The Montreal Comic Arts Festival Unveils the Finalists of the 25th Bédélys Awards!
Montreal, March 27, 2024 – Comic arts enthusiasts have been eagerly awaiting this moment: the 35 finalist titles of the 25th Bédélys Awards have now been announced, marking an important step in the recognition of the art and talent of Québec’s comic book artists.
For a quarter of a century, the Bédélys Awards have celebrated excellence and innovation in the world of comics. This year is no exception, rewarding the best books published in Québec in 2023. The Awards will be presented as part of the opening night of the 13th Montreal Comic Arts Festival (MCAF), to be held on Saint-Denis Street from May 24 to May 26, 2024, in collaboration with SDC rue Saint-Denis.
The event will be hosted by journalist and host Marie-Louise Arsenault on Thursday, May 23 at La Tulipe.
This year, for the first time, the Bédélys Youth Québec Award and its $1,000 grant will be presented by Télé-Québec. A video featuring the winner will be produced by La Fabrique Culturelle, Télé-Québec’s digital platform dedicated entirely to Québec culture. Planète BD bookstore will present the Bédélys Québec Award and its $1,000 grant, as well as the Bédélys International Award. For the 25th Bédélys Awards, Copibec is pleased to support comic books published in Québec and will be offering additional grants of $500 to the winners of the Bédélys Québec and Bédélys Youth Québec Awards.
Finally, the Montreal Comic Arts Festival is pleased to offer $1,000 grants to the winners of the Bédélys Independent Francophone and Anglophone Awards, as well as a half-table at the next edition of the festival. In all, $5,000 will be awarded to the winners in 2024.
Thanks to Druide informatique, the winners of the Bédélys Québec, Bédélys Youth Québec, Bédélys Independent Francophone and Bédélys Independent Anglophone Awards will also receive a copy of Antidote+ Personal. Finally, for the 15th year, each award comes with a unique trophy created by artist Karl Dupéré-Richer.
The finalist titles were chosen by juries of readers, including librarians, booksellers and other professionals from the book industry. The only exception is the Bédélys Youth category, where the jury is composed of young readers and supervised by librarians from the Père-Ambroise and Marc-Favreau libraries.
The Montreal Comic Arts Festival and the members of the Prix Bédélys juries would like to congratulate the finalists on their high-quality work. Their creativity and passion help enrich the world of comics and inspire new generations of artists and readers.
MCAF’s Executive Director Mélanie La Roche is delighted with the growing number of submissions to the Independent Francophone and Anglophone Awards, demonstrating the importance of the Bédélys Awards in supporting emerging Québec creativity.
For more details on the works and artists selected, please consult the Bédélys media kit. Find out more about the Bédélys Awards and the festival on MCAF website.
Here are the finalists of the 24th Bédélys awards:
Bédélys Québec
Best comic book by a Québec artist published in Québec
- Are You Willing to Die for the Cause?, Chris Oliveros (Drawn & Quarterly)
- Botanica drama, Thom (Pow Pow)
- Les inconvénients de la félicité, François Donatien (Nouvelle adresse)
- Passages secrets, T.1, Axelle Lenoir (Pow Pow)
- Shérif Junior, T.1, Samuel Cantin (Pow Pow)
Bédélys Youth Québec
Best comic book for an audience aged 14 and under by a Québec artist published in Québec
- Gervais et Conrad, Iris Boudreau (Les 400 coups)
- J’aime pas ta robe, Danielle Chaperon, Samuel Cantin (Monsieur Ed)
- La soupe au lait, Émilie Leduc (Monsieur Ed)
- Le tiroir des bas tout seuls, Orbie (Les 400 coups)
- L’univers est un ninja, Le livre blanc, Alex A. (Presses aventure)
Bédélys Independent Francophone
Best self-published francophone comic book in Québec
- Astra, Annabelle Brazeau
- Cahier Dollorama, Richard Suicide
- RPG Maker Mag numéro 1, Saturnome
- Crépuscule, Catherine de Gongre
- Toutes les nuances de bruit, Sandra Breault
Bédélys Independent Anglophone
Best self-published anglophone comic book in Québec
- Augustine, Vol. 1, Winter Jay Kiakas, Tas Mukanik
- Barb: Bloodbath & Beyond, Jonathan Burrello
- Hell of a Night, Geneviève Bigué
- Softy, Sarah Gysin
- Spores, Joshua Barkman
Bédélys Youth
Best French-language comic book intended for young people aged 7 to 14
- Frizzy, Claribel A. Ortega, Rose Bousamra (Jungle)
- L’échappée belle, Faith Erin Hicks (Rue de Sèvres)
- L’été du vertige, Adlynn Fischer (La Ville Brûle)*
* this comic is intended for more mature readers - La malédiction de Mamo, Sas Milledge (Jungle)
- La cité des dragons : N° 1 – La tempête de l’éveil, Jaimal Yogis, Vivian Truong (Scholastic)
Bédélys International
Best French-language comic book published outside Québec
- Astra Nova, Lisa Blumen (L’employé du moi)
- Chumbo, Matthias Lehmann (Casterman)
- Creuser, voguer, Delphine Panique (Cornelius)
- Des maux à dire, Bea Lema (Sarbacane)
- Do A Power bomb, Daniel Warren Johnson, Mike Spicer (Urban comics)
- Dum Dum, Lukasz Wojciechowski (Éditions çà et là)
- Frontier, Guillaume Singelin (Rue de Sèvres)
- Ils brûlent, T.1, Aniss El Hamouri (6 pieds sous terre)
- Le ciel dans la tête, Antonio Altarriba, Sergio García Sánchez, Lola Moral (Denoël)
- Le visage de Pavil, Jeremy Perrodeau (2024)
See you on Thursday, May 23, 2024 for the unveiling of the winning works on our socials and website.
About MCAF
The Montreal Comic Arts Festival (MCAF) is Montreal’s sole bilingual event dedicated to promoting comics and the artists who create them. This not-to-be-missed comic art event drew over 82 000 people in 2023.
The 13th edition of MCAF will take place from May 24 to 26, 2024 on a pedestrianized Saint-Denis Street between Gilford and Roy. More than 300 comic artists from here and abroad are expected, and a diverse program of over 60 free activities will be offered.
Year-round, MCAF organizes activities that contribute to the development and dissemination of knowledge about the 9th art, for both professionals and comic arts enthusiasts. For more information, visit fbdm-mcaf.ca.
The Festival would like to thank its partners:
SDC Rue Saint-Denis, Télé-Québec, La Presse, Canadian Heritage, Canada Council for the Arts, SODEC, Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale, Ministère du Tourisme du Québec, Conseil des arts de Montréal, Service de la culture de la Ville de Montréal, Tourisme Montréal, Arrondissement Plateau–Mont-Royal, Planète BD bookstore, Copibec, Druide informatique, Crossover Comics and l’Euguélionne bookstore.
And finally, MCAF would like to thank the volunteer jury members, without whom the Bédélys Awards couldn’t happen and who read over 560 works in 2023.
-30-
MCAF contact:
Mélanie La Roche, Executive Director, melanie.laroche@fbdm-mcaf.ca
Press agency Rugicomm contacts:
Bénédicte Jutras, stephanie.culakowa@rugicomm.ca
