father...
  
  
  • 15th anniversary Hugo Pratt
    Hugo Pratt
    Hugo Eugenio Pratt was an Italian comic book creator who was known for combining strong storytelling with extensive historical research on works such as Corto Maltese...
    
    
• 1989 René Pétillon
  René Pétillon
  René Pétillon is a French satirical and political cartoonist.Pétillon joined Pilote in 1972.Since 1993, he has published cartoons in the Canard Enchaîné and he signs them as Pétillon....
  
  

1990s

• 1990 Max Cabanes
• 1991 Gotlib (Marcel Gotlieb)
• 1992 Frank Margerin
  Frank Margerin
  Frank Margerin is a French author and illustrator of comics.- Biography :After high school, Frank Margerin went to a school of applied art, where he mets Denis Sire. He joined Denis's band, Los Crados, as a drummer...
  
  
  • 20th anniversary Morris
    Morris (comics)
    Maurice De Bevere , better known as Morris, was a Belgian cartoonist and the creator of Lucky Luke. His pen name is an alternate spelling of his first name.-Biography:...
    
     (Maurice de Bevere)
• 1993 Gérard Lauzier
  Gérard Lauzier
  Gérard Lauzier was a French comics author and movie director, best known as one of the leading authors in the more adult-oriented French comics scene of the 1970s and 1980s.-Biography:...
  
  
• 1994 Nikita Mandryka
  Nikita Mandryka
  Nikita Mandryka is a French cartoonist of Russian origin.He started drawing in the Pilote magazine, then created L'Écho des savanes along with Claire Bretécher and Marcel Gotlib in 1973...
  
  
• 1995 Philippe Vuillemin
• 1996 André Juillard
  André Juillard
  André Juillard is a French comic book creator.-Biography:Born in Paris, Juillard is one of the most prolific artists of historical comics in France. His career began in 1974...
  
  
• 1997 Daniel Goossens
  Daniel Goossens
  Daniel Goossens is a French cartoonist born in Salon-de-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône on May 16, 1954.-Biography:Goossens began his career in the magazine Pionniers. After a short spell at Pilote, he began contributing to the monthly magazine Fluide Glacial in 1977, and became one of its authors...
  
  
• 1998 François Boucq
  François Boucq
  François Boucq , is a French comic book artist. He is most famous for his surreal comics revolving around the main character Jérôme Moucherot.-Biography:...
  
  
• 1999 Robert Crumb
  Robert Crumb
  Robert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
  
  
  • Special prize of the millennium Albert Uderzo
    Albert Uderzo
    Albert Uderzo is a French comic book artist, and scriptwriter. He is best known for his work on the Astérix series, but also drew other comics such as Oumpah-pah, also in collaboration with René Goscinny.-Early life:...
    
    

2000s

• 2000 Florence Cestac
• 2001 Martin Veyron
• 2002 François Schuiten
  François Schuiten
  Baron François Schuiten is a Belgian comic book artist. He is best known for drawing the series Les Cités Obscures.-Biography:François Schuiten was born in Brussels, Belgium in 1956....
  
  
• 2003 Régis Loisel
  Régis Loisel
  Régis Loisel is a French comics writer and artist, best known for the long running series La Quête de l'oiseau du temps, written by Serge Le Tendre.He worked with Walt Disney Studios on the animated films Atlantis and Mulan....
  
  
• 2004 Zep
  Zep
  Zep is the pseudonym of Philippe Chappuis, a comics creator from Switzerland, known for his series Titeuf, a popular character in French-speaking countries, and Tchô!, the associated comics magazine.-Biography:...
  
   (Philippe Chappuis)
  • 30th anniversary Joann Sfar
    Joann Sfar
    Joann Sfar is a French comics artist, comic book creator and film director.-Life and career:Sfar was born in Nice. He is considered one of the most important artists of the new wave of Franco-Belgian comics. Many of his comics were published by L'Association which was founded in 1990 by...
    
    
• 2005 Georges Wolinski
  Georges Wolinski
  Georges Wolinski is a French cartoonist and comics writer.-Biography:After discontinuing his architecture studies in Paris, Georges Wolinski began cartooning in 1960, contributing political and erotic cartoons and comic strips to the satirical monthly Hara-Kiri.During the student revolts of May...
  
  
• 2006 Lewis Trondheim
  Lewis Trondheim
  Lewis Trondheim , born 11 December 1964, is an extremely prolific French cartoonist and one of the founders of the independent publisher L'Association. Both his silent comic La Mouche and Kaput and Zösky have been made into animated cartoons...
  
  
• 2007 José Antonio Muñoz
  José Antonio Muñoz
  José Antonio Muñoz or simply Muñoz is an Argentine artist. He is most notable for his influential black-and-white artwork...
  
  
• 2008 Dupuy and Berberian
  Dupuy and Berberian
  Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian are French cartoonists most famous for their series of Franco-Belgian comics albums featuring the character Monsieur Jean....
  
  
• 2009 Blutch