Facts & Figures
Arab Countries
15
Number of Submissions
300
Female Participation
43%
10th Mahmoud Kahil Award Winners
April 2025
Editorial Cartoons
Tawfik | Egypt
Tawfik’s extensive experience spans roles as a technical director and designer for animation projects, alongside a long tenure as a comics artist for Basim and Majid magazines. He won First Prize in Journalistic Comics at the Cairo International Comics Festival in 2016.
Co-founder of the award-winning TOK-TOK magazine, Tawfik has participated in international exhibitions, published works referenced in the Encyclopedia of Arab Caricature and Comic Artists, and collaborated with Harvard University on Middle Eastern comics. He also published Tawfik-Comics, a collection of his works spanning thirteen years.
Graphic Novels
Mohamed Ali | Egypt
Ali has participated in numerous collective art exhibitions and was awarded the Angoulême Maison des Auteurs art residency in 2020. His comic work was featured in the 2018 Mahmoud Kahil Award annual book, and his contributions to animation have earned him two awards in Cairo and Dubai.
A published author, Ali has released two comic books, published consecutively in 2021 and 2022. His work continues to shape the fields of comics and animation, establishing him as a leading figure in contemporary visual storytelling.
Comics
Nour Haidar | Lebanon
Nour Haidar is a talented 24-year-old illustrator and comic book artist based in Beirut, a city rich with unique and inspiring stories. Her passion for the arts began in childhood, but it was during her studies at the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts that she developed a deep interest in illustration and sequential storytelling.
Since then, Haidar has embarked on a diverse range of projects, exploring various mediums and styles with each new endeavor. Her artistic curiosity has driven her to experiment with different themes and techniques, always seeking to tell compelling stories through her work. Haidar believes that every image holds its own narrative, and her creations reflect this belief, capturing the essence of the stories that surround her.
Graphic Illustration
Sally Samir | Egypt
She has participated in various exhibitions and received notable recognition, including the State Encouragement Award in Arts for pre-school children’s book illustrations in 2022. Her book Where, Moon? won the Best Design and Production Award at the Lebanon International Book Fair.
Her creative and impactful approach to illustrations continues to shape the field of children’s literature, where she brings vibrant stories to life with every new project.
Chilldren’s Book Illustration
Shiroug Mohamed Ali Idris | Sudan
Her work is deeply inspired by African folklore and mythology, with a strong emphasis on representing Afro-Arabian heritage. Through her illustrations, Shiroug seeks to highlight and preserve the rich narratives of her roots, creating art that resonates with both historical depth and contemporary relevance.
Amaal Khattab
In the early 1980s, Amaal Khattab had the opportunity to join the team of artists and illustrators at her favorite magazine, “Samir”. There, she participated in drawing stories and coloring illustrations at her small desk, surrounded by fellow artists and creative collaborators, including Mohamed El-Tahamy and Alaa El-Saeed – the artist behind the redesign of Samir’s character in the early 1980s.
Her artistic and aesthetic maturity reached its peak in the 1990s, where she skillfully and professionally brought these iconic images to life, making Samir’s covers and pages vibrantly beautiful and full of life.
Amaal Khattab was selected among 12 artists who applied for the position of replacing Samir’s illustrator. She proved her talent by illustrating Samir and his friend Tahtah for five years before leaving Egypt for Lebanon, where she helped establish Bisat Al-Reeh Magazine in the United States, where she was hosted by Walt Disney in his studios. She continued working in illustration for 22 years thereafter. Amaal worked at Samir Magazine from the early 1980s until her retirement around 2017.
Maamoul Press
Maamoul Press is a small press and collective working at the intersection of comics, printmaking, and book arts, fostering by-us for-us storytelling from marginalized communities through publishing, workshops, and more. We orient our work, and call on you, to refuse and resist zionist and imperialist hegemony everywhere, towards collective liberation.
Founded in 2019 in metro Detroit, Maamoul launched with an 8-week comics workshop that provided an intensive learning experience to local participants, as they created their own comics zines. Since then we have published numerous books, zines, and prints, curated the work of our artist members for exhibitions, and tabled at fairs across North America. Our work is by and for artists and communities from SWANA and other marginalized backgrounds, working against hostile publishing landscapes that seek to suppress and control our narratives. We are rooted in a collaborative and DIY ethos with a long tradition in printmaking and zine-making spaces, forging alternative, community-based modes of publishing, and sharing knowledge and skills through always free workshops and programs. Where possible we have directed proceeds to supporting various causes locally as well as in our homelands, with a focus since October 2023 on mutual aid efforts in Gaza, while also directly supporting Gazan artists through publishing their work. Find us at maamoulpress.com and @maamoulpress.
