The 9th MCAF, a real success!

(May 27th, 2020) As the 9th edition of the Montreal Comic Arts Festival just ended, it’s time to look at the result. This first online edition, which offered unique moments, has been remarkable in more ways than one! Highlights of the festival:

Numerous and Passionate Creators

The park La Fontaine was very quiet this year. In the crisis situation we all live, we had to bring creators virtually and live on our platforme. In the programming, conversations from 20 to 30 minutes allowed each artist to present their work and answer to the public through a live chat.

In total, more than 20 of these meetings took place. They allowed us to discover cartoonists from here and abroad, including Jackie Davis, Catherin (winner of the Indépendant Bédléys Awards), Martin PM and even Reinhard Kleist live from Berlin.

Outstanding Activities

Despite the physical distance, many activities marked the 2020 edition in a beautiful way.

Let’s start with the panels which enlightened the audience on the multiple and sometimes surprising sources of inspiration for comic book artists and to learn more about creating comics for young readers, among others. Our theme, the arts, was not forgotten since creators have embarked on a discussion around music and creation.

The drawing workshops were also on the agenda with two courses on manga and, a more general one, that taught the public to build an expressive character from a stick figure.That’s not all, the drawing battle between Alex A. and Cab was a great success thanks to the technological tools which made it possible to play even more with the drawing of each other.

Finally, Saturday evening was reserved for our Donjons, Dragons et Dessins night during which our 4 creators went on an epic quest! First Montreal experience of a drawing game of Dungeons and Dragons, it will certainly not be the last.

Good news if you missed any activity or want to watch one again, they will be available on our Youtube channel next week.

Memorable Evening for the Bédélys Awards

The five finalists for the 2019 Bédélys Québec Awards were reunited on a panel just before the awards ceremony; a great opportunity to highlight the creation of each of the competing works and to meet the artists who created them.

MCAF took up the challenge of presenting an online award ceremony live, while keeping the suspenseful and emotional moments typical of these evenings. Catherine Emmanuel Brunet and Jean-Michel Berthiaume ensured the animation in a very convivial way. The finalists were all highlighted by a video in the colors of Catherine Ocelot, illustrator of the evening’s poster. We will long remember the smile of Catherin, the winner of the Bédélys indépendant Award; the joy of Lee Lai, the first artist to receive the Bédélys independent Award for self-publication in English; and the emotion of Sophie Bédard, the winner of the Bédélys Québec Award. These three young women each receive a $ 1,000 grant in addition to an original trophy made from recycled materials by Montreal artist Karl Dupéré Richer. The Bédélys Québec grant is awarded by the Friends of the Montreal library.

Great Online Participation

While MCAF is going on its tenth anniversary, it is already considered as a notable event of the Montreal summer. In 2019, more than 12,000 people visited our tents at Espace La Fontaine, a number that continues to grow each year. This online event has changed everyone’s habits … but not the loyalty of our audience! In fact, the three days of our festival has nearly 20,000 cumulative views! Livestreamed on Facebook, 14,000 people watched some of our live videos . The festival’s Instagram and YouTube were also featured, and the two media gathered thousands of additional fans.

And that’s not all, this edition will be available on MCAF’s Youtube starting June 1rst, allowing everybody to attend MCAF 2020 whenever they want to. This is a great opportunity to perpetuate it and to make known the quality of the comic arts from here and elsewhere.

Our Thanks

First of all, the Festival would like to express its thanks to the cartoonists who responded to these three days of festival, and who took their time to respond to the public.

The Festival would also like to thank Gabriel Darveau and Benjamin Denis for their invaluable and necessary technical assistance in the realization of three full days of live online presence. Without them, MCAF could not have existed in 2020

A big thank you to all the Festival volunteers who are working to make this event better, and who have all step up with confidence in the virtual adventure just a few weeks before the big day.

MCAF finally thanks all of its partners who support it in the success of this event:

Thanks to: Patrimoine Canada ; Conseil des Arts du Canada ; Conseil des arts de Montréal ; SODEC ; Division Festivals et événements culturels de Montréal ; l’Arrondissement Le-Plateau-Mont-Royal ; Caisse de la culture Desjardins ; Consulat général de France à Québec ; l’Institut Goethe et le Centre de la francophonie des Amériques.

Thanks also to our media partners: Culture Cible, La Fabrique culturelle, Les Libraires.ca; CISM 89.3; PLANCHES magazine; as well as Élise (A Book and a Cup); Ariane (Miz Literature) and Chantal (La Bibliothèque Jaune).

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