FIBAD 2025: Celebrate Comics!

Tétouan will host the International Comics Forum (FIBAD), a key event of the 9th art and a real platform for international cooperation in visual narrative arts. Considered one of the major events of its kind in Africa and the Middle East, FIBAD attracts every year a large community of creators and enthusiasts.

The 2025 edition is an anniversary edition commemorating a double celebration: 25 years since the creation of the Comics Department at INBA and 80 years of the Fine Arts of Tétouan, now the National Institute of Higher Education.

Two emblematic anniversaries that testify to the pioneering commitment of the Ministry in favor of visual narrative arts, in Morocco as well as on the African continent.

The focus will also be on partnerships that have shaped the history of FIBAD, highlighting cultural cooperation with Wallonia-Brussels, the French Institute of Morocco, and the Cervantes Institute, whose constant support has enriched the festival’s international influence.

Tétouan will thus become a meeting point for artists, publishers, researchers, and enthusiasts. The public will discover a program mixing exhibitions, professional meetings, workshops, masterclasses, screenings, youth activities, signings, drawn concerts, and Manga shows.

Many tributes will be paid to those who have marked the history of INBA and comics in Morocco, namely Oum El Banine Slaoui and Maaté Daoudi, the first doctors in visual arts in Morocco and former INBA teachers, Youssef Daoudi (from Moroccans of the World), an internationally renowned author, and Mina Koraichi, a young Moroccan author awarded the 2024 Raymond Leblanc Prize for young creation.

A major exhibition will look back on a quarter-century of national creation through «25 years of Moroccan Comics». This retrospective will trace the evolution of an art long marginalized, now a vector of social, cultural, economic, and political expression. It will also feature works by major contemporary figures such as Mohammed Amine El Bellaoui (Rebel Spirit), Zainab Fasiki, Omar Ennaciri, Brahim Rais, Mehdi Annassi, Malika Dahil, and many others.

Young creation will be at the heart of the forum through two dedicated competitions: a national contest for young Moroccan authors and an international contest open to African comics. These competitions aim to encourage new stories, new voices, and support the emergence of a creative generation on the continent.

North-South professional meetings will enrich the dialogue. Publishing houses from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, such as «Glénat», «Rue de Sèvres», «En 3000 Éditions», and «the Hiba Foundation», will participate in B2B exchanges focused on co-publishing and translation.

Cinema will also contribute to FIBAD’s narrative. The documentary «Bubbles», directed by Hassan Maanany, will recount the festival’s birth and the development of comics in Morocco through the voices of its pioneers.

The African dimension will be particularly strengthened this year, with authors and publishers from Togo, Senegal, Cameroon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, who will engage with their Moroccan and European counterparts.

Finally, the closing day of FIBAD, Saturday, May 17, will offer a festive moment dedicated to manga culture («Mangas – The After»). This day, titled «Mangas – The After FiBaD», will feature screenings, cosplay, round tables, masterclasses, and workshops led by Moroccan, African, and Japanese specialists.

This anniversary edition will end on an original artistic note: a drawn concert combining the enchanting voice of Italian Marta del Grandi with live illustrations by Cecilia Valagussa, as part of the European project «Comics Beyond».