10th Mahmoud Kahil Award 2025 Finalists
Editorial Cartoon
- Naser Jaafari | Jordan
- Mohamed Afefa | Palestine
- Mohamed Zahran | Egypt
Graphic Novel
- Mohammad Sabaaneh | Palestine
- Karen Keyrouz | Lebanon
- Mohamad Kraytem | Lebanon
Comics
- Farid Nagy Nasr | Egypt
- Tawfik | Egypt
- Mai Koraiem | Egypt
Graphic Illustration
- Yousif Elamin | Sudan
- Mahmoud Abdou | Egypt
Children’s Book Illustration
- Baraa Alawoor | Palestine
- Hayam Safwat | Egypt
Meet the Jury
Her most notable work is the comic series about Nofret, which follows a girl navigating the political and religious intrigues of pharaoh Akhenaten’s reign. The final installment of the series was released in April 2022. In total, she has written and illustrated 34 comic books, including He Electrified the World, the best-selling Danish comic book of its year. Additionally, she has illustrated nearly 200 children’s books.
Bech has received all major Danish comics awards, and in 2015 was honored with the Adamson statuette from the Swedish Comics Academy in Stockholm. Her works have been exhibited 37 times in eight countries, including France and Germany.
More details can be found at: www.sussibech.dk.
Doaa has participated in numerous exhibitions, and she has received numerous awards, including the Egyptian Syndicate of Journalists’ Best Cartoon (2009) and the Mustafa and Ali Amin prize (2015). In 2016, the BBC named her one of the most inspirational and influential women of the year. She later received the Mahmoud Kahil Award (2017) and (2024) both in the Editorial Cartoons category, was nominated by Cartoon Home Network International in Norway among the Top Ten Cartoonists in the world (2018), and won First Prize at the Women Cartoonist International Award (2020).
@doaa.eladl.cartoon
He has written, co-written, edited or contributed to more than twenty books on comics and has curated exhibitions at institutions such as The British Library, the National Comics Centre in Angoulême, The Centre Pompidou, and The Barbican Centre, where he organized the first exhibition of Asian Comics, currently touring museums in the USA.
His upcoming projects include curating for the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, opening in London 2026, and contributing to a new museum of graphic narrative in Brussels. More details can be found at www.paulgravett.com and @paul_gravett.
In 2004, she illustrated her first book and has since illustrated over 44 books for publishers in Lebanon and internationally.
Fidawi has received nine national and international awards, including the Etisalat Children’s Book Award for Book of the Year (2014) and Best Illustrated Children’s Book (2017), as well as the 2nd Mahmoud Kahil Award in the Children’s Book Illustration category (2017). In 2024, she was nominated for the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award.
She has conducted illustration workshops in Brazil, Morocco, Italy, Turkey, UAE, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. Based in Beirut, she runs regular workshops and is a part time instructor at AUB and ALBA, teaching both manual and digital illustration.
@mayafidawi
Jad has received several awards for his contributions to the field. His works A Thousand and One Nights and Shehrazade are part of the permanent collection at Le Musée de la Bande Dessinée (The International Comics Museum) in Angoulême, France.
georgeskhouryjad.wordpress.com
Facts &
Figures
Arab
Countries
16
Number of
Submissions
450
Female
Participation
43%
Editorial Cartoons
Mowafaq Katt | Syria
Born in Damascus in 1955, Mwafaq Katt is a cartoonist and animation filmmaker. He freelances editorial cartoons for several Arabic newspapers and magazines. His work was awarded in numerous international and local film festivals and competitions, including the Arab Journalism Award in 2016. Mwafaq taught animation in several Syrian universities. He illustrated various books, brochures, and posters for the UNICEF and facilitated many UNDP workshops in Damascus. He has served as a jury member for many cartoon contests and film festivals. He holds a Masters degree in Arts from the Higher Institute of Cinema (VGIK), Moscow.
Graphic Novels
Mai Koraiem | Egypt
Born in Alexandria on May 5, 1980, Mai Koraiem graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Painting Department, in 2003. In 2013, she started her comics career. In 2015, she published her first graphic novel, entitled “When the Gods gave up on Kavafis,” selected one of the best three graphic novels at the Cairo Comix Festival. In 2017, she won the best short story, “Pour Femme,” at the Cairo Comix Festival. She published in 2018 a children’s book and educational book with “Aphorisma” Publishing House in Berlin. In 2020, Mai published her second graphic novel entitled “Case 43 Labban” by “Kotobna” Publishing House.
