Cannes As d’Or Games of the Year 2026
Everyone has a dream convention, right? By that, I mean the envie to travel to some other state or country to try an event we have read about. My dream is to go to Cannes, France for the Festival International des Jeux (International Games Festival). Traveling to the south of France in January or February sounds delicious, doesn’t it? The barrier to my trip is that by all accounts this is a very French-language forward festival, and my French is basic, at best. But I feel like if I committed to the trip, it would motivate me to practice!
Another reason I want to attend is that the Cannes festival is devoted to the kinds of games I love. Yes, I love my dry dusty euros named after cities, but I also love small box games with popping good artwork that have some interaction, and the French design ethos seems to encapsulate all three of those things in almost every release. Each year, the committee there awards the As d’Or (Golden Ace) – Game of the Year award, and the award ceremony itself looks as special as any award. It’s Cannes, of course, and they take entertainment seriously there!
This year, for the 39th year in a row, I was not able to attend the Festival. But, I did follow along with the awards, and there are some intriguing winners and recognized games.
The nominees for the main award, the As d’Or, were Toy Battle, Rebirth, and Flip 7. I have played Toy Battle (on BGA, only) and Flip 7 (dozens of times, including the new “with vengeance” release), but I have not even seen Rebirth in the wild yet. (I missed BGG Con 2025, where I would have probably tried it.) The committee recognized Toy Battle as Game of The Year, and of those nominations, I can see why. The artwork is gorgeous and fun, the gameplay is quick, and it’s an intense two player battle game that has a very silly theme.
The committee also awarded an As d’Or for Intermediate Game of the Year. I love this category. This is the Ticket To Ride plus category that we always talk about with friends. Cannes recognized three games here, too, namely First Rat, Take Time, and Zenith, with Zenith taking the award. I’ve played all three games, and if I had my pick, it would have been First Rat for sure. I adore that game. It’s quick and easy to teach — I’ve taught it to a bunch of non-hobby gamers with no problems — and has a great theme. Who wouldn’t love to play a game about Rats Building Rocket Ships to the Cheese Moon? The other thing about First Rat that surprises people on first play is how quickly it plays. It really is the classic One Hour Wonder.
I do not recognize any of the nominees for the children’s game of the year. (Again, skipping my annual trek to Dallas for BGG Con hurt me in that regard, because I am usually able to find and play the top kid’s games.) So I will just move over to the last category.
Finally, Cannes recognized three games in the Expert category for Game of the Year. I’ve only played two of them so far, which is completely my fault. The three games that were nominated were Arcs, Civolution, and Ants. (Civolution took the prize). I have yet to play Ants, even though my friend Jeremy (of Jeremy’s Gaming Gratons fame) has a copy and has offered to teach it to me many times. Plus, Rats of Wistar (a game from Cranio which appears to be in the same universe, has similar mechanics, and definitely shares the same cartoony motif) was one of my favorite games the year it came out, so I really have no excuse.
But I have played the other two games, and between the two, Civolution is definitely my favorite. I only have one memorable play, that being an early morning session with Rob from the Board Boys and Verla, the Board Game Ambassador in Dallas, but I really dug it. Rob calls it The Castles of Burgundy 2.0, and I think he’s right. Yes, there is a lot more going on than in tCoB, but in a good way. That being said, I’ll reserve my judgment until I actually play Ants. Time to hit up Jeremy and see if we can get that done on our next Euro Monday.
So, that’s the nominees and award winners for this very interesting Cannes award. I love how the committee has straight forward categories, and each game seems to fit in each category pretty well. Someday I will make it to the beaches of the south of France during Mardi Gras season….someday.
Until next time, laissez les bon temps rouler!
— BJ from Board Game Gumbo
** Illustrations of the award are from https://www.festivaldesjeux-cannes.com/en/festival-as-d-or-jeu-de-l-annee).