This Friday, May 29, 2026, the 2026 Book Festival launched its 30th edition under the theme of transmission. Franz-Olivier Giesbert (artistic director of the festival), Antoine Compagnon (honorary president of the festival), Éric Ciotti (mayor of Nice) and Charles Ange Ginésy (President of the Alpes-Maritimes department) spoke at this opening which marked the beginning of three days of meetings and discussions around books and their actors.
The opening ceremony of the 2026 Book Festival
The opening began with Franz-Olivier Giesbert, who praised the independence of the Nice Baie des Anges Prize, “the least rigged in France” according to him, because the final say belongs to the people of Nice. He then introduced the president of the festival, Antoine Compagnon, as a great “conveyor” of literature.
The professor at the Collège de France delivered a plea for reading, which he considers threatened by immediacy: “we live in an era where reading long sentences has become too long for new generations.” He also paid tribute to Henri Matisse, noting that Nice and its light were the driving force behind his work: “it is the South that gave him these lights. And color is light.”
Charles-Ange Ginésy, for his part, issued a severe assessment of digital culture among young people. Pointing to “abbreviated words,” the president of the Alpes-Maritimes department contrasted the brevity of social networks with the intoxication of education structured by books, even if it means reducing young people’s relationship with reading to a simple matter of format. He explains: “I’m not opposing screens to reading […] but still our youth educates itself with iPhones, mobile phones, with SMS, with WhatsApp, with Instagram, with Facebook.”
For his part, Éric Ciotti reminded that Nice would lose its essence without its cultural history. In the presence of the Ambassador of Ukraine, guest of honor, the mayor reaffirmed that transmission is a vital democratic value. To support this ambition, he mentioned several large-scale projects, notably his desire to provide the city with a new grand theater and to complete the reopening of the MAMAC.
The ceremony concluded with the presentation of awards. Alexia Stresi, winner of the Baie des Anges Prize, said she was honored to carry this “quality popular literature” through a novel dedicated to memory and reconciliation. Finally, author Elle S. Green, winner of the Nice Students’ Book Prize, closed the proceedings with emotion, thanking the teachers who bring her texts to life in class for her first visit to Nice.
Ask for the program of this 30th edition
More than 200 authors are expected, including Delphine de Vigan, Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, Virginie Grimaldi, Pierre Assouline and Christophe Ono-dit-Biot. The festival will feature several highlights: the screening meeting with François Schuiten on Saturday, May 30 at 2:30 p.m., the theatrical and musical reading “Se faire virer” at the Francis-Gag Theater on Saturday at 6 p.m., as well as literary award ceremonies including the “youth short story” and “short story or senior story” competitions starting at 10 a.m. this Saturday. The festival will thus give a large place to young people, with competitions, workshops, school meetings and the “Nice Students’ Book” prize. Installed in the Albert-1st Garden, this event offers two more days of discussion, discovery and celebration of books for all audiences.
In short, this 30th edition places transmission at the heart of Nice’s identity. Between pleas for reading in the face of the digital challenge and tribute to the city’s cultural heritage, the ceremony reaffirmed the essential role of books. The prizes presented to Alexia Stresi and Elle S. Green close this opening by celebrating quality literature accessible to all generations.
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