Comics
Migo | Egypt
Born in 1988, Migo Mohamad is an Egyptian Comics artist and author. He studied film in the United States. He worked in many magazines such as TokTok, Samandal, Lab619, and Words Without Borders. His art showed in many international art exhibitions. Migo is an art director for several books and magazines. In 2017, he directed a short animation film for BBC Arabic, “Shame,” and received the Best Short Story award at the Cairo Comix International Festival 2015.
Graphic Illustration
Michael Jabareen | Palestine
Michael J. is an experimental designer/artist who develops art expression methodologies to ensure the most efficient and effective connection with the audience by experimenting and integrating different schools of art, both visual and performance. After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Architectural Engineering in 2016, Michael dedicated his passion towards art to influence social and individual practices using the power of the image in visual communication and behavioral guidance. At the moment, he works on integrating art in business entrepreneurship, illustration, comics, multimedia production, theatrical practices, and architectural and interior design.
Chilldren’s Book Illustration
Diala Brisly | Syria
Born in Kuwait to Syrian parents in 1980, Diala grew up in Damascus and was based there until the uprisings. She fled with legions of other artists until she got asylum in France. Diala began as a cartoonist at the Syrian-based Spacetoon channel in 2001. Since then, her career has spanned various mediums and capacities. In 2014, she started her initiative making murals in the refugee camps and alternative education centers between Lebanon and Turkey to encourage kids to go back to school after skipping a few years because of the war. Diala Brisly hopes that her visual work would stand as a testament to the historical events that have unfolded around her and the social issues that have driven her work’s heart. Several themes have consistently run through all her projects; social justice, freedom for the Syrian people, and a desire to give a voice to children.
IBRAHIM L’MHADI
The Moroccan octogenarian Ibrahim Lmhadi is considered one of the earliest artists to lay the groundwork for cartoons in Morocco, and to begin to draw them amid the sensitive political and social circumstances in Morocco during the 1960s and 70s, at that time when cartoons were prohibited and confiscated. One of his published cartoons led to his detention, and he was banned from drawing for nearly two decades. Throughout these painful experiences, Lmhadi never ceased to be a remarkable creative soul, and he never renounced his belief in art and his message.
Masters of Illustration and Comics” at ALBA
The pioneer illustration and comics branch of the School of Graphic Arts at Alba was launched in two stages, between 1997 and 2000. A special track was first offered to Master’s students willing to deepen their know-how and complete a comic-book diploma. This option then developed into a comprehensive program launched in 2000, with the first graduates receiving their diplomas in 2003. Since then, Alba has issued 103 Bachelor of Arts degrees in Illustration and Bande Dessinée (Comics), and 47 Masters degrees. The School, to date, remains the only institution in the region that offers a complete program in these two disciplines.
The program allows students to develop the discipline’s technical know-how, to handle digital and traditional tools, and to master the narrative and graphic codes of comic strips. Most importantly, the program aims at developing curiosity, critical thinking, research, and a reflexive and analytical approach of the world.
Teachers at the School, which have grown in number over the years, are talented, passionate and in fields that complement each other. Foreign artists and educators are regularly invited to give lectures and lead workshops, and offer masterclasses as part of the program. Students also benefit from various partnerships and affiliations signed with prestigious schools such as ENSAD, École Estienne, Les Gobelins, and Université de Bordeaux in France, or HEAD in Switzerland.
Globally, students work on projects related to the different applications of illustration: publishing, press, advertising, and comic strips, as well as scenography and character design. Masters students also collaborate with other branches at Alba, in particular Animation and Multimedia. Work is always interactive, even when done online …
This wide range of learning objectives allows students to acquire the souplesse – flexibility and versatility they will need in their professional integration. Our program itself is interdisciplinary and agile; it evolves and adapts to the changing needs of the professional reality. Alba Illustration graduates leave the school with the necessary experience and skills to assimilate into all the fields their degree and their discipline is linked to.
6th Mahmoud Kahil
Award 2021 Finalists
Rashad Al Samei | Yemen
Bernard Haje | Lebanon
Noemie Honein | Lebanon
Hazem Kamal | Egypt
Ghadi Ghosn | Lebanon
Elia Tawil | Lebanon
Zeinab Ben Haouala | Tunisia
Othman Selmi | Tunisia
Diala Zada | Syria
Omar Lafi | Jordan
Meet the Jury
John Jennings
USA
Mathieu Diez
France
Emad Hajjaj
Jordan
Olivier Kugler
Germany | UK
George Khoury (JAD)
Lebanon