The Prix Goncourt is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward of only 10 euros, but results in considerable recognition and book sales for the winning author. Four other prizes are also awarded: prix Goncourt du Premier Roman, prix Goncourt de la Nouvelle, prix Goncourt de la Poésie (poetry) and prix Goncourt de la Biographie (biography). Of the "big six" French literary awards, the Prix Goncourt is the best known and most prestigious. The other major literary prizes include the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française, the Prix Femina, the Prix Renaudot, the Prix Interallié and the Prix Médicis.
François Charles Mauriac was a French novelist, dramatist, critic, poet, and journalist, a member of the Académie française, and laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1952). He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur in 1958.
Joseph Kessel, also known as "Jef", was a French journalist and novelist. He was a member of the Académie française and Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour.
Jean Raspail was a French explorer, novelist, and travel writer. Many of his books are about historical figures, exploration and indigenous peoples. He was a recipient of the prestigious French literary awards Grand Prix du Roman and Grand Prix de littérature by the Académie française. The French government honoured him in 2003 by appointing him to the Legion of Honor, with the grade of Officer. Internationally, he is best known for his controversial 1973 novel The Camp of the Saints, which is about mass third-world immigration to Europe.
Jacques Perrin was a French actor and film producer. He was occasionally credited as Jacques Simonet.
Bruno Jean Marie Cremer was a French actor best known for portraying Jules Maigret on French television, from 1991 to 2005.
Florence Delay is a French writer. She has been a member of the Académie française since 2000. She has notably written novels, essays and plays and has translated texts from Spanish.
Raymond Gérard Payelle, better known by his pseudonym Philippe Hériat, was a French novelist, playwright and actor. His most famous novels included Les Enfantes gâtés, awarded the Prix Goncourt in 1939, and La Famille Boussardel, which won the Académie Goncourt in 1949.
Michel Déon was a French novelist and literary columnist. He published over 50 works and was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Prix Interallié for his 1970 novel, Les Poneys sauvages. Déon's 1973 novel Un taxi mauve received the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française. His novels have been translated into numerous languages.
Philippe Beaussant was a French musicologist and novelist, an expert on French baroque music, on which he has published widely. He was the founder of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, of which he was the artistic adviser from 1987 to 1996. He has also been a producer of musical programs for Radio France since 1974. His biography of Jean-Baptiste Lully, Lully ou le musicien du soleil, was the basis of the film Le Roi Danse (2000).
Pierre Schoendoerffer ; 5 May 1928 – 14 March 2012) was a French film director, a screenwriter, a writer, a war reporter, a war cameraman, a renowned First Indochina War veteran, a cinema academician. He was president of the Académie des Beaux-Arts for 2001 and for 2007.
Le Crabe-tambour (Drummer-Crab) is a 1977 French film directed by Pierre Schoendoerffer, based on the novel The Paths of the Sea he published in 1976, which is inspired by the adventures of Commander Pierre Guillaume (1925-2002). It was translated into English by the maritime novelist Patrick O'Brian as The Paths of the Sea (1977). The film stars Jean Rochefort, Jacques Perrin and Claude Rich. Highly criticially acclaimed, it won three César Awards: Best Actor – Leading Role, Best Actor – Supporting Role and Best Cinematography and was nominated for three others.
Georges de Beauregard was a French film producer who produced works by many of the French New Wave directors. In 1968, he was a member of the jury at the 18th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1983 he was awarded a Special César Award, the French national film prize.
Le Grand Prix du Roman is a French literary award, created in 1914, and given each year by the Académie française. Along with the Prix Goncourt, the award is one of the oldest and most prestigious literary awards in France. The Académie française gives out over 60 literary awards each year, and the Grand Prix du roman is the most senior for an individual novel.
Boualem Sansal is an Algerian author. In 2012, he was named winner of the Prix du roman arabe, but the prize money was withdrawn due to Sansal's visit to Israel to speak at the Jerusalem Writers Festival.
Moi, Antoine de Tounens, roi de Patagonie is a 1981 novel by the French writer Jean Raspail. It tells the story of the French adventurer Orélie-Antoine de Tounens, who in 1860 declared the independence of the Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia, located in South America, where he held the title of king for the next 18 years. The sovereignty of the country was not respected by Chile and Argentina, whose authorities regarded Tounens as insane. The title of the book means "I, Antoine de Tounens, King of Patagonia".
Monique LaRue is a Quebec writer.
Kléber Haedens, was a French novelist and journalist. He was a monarchist and a member of the Action Française in the 1930s. During World War II he worked as a secretary for Charles Maurras. He was a friend of Antoine Blondin, Michel Déon and Roger Nimier, and closely linked to the Hussards movement in post-war France. He received the Prix Interallié in 1966 for L'été finit sous les tilleuls and the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française in 1974 for Adios.
François-Olivier Rousseau is a French journalist and writer.
Yvonne Pagniez was a French journalist and award-winning writer, and a member of the French Resistance during the Second World War.
