For the sixth time, homeland security professionals will give the Vidocq Prize for the best French police series. Like the Quai des Orfèvres Prize in literature, the Vidocq Prize salutes the quality and credibility – without taboos or jargon – of the winning series. To compete, the french-speaking series selected must be from the first seasons and have been broadcast between April 2023 and February 2024. After viewing the first two episodes of each of the selected series, the jury will award its trophy, representing Vidocq’s emblematic cane, on Monday March 18 at the Tri Postal.
The jury will be chaired by Maryvonne CAILLIBOTTE, Republic Prosecutor of Versailles. She will be joined by M. Bertrand GAUME, Prefect of North and of the Hauts-de-France Region, M. Louis-Xavier THIRODE, Prefect Delegate for Defense and Security of the Hauts-de-France region, M. Hilaire MULTON, Regional Director of Cultural Affairs, Hauts-de-France Region, Mme Alice GASTELLU- ETCHEGORRY, assistant to the head of the Nord interdepartmental judicial police department, M. Guillaume QUENET, Sub-Prefect of Valenciennes, M. Thomas JULE, divisional commissioner, zonal director of the north republican security companies, M. Olivier DUPAS, Chief Superintendent of Judicial Police and Deputy Zonal Director, Bertrand MICHEL, Head of investigators of the Hauts-de-France Gendarmerie, M. Christian LANVIN, reader at La Voix du Nord.
A thug with multiple recidivists, convicts and fugitives, Eugène-François VIDOCQ achieved the feat of becoming the head of the security brigade of the Paris police headquarters at the beginning of the 19th century. He was played on French television in 1967 by Bernard Noël in the Vidocq series by Marcel Bluwal and Georges Neveux, which was followed by Nouvelles Aventures de Vidocq, with Claude Brasseur from 1971 to 1973. He was also the hero of several long-feature films, books and comics.