That seems to be what this says. That would be a drastic change for what is probably comics' biggest prize. There has been a bit of grumbling about the past-winners-in-a-room method the last couple of years. If I'm hearing anything, then there's potentially a great deal of grumbling. (Sarah Glidden had word last year of this open-letter criticism from Lewis Trondheim, so it's definitely out there.) I'm officially firing up the Bart Signal, but I think he may be on the road.
That's a hell of a list of candidates, too. I'm personally super-fond of Chris Ware and want him to win all of the awards. I love Lorenzo Mattotti's work like he's in my own family, and Marjane Satrapi would be the best one from the point of view of a reporter that covers comics, because she's a hilarious, awesome quote machine. Still, the comics geek in me says it's way past time they had a manga creator win that prize, and if you had asked me 10 years ago I would have bet festival-favorite Jiro Taniguchi would have won one by now.
Also, if they want people to talk about the Prize, this works.
Update: Okay, this is still big, but I guess what happens is that the attending authors narrow a list down to three or five and the past winners then select the winner. That's still a big change, in that I can't imagine the kind of momentum for key developmental figures that sometimes happens making it past that first stage.
thanks, Sarah Glidden