FIBDA attracts some 10,000 visitors and can count on an impressive list of more than 100 guests from Algeria, the Cameroon, the Congo, Benin, Egypt, Taiwan, Cuba, Argentina, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Brazil, the United States and Belgium. The majority of the guests are graphic novelists, but others are journalists, festival organisers and other professionals. This year, the guests of honour were the graphic novelists José Muñoz, from Argentina, and Benoît Peeters and François Schuiten from Belgium. Flemish comic artist Jeroen Janssen was selected for the festival's prizes for his French translation of 'Bakamé' (storyboard by Pieter van Oudheusden), which he signed at the festival for a multicultural public.
The Flemish delegation took part in a round table discussion on museums and on the theme 'Comic festivals and promotion: mission or business?' together with Francis Groux, who is one of the founders of the international comic festival in Angoulême, France, Dalila Nadjem, director of the FIBDA and Etienne Schréder, a Brussels graphic novelist who was a guest in Algiers for the fourth time and held a workshop with Algerian graphic novelists.
Visitors were extremely interested in the FLF's foreign rights policy, which is aimed at promoting Flemish literature throughout the world. That aim is achieved through projects and exhibitions, but always integrated into a strategy with a clear economic slant. After all, there is no point in getting readers interested in Flemish authors and titles if they are not then available in their own language. On of the most striking examples is the successful comic exhibition 'Ceci n'est pas la BD flamande', which premiered when Flanders was the guest country at the Angoulême Comic Festival in 2009. The exhibition was supported by a sales stand, which has since become a landmark for many festival visitors. Since 2009, almost 30 Flemish graphic novels have been published in translation with aid from the FLF.
In January 2012, an exhibition will be held at the Angoulême festival telling the history of Algerian comics. The novel 'Monstres', the result of a FIDBA workshop, the many exhibitions and the festival prizes bear witness to the abundance of new talent in Algeria. The FIBDA can also count on considerable financial and moral support from the minister of culture, who visited the festival and invited the international guests to a dinner at her residence.
For further information, please visit the website of the festival.
