Frankfurt Book Fair presents award for best international literary adaptation

Directors Tom Ford and Claude Barras honoured / New award category

Frankfurt, 19 October 2016 – The Frankfurt Book Fair (19–23 October 2016) is once again recognising outstanding film adaptations of literary works. This year, for the first time, an award is also being given in the category “Films for Children and Young Adults”. The American fashion designer and director Tom Ford is being honoured for his thriller NOCTURNAL ANIMALS, an adaptation of the novel Tony & Susan by Austin Wright (Atlantic; German publisher: btb). The film will have its German premiere on 22 December. The winner in the category “Films for Children and Young Adults” is MA VIE DE COURGETTE (MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE), based on the young-adult novel Autobiographie d’une Courgette by Gilles Paris (German: Autobiografie einer Pflaume, published by Knaus). The stop-motion animated film MA VIE DE COURGETTE is Claude Barras’ first feature film. It was shown at the Cannes Film Festival and is Switzerland’s official entry for the 2017 Academy Awards in the category “Best Foreign Film”.

Juergen Boos, director of the Frankfurt Book Fair, on the reasons for choosing the winners: “Both productions are outstanding adaptations, thanks to their original and creative treatment of the literary material. At the same time, both directors have brilliantly succeeded in communicating the authors’ messages and done a superb job of remaining true to the emotions inspired by the books.”

Commenting on the introduction of the new category “Films for Children and Young Adults”, Boos said: “The segment dedicated to books for children and young people is growing rapidly worldwide. A key reason is undoubtedly the many possibilities these works offer for adaptation, first and foremost as films. Successful screen adaptations have now become a key reason for the outstanding sales at publishing houses specialising in books for children and young adults. The new category ‘Best International Literary Adaptation – Books for Children and Young Adults’ allows us to highlight exceptional films for children and young people that are based on literary works.”

The award does not include prize money. The dates for the award ceremony will be announced shortly.

Shortlist for the main prize:
• FINSTERES GLÜCK, director: Stefan Haupt, based on the novel of the same name by Lukas Hartmann (Diogenes)
• ELLE, director: Paul Verhoeven, based on Oh… by Philippe Djian (Gallimard/Diogenes)
• GLEISSENDES GLÜCK, director: Sven Taddicken, based on Original Bliss by A. L. Kennedy (Vintage/Wagenbach)
• NOCTURNAL ANIMALS, director: Tom Ford, based on the novel Tony & Susan by Austin Wright (Atlantic/btb)

Shortlist for the category “Films for Children and Young Adults”:
• SIV SLEEPS ASTRAY, directors: Catti Edfeldt & Lena Hanno, based on the novel of the same name by Pija Lindenbaum
• QUEEN OF KATWE, director: Mina Nair, based on the novel The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl’s Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster by Tim Crothers (Scribner/btb)
• MA VIE DE COURGETTE (MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE), director: Claude Barras, based on the novel Autobiographie d’une Courgette by Gilles Paris (Plon/btb)

The Frankfurt Book Fair has given an award for best international literary adaptation each year since 2004. Previous recipients include Todd Haynes (2015), Anton Corbijn (2014), Ziad Doueiri and his wife Joelle Touma (2013), Stephen Daldry (2012) and producer David Heyman (2011).

Advisory panel for award honouring best international literary adaptation

This year, Juergen Boos, director of the Frankfurt Book Fair, convened an advisory panel for the Frankfurt Book Fair’s award honouring the best international literary adaptation. Panel members include Leo Barraclough, correspondent for the US-based trade publication Variety; Rajendra Roy, The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA); Beat Glur, press spokesman for the Zurich Film Festival; and Ulrich Höcherl, executive editor-in-chief of the trade publication Blickpunkt:Film and deputy managing director of Busch Entertainment Media.

The Frankfurt Book Fair has dedicated itself for quite some time to networking the publishing world with representatives of the international film industry and, increasingly, the interactive games industry. At “Books at Berlinale”, a pitching event that has been held as part of the Berlinale Co-Production Market each year since 2005, publishers and literary agents are invited to give presentations to international producers on works that have the potential to be adapted for the screen. “Books at Berlinale 2017” will take place on 14 February 2017. This year, a pitching event was also organised for the first time at Gamescom, the computer-game fair in Cologne. This year, also for the first time, the Frankfurt Book Fair will be hosting “A Book is A Film is A Game”, a networking day organised in cooperation with the Netherlands Filmfonds, Kaiken Publishing and Rovio Entertainment.

About the Frankfurt Book Fair
The Frankfurt Book Fair is the international publishing industry’s biggest trade fair – with 7,100 exhibitors from more than 100 countries, around 275,000 visitors, over 4,000 events and approximately 10,000 accredited journalists – including 2,000 bloggers – in attendance. It also gathers key players from other media, including the film and games industries. Since 1976, the Book Fair has featured an annual Guest of Honour country, which showcases its book market, literature and culture to attendees in a variety of ways. The Frankfurt Book Fair organises the participation of German publishers at around 20 international book fairs and hosts trade events throughout the year in major international markets. With its Business Club, the Frankfurt Book Fair offers essential services and an ideal setting for the activities of publishers, entrepreneurs, pioneers, experts and visionaries. The Frankfurt Book Fair is a subsidiary of the German Publishers & Booksellers Association. https://www.buchmesse.de/en/

Contact for the media:
Press & Corporate Communications, Frankfurt Book Fair
Katja Böhne, Vice President Marketing & Communications, tel.: +49 (0) 69 2102-138, press@book-fair.com(opens in a new window)
Kathrin Grün, PR manager, Tel.: +49 (0) 69 2102-170, gruen@book-fair.com(opens in a new window)
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