Deadline for Entries: July 15

As you’ll recall, the Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 16 to 20) is again partnering with the Motovun Group of International Publishers(MGIP) to  recognize a book for its “original book concept, to honor outstanding design and production quality and the compelling adaptation into book form of a film-related subject.”

Separately from that competition for a book about film, the book fair now has opened its other two categories of its Film Awards for nominations, with a deadline of July 15. This, as a fourth year’s iteration of the “A Book Is a Film Is a Game” professional program focused on book-to-screen activity.

Those two categories are:

• Best International Literary Adaptation, won last year by  Intrigo: Death of an Author, based on the novels by Håkan Nesser, directed by Daniel Alfredson
• Best International Literary Adaptation for Children or Young Adults, won last year by Romy’s Salon (Netherlands), directed by Mischa Kamp

Publishers and production and media companies are welcome to submit their proposals for this year’s winners of the adaptation and children’s adaptation awards, and eligible content includes feature films and television productions and series that are based on literary works or children’s and YA books.

The award ceremony for the Frankfurter Buchmesse Film Awards is scheduled for “Frankfurt Saturday” on October 19 and will be set in the Frankfurt Pavilion in the complex’s Agora.

Those who’d like to submit material should use the submission forms which are found here.

Details of Selection and Criteria

The winning selections are made by Frankfurter Buchmesse president and CEO Juergen Boos, working with an advisory board of international film and media specialists.

The fair will handle the pre-selection process to create a shortlist of three to five films or series for final consideration. That shortlist is expected around the end of July with a final decision at the end of August. An announcement is expected in early September, followed by the awards event on the evening of October 19.

The criteria for the film adaptation awards require that the submitted film or series be:

• An outstanding adaptation of the original book
• A good recreation of the atmosphere of the original into a distinct and original film or series
• A respectful transformation of both the story and characters into the cinematic or television form

Films or series must be scheduled for a theatrical and/or digital platform release during calendar year 2019 or not later than April 19, 2020. The release can be through a theatrical releasing entity or by direct or self-distribution by filmmakers, either in an exclusively theatrical release or day-and-date with digital platforms or video-on-demand release.

• A direct link to the entry form for the literary adaptation competition is here.
• A direct link to the entry form for the children’s or YA adaptation competition is here.

The film advisory board, initiated in 2016, comprises seven members and they are:

• Frederic Boyer, artistic director of the Tribeca Film Festival and Les Arcs European Film Festival
• Beat Glur, music and film critic
• Ellen M. Harrington, director of the Deutsches Filminstitut and Filmmuseum
• Ulrich Höcherl, editor-in-chief of Blickpunkt
• Rajendra Roy, the Celeste Bartos chief curator of film with the Museum of Modern Art in New York
• Signe Zeilich0-Jensen, film commissioner with the Netherlands Film Fund
• Leo Barraclough, international features editor at Variety

Previous winners include:

• Tom Ford (2016)
• Todd Haynes (2015)
• Anton Corbijn (2014)
• The couple Ziad Doueiri and Joelle Touma (2013),
• Stephen Daldry (2012)
• Producer David Heyman (2011)

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More from Publishing Perspectives on Frankfurter Buchmesse is here, and more from us on awards in publishing is here.