With the end of the school year, it’s time for the awards ceremony. The French Academy does not escape this tradition, awarding each year before summer the 67 distinctions listed on its roll of honor. More or less known, the winners are rewarded for their work in favor of the French language, literature, poetry and history.
Each prize having its specificity, it is a bit of a Prévert-style repertoire which is presented through the citations. And it is the Francophonie and the influence of French which are honored with eight prizes awarded to foreigners, starting with the Grand Prix de la francophonie to the Moroccan writer and academic Abdelfattah Kilito and the Grand Medal of Francophonie to the American university professor Edwin M. Duval. An international opening which is one of the priorities of the new permanent secretary of the Academy elected in September 2023, the Franco-Lebanese writer, Amin Maalouf.
News bonus
It is once again the Canadian Hélène Dorion who is distinguished. First living author registered in the 2024 French baccalaureate program with her collection My Forests (Éditions Bruno Doucey), she received the Grand Prize for poetry, for all of her work. The Swiss Ruedi Imbach, who writes in both French and German, is awarded the Grand Prix for philosophy, while Salvatore Adamo – who has dual Italian and Belgian nationality – receives the Grand Medal for French song.
Along the impressive list, certain distinctions come into focus. This is the case of the prize awarded to General François Lecointre for his book Between wars (Gallimard, 2024), demanding reflection on international security issues addressed by the man who was chief of staff of the armed forces (2017-2021). It is again the news treated with humor this time, which is underlined by the academicians by distinguishing Plantu for his album Bad times for the planet (Calmann Lévy, 2022). Media news also with the “prize for the influence of French language and literature” awarded to Emmanuel Kerad, journalist and producer of the show “ The French-speaking bookstore » which the management of France Inter recently decided to suspend.
A chronicler of “ The cross ” reward
Literature is in the spotlight, with several prizes, such as that of biography awarded to Claude Burgelin for his Georges Perec (Gallimard, 2023) who had already won the Goncourt of biography. The theater prize is awarded to Florian Zeller for his dramatic work, and the René Clair cinema prize goes to Pascal Bonitzer. The Paul Verlaine poetry prize is awarded to Emmanuel Godo – who is a columnist at The cross – for its collection The Lost of Christmas (Gallimard, 2024).
The biography of Paul of Tarsus. The enfant terrible of Christianity (Seuil, 2023) won a prize for the Swiss biblical scholar and Protestant Daniel Marguerat, while the Dominican Jean-Miguel Garrigues received the Cardinal Lustiger Prize for all of his work.
Young authors are encouraged, like Violaine Huisman for her family novel The Monuments of Paris (Gallimard, 2024). Books that make room for nature are noted, as in the novel by Clara Arnaud And you will pass like wild winds (Actes Sud, 2024) or the story of Laurent Tillon The ghosts of the night. Of bats and men (Actes Sud, 2023). Who knows if, at night, bats don’t come to live under the dome…
