The 24th Bédélys Awards

The Montreal Comic Arts Festival (MCAF) has launched the 24th Bédélys Awards on March 23 with the announcement of the finalists in its six categories.

• Bédélys Québec
• Bédélys Youth Québec
• Bédélys Independent Francophone
• Bédélys Independent Anglophone
• Bédélys Youth
• Bédélys International

The winners of the 24th Bédélys Awards has been announced on Thursday May 25, 2023 as part of the 12th annual Montreal Comic Arts Festival.

Something new this year, the Bédélys Youth Québec category has been added to the awards and comes with a $1,000 grant. This year, a total of $4,000 will be awarded to the winners. The Bédélys Québec award and its $1,000 grant will be offered by Librairie Planète BD, in addition to the Bédélys International award.
A unique trophy created by artist Karl Dupéré-Richer will accompany each prize.

Find all the information on the different Bédélys categories.

Bédélys Quebec Award

Best comic book created and published in Quebec 

The winner is:
Utown, Cab (Nouvelle adresse)

The other finalists were:

• La méduse, Boum (Pow Pow)
• Les rescapés de l’éternité, Grégoire Bouchard (Moelle Graphik)
• Symptômes, Catherine Ocelot (Pow Pow)
• Time zone J, Julie Doucet (Drawn & Quarterly)

Bédélys Youth Québec Award

Best comic book for an audience aged 14 and under by a Québec artist published in Québec 

The winner is:
Si on était… tome 2, Axelle Lenoir (Front Froid)

The other finalists were:

• Le facteur de l’espace, tome 3 : La faim du monde, Guillaume Perreault (La Pastèque)
• Parfois les lacs brûlent, Geneviève Bigué (Front Froid)
• Pol Polaire, volume 2 : Le Mystérieux Docteur plastique, Caroline Soucy (Glénat Québec)
• Reine Babette, Rémy Simard (La Pastèque)

Bédélys Independent Francophone Award

Best self-published francophone comic book created in Quebec

The winner is:
Déphasé / Phase Shift, Jessi

The other finalists were:

• Hier, Myriam Bourgeois
• Le tour de l’île, Sara Pruneau Bélanger
• Métamorphose, Catherine de Gongre
• Montréal-Gaspé, Ariane Cloutier

Bédélys Independent Anglophone Award

Best self-published anglophone comic book created in Quebec

The winner is:
Lost Virtue #0, Art or Die

The other finalists were:

• Cave Grave, Shawn Kuruneru   
• Insomnia Funnies, James Collier
• It’ll be alright, Ariane Cloutier
• It’s a blur, Éric Péladeau

Bédélys Youth Award

Best French-language comic book for an audience of 7 to 14 years of age

The winner is:
L’espace d’un instant, Niki Smith (Rue de Sèvres)

The other finalists were:

• Allergique, Megan Wagner Lloyd , Michelle Mee Nutter (Scholastic)
• La cité des secrets, Victoria Ying (Bande d’ados)
• La fille venue de la mer, Molly Knox Ostertag (Scholastic)
• Les sorcières de Brooklyn, tome 1, Sophie Escabasse (Bande d’ados)

Bédélys International Award

Best comic book published in French-language outside of Québec

The winner is:
Peau, Mieke Versyp, Sabien Clement (Éditions çà et là)

The other finalists were:

• Fungirl, Elizabeth Pich (Les Requins Marteaux)
• Khat journal d’un réfugié, Ximo Abadía (La Joie de lire)
• La Couleur des choses, Martin Panchaud (Éditions çà et là) 
• La Jungle, Nicolas Presl (Atrabile)
• Le petit frère, Jean-Louis Tripp (Casterman)
• Le Poids des héros, David Sala (Casterman)
• Merel, Clara Lodewick (Dupuis)
• Petar & Liza, Miroslav Sekulic-Struja (Actes sud)
• Shadow life, Hiromi Goto, Ann Xu (Ankama)