Film producers given the chance to discover 11 new literary works that could make good movies.
The Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 6-16) has revealed the 11 titles that will be presented to film producers at its Books at Berlinale event on Feb 11.
The selected novels, chosen from 120 books from more than 25 countries, will be presented and pitched at the Berlinale Co-Production Market - part of the European Film Market (EFM).
At the preceeding networking event, invited producers will have an opportunity to meet with right-holders – international publishers and literary agents – and to make and cultivate contacts in the book world or perhaps even to option film rights directly.
Festival director Dieter Kosslick said: “In the past years, ‘Books at Berlinale’ has established itself worldwide as the first market for literary material at an international ‘A’ film festival.
“We would now like to expand the idea of a network between books and film further, and open the event to more producers interested in literature, who no longer need to belong to the rather exclusive circle of Berlinale Co-Production Market participants.”
Producers active in the field of literary film adaptations or would like to be, and want to take part in this event, may register, along with other publishers and literary agents, until February 4 at books@berlinale.de.
The 11 books selected – all of which are new publications, bestsellers or prize-winners – come from publishers and agencies in the UK, Germany, France, Turkey and the Netherlands.
Stories range from the dramatic abduction of an actor couple by North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il in the 1970s, to a tragicomedy about an older man in the Netherlands, who pretends to have Alzheimer’s to escape his marriage; from a football match in former East Germany, to a gang smuggling illegal immigrants in Turkey; and from rock bands in 1960s Berlin, to the dark world of illegal websites.
Sonja Heinen, head of the Berlinale Co-Production Market, said: “First and foremost, we chose books based on whether we thought they were compelling and could be adapted for the screen.”
Books at Berlinale has been organized in collaboration with the Frankfurt Book Fair since 2006 and its main partners are the Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) and the MEDIA Programme of the European Union.
The event will take place in the Berlin House of Representatives.
Books at Berlinale 2014
(listed in alphabetical order by the companies presenting them)
The Latecomer (Dimitri Verhulst), Atlas Contact Publishers, Netherlands
Back Up (Paul Colize), Agence Astier – Pecher, France
A Kim Jong-Il Production (Paul Fischer), Curtis Brown, UK
Melanie (Carel Donck), De Arbeiderspers, Netherlands
The Eduard Einstein Case (Laurent Seksik), Éditions Flammarion, France
This Place Holds No Fear (Monika Held), Eichborn / Bastei Lübbe, Germany
Love, Love Me Do (Mark Haysom), Eve White Literary Agency, UK
More (Hakan Günday), Kalem Agency, Turkey
Twelve Metres (Andi Rogenhagen), Literarische Agentur Kossack, Germany
Daughter of the Flowers (Vanessa da Mata), Literarische Agentur Mertin, Germany
Czernin or How I Learned to Understand World War I (Hans von Trotha), Nicolai Verlag, Germany
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