Return on the Montreal Comic Arts Festival 2025: a 14th edition rich in exchanges and talent
Sunday, the Montreal Comic Arts Festival (MCAF) closed its 14th edition, presented in collaboration with SDC Rue Saint-Denis and Télé-Québec, on a very enthusiastic note. Despite cold, rainy weather, 90,000 people flocked to Saint-Denis Street. From May 23 to 25, over 330 artists and 175 exhibitors from Quebec, Canada and abroad participated in this great celebration of comic arts.
“It’s really touching to see all the people who came to MCAF. Even on Saturday, despite the intermittent rain, the street was packed and good spirits prevailed among the exhibitors and artists. We know that the comic arts community and publishers are eagerly awaiting our Festival, and this year we felt the public’s reciprocal enthusiasm,” says Mélanie La Roche, Executive Director of MCAF. She adds:
Authors generally work alone, often putting in hundreds of hours. It’s important for MCAF to give them this time to shine, and to meet their audiences and peers. – Mélanie La Roche, Executive Director of MCAF
Celebrating Swiss Comics
Thanks to a partnership with Comics Network Switzerland, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Presence Switzerland, and the Swiss Consulate General in Montreal, a large Swiss delegation took part in the Festival. Alexandre Grandjean, co-president of Comics Network Switzerland, was particularly impressed by the curiosity and warm welcome of the public. From Friday onwards, despite the cold and rain, a large number of people came to meet them. Whether as part of the Festival’s activities, at signing sessions, in discussions with the publishing houses present at the Swiss kiosk, or through the Swiss Comics on Display exhibition, comic books fans were able to discover the scenes of the Swiss 9th art.
A captivating program
MCAF offered some sixty activities under the theme “Back to the Future”.
Alex A., who also designed the year’s poster, attracted a record 450 people to his drawn interview at La Fab à dessin. The team had to be creative to accommodate so many curious youngsters. Parcours Ludiques’ Jon Le Bon puzzle trail was also very popular with families. Télé-Québec‘s La Fab à dessin provided an opportunity to plunge into the world of several artists, as in the drawn conversation between Joshua Barkman and Isabelle Melancon, or the drawn interview with Catherin, winner of the Bédélys Québec Award.
Panels presented by La Presse included such memorable encounters as How to Kill a City: Housing Crisis and Comics with Eleanor Hannon, Rick Trembles and Shaghayegh Moazzami, and Looking Back, Moving Forward: Coming-of-Age in Comics with Cassandra Calin, D. Boyd and Ned Wenlock.
Among the new features, Télé-Québec‘s Creation Space gave the public the chance to color and draw freely. The resulting works could be deposited in a time capsule to be unveiled at the Festival in 2035!
What’s more, the live drawing activities, workshops and exhibitions attracted a varied audience of festival-goers thanks to their diversity and accessibility.
Despite the weather, not a single activity was cancelled.
Professional days
The addition of a second professional day encouraged a greater number of discussions between members of the comic book industry. The presence of the Swiss delegation enriched exchanges between professionals. Artists were able to take part in a panel on on artist remuneration, as well as a master class on inking with Denis Rodier, presented by Copibec. The evening concluded with the opening of the Festival and the presentation of the Bédélys Awards.
This year, one of MCAF’s proudest achievements was the many memorable encounters made possible by the Festival’s programming and team, which facilitated informal exchanges between comic artists and exhibitors.
Winners of the 26th Bédélys Awards
More than 260 people gathered at Club Soda on Thursday, May 22 to attend the opening night, where the best comics published or edited in 2024 were honored. For these 26th Bédélys Awards, presented in collaboration with SODEC, a total of $5,000 in grants was offered by Télé-Québec, the Planète BD bookstore and MCAF.
The winners are:
- Bédélys Québec : Momm by Catherin (Pow Pow)
- Bédélys jeunesse Québec : La bibliothèque enchantée T.1 : Le livre aspirateur by Jocelyn Boisvert and Enzo (Éditions Michel Quintin)
- Bédélys indépendant francophone : Je ne suis pas un accident by Lucile Bernard
- Bédélys indépendant anglophone : I,THE PEOPLE by Natacha Novem
- Bédélys jeunesse : Quand la nuit tombe — Lisou by Marion Achard and Toni Galmés (Delcourt)
- Bédélys étranger : Impénétrable by Alix Garin (Le Lombard)
To learn more about the 26th Bédélys Awards.
A huge thank you to the 150 volunteers who gave generously of their time during the Festival. Their involvement was essential to the success of this edition! Thanks also to the 89 volunteer jury members of the 26th Bédélys Awards for their commitment.
The Festival team is already looking forward to the 15th edition, which will take place from May 22 to 24, 2026, and promises to be one of the most festive ever!
About MCAF
The Montreal Comic Arts Festival (MCAF) is an organization dedicated to promoting comics. Each year, it hosts the Festival of the same name, where artists, exhibitors, curious minds and comics enthusiasts gather to celebrate the 9th art.
For more information, visit fbdm-mcaf.ca/en | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn
The 14th MCAF was presented in collaboration with SDC Rue Saint-Denis and Télé-Québec.
The Festival thanks its partners:
Canadian Heritage, Canada Council for the Arts, SODEC, Ministère du Tourisme du Québec, Conseil des arts de Montréal, Service de la culture de la Ville de Montréal, Tourisme Montréal and Plateau-Mont-Royal.
La SDC Rue Saint-Denis, Télé-Québec, La Presse, Réseau BD Suisse, la fondation suisse pour la culture Pro Helvetia, Présence Suisse, Consulat général de Suisse à Montréal, le Consulat général de France à Québec, le Consulat général du Brésil à Montréal, Wallonie-Bruxelles International, Goethe-Institut, Institut Ramon Llull, Bibliothèques de Montréal, École en Réseau, CSSDM, CSSMB, CSSDP, Liseur Public, Partenariat du Quartier des Spectacles, Éditions 2042, 404 Editions, Madrigall, Chapiteaux classic, Planète BD, Crossover Comics, L’Euguélionne, Librairies Canal BD, Éditions çà et là, Drawn & Quarterly, Pow Pow, Glénat, Parcours Ludiques, Copibec, La Marquise, Rugicomm, le Livart, Québec Édition, Montréal CoWork, Ruba Ghazal, member for Mercier and Manon Massé, member for Sainte-Marie-Saint-Jacques.
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Contact du FBDM :
Mélanie La Roche, directrice générale – melanie.laroche@fbdm-mcaf.ca
Contact agence de presse Rugicomm :
Stéphanie Culakowa – stephanie.culakowa@rugicomm.ca
