Arab World Festival of Montreal | 2026 Edition

Through its three sections – Performing Arts, Culture Forum and Cinema – the FMA presents modern bodies of work through original productions in dance, music, theater and multidisciplinary arts, debates, conferences, lectures and films. Representing a myriad of tendencies and artistic orientations that allow reflection and experimentation, the FMA welcomes artists, filmmakers and intellectuals from all cultural horizons, local and international broadcasters and producers in order to build a space dedicated to cultural exchange and “breeding” as well as to provide festival-goers with a wide range of first-rate activities.

As almost every autumn, the 27th edition of the Arab World Festival opens onto a world riven by fractures that keep renewing themselves, growing ever more commonplace. They never cease to shake the Arab world and far beyond it, unsettling precarious balances and withering ideals as far as the West. At the heart of this turmoil, fraught with manifold uncertainties, the great Persian civilization, first cousin of Arab culture and history, finds itself confronted with numerous existential threats, from without as from within. Iran thus comes to irrigate a substantial part of this edition's programming, with performances, creations, screenings, and lively debates.