Who are the new winners of the Historia Prizes?

History, on stage, in novels, comics, or in cinema: the review History has been honoring all forms of History every year for the past 14 years. This Monday, November 18, 2024, 150 guests gathered at the group’s headquarters Les Échos-Le Parisien to award the various prizes.

« What matters to us History is to highlight all forms of writing in the discipline and to pay tribute to all the actors of living history», summarized Éric Pincas, editor-in-chief of the magazine, reports History.

Results of this 14th edition:

Winner of the History Book Prize

The jury rewarded Harald Jähner, for The Age of Wolves —Germany and the Germans (1945-1955)translated by Olivier Mannoni and published by Actes Sud.

Germany, 1945. The country is in ruins. Many cities are reduced to rubble, more than half of the population is displaced. There are nine million evacuated bombers, fourteen million refugees and expellees from the Eastern territories, ten million forced laborers and released prisoners, and several other million prisoners of war who are gradually returning home.
It’s “zero hour”. How did this mass of beings scattered to the four winds, deported, escaped or abandoned manage to regroup? How could a society emerge from this chaos?
– Extract from the editor’s summary of The Age of Wolves – Germany and the Germans (1945-1955)

Readers’ Prize-BNP Paribas

Caroline de Mulder receives this award for Himmler’s nurserypublished by Gallimard editions.

Heim Hochland, Bavaria, 1944. In the first Nazi maternity ward, rumors of the war barely arrive; everything is done to offer newborns of the SS order and their “pure blood” mothers a harmonious environment. Young Renée, a French woman abandoned by her family after falling in love with a German soldier, finds refuge there while awaiting an unwanted birth. Helga, a model nurse responsible for looking after pregnant women and infants, sees residents with sometimes tragic fates pass by and children evicted when they do not meet the required criteria: faced with this cruelty, her certainties sometimes waver.
As the Allies draw closer, the well-regulated organization of the Lebensborn homes goes haywire, and the shelter becomes a trap. What will become of them when American soldiers get to them? And what choice will they have left?
– Extract from the publisher of Himmler’s nursery

Live performance award

Florence Heuillard and Jean-Claude Baudoin, screenwriter and director ofAugustodunumwere awarded the prize ex aequo with Jade Herbulot and Julie Bertin, directors of Supplications.

Innovation Prize

« Back in Time» is today honored with the Innovation Prize. This Inria project aims to reconstruct fragmented ancient manuscripts using artificial intelligence. By combining cryptography, history and artificial intelligence, the project aims to unlock the secrets of documents coded for centuries.

Its ultimate goal is to develop a tool capable of automatically transcribing and deciphering these texts. This exploratory initiative also aims to establish an unprecedented collaboration between three disciplines that are usually distant but rich in complementarities.

Comic book prize

The race of the century — Saint-Louis, 1904 by Kid Toussaint and José Luis Munuera (Le Lombard) won the comic strip prize.

1904. The United States hosts the Olympic Games for the first time and is determined to prove its superiority. The marathon will take place in Saint-Louis, Missouri, and it will leave its mark… as the most incredible race in the history of this sport!

Thirty-two runners on the starting line, but only fourteen at the finish. Between experimental doping, cheating, randomly marked trails, anything can? and will — arrive.

Play your games, nothing is going well… but then really not at all!
– Editor’s Summary The race of the century – Saint-Louis, 1904

Last year the winner was The Minister and the Mona Lisaby Hervé Bourhis, Bourgeron and Tanquerelle (Casterman).

Historical Exhibition Prize

The exhibition “ Genghis Khan », presented at the Nantes History Museum, explores the complex legacy of Former Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. Through an immersive scenography and exceptional pieces from international collections, it highlights the figure of Genghis Khan, his empire and his influence on world history.

Praised for its scientific rigor and its evocative power, this exhibition was crowned with the Historical Exhibition Prize, and thus succeeds Barvalo: Roma, Sinti, Manouches, Gypsies, travelers…in Marseille, at the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations.

History on Screen Prize

The Area of Interestby Jonathan Glazer, wins the title of 2024 winner. The film explores the banality of evil through a story freely inspired by the eponymous novel by Martin Amis (trans. Bernard Turle, Le Livre de Poche). It focuses on the daily life of the Auschwitz commander and his family, living in a house adjacent to the concentration camp.

By adopting a detached point of view and stripped of any dramatic emphasis, Jonathan Glazer highlights the unspeakable horror of a system where normality rubs shoulders with the inhuman. Acclaimed for its minimalist staging and narrative depth, The Area of Interest questions the moral blindness and ordinariness of executioners, offering a reflection on the mechanisms of dehumanization.

Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, the film succeeds The Lost King de Stephen Frears (2023).

Grand Prix History

During this edition, a particular distinction marked the evening: the Grand Prix Historywith a reward, was awarded at the very end of the event. This is the project Back in Timefrom Inria, represented by Cécile Pierrot, Camille Desenclos and Thibault Clérice, who won this honor.

By distinguishing this innovative work, devoted to the decipherment and analysis of ancient manuscripts,Historycelebrates the remarkable alliance between artificial intelligence, cryptography and historical research.

The list of 2023 winners can be found by clicking here.