
A studio still from a shortlisted title in the Frankfurter Buchmesse Film Awards, ‘Jacob, Mimmi, and the Talking Dog,’ from Latvian filmmaker Edmunds Jansons
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Awards Program October 9
Overlapping with Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 14 to 18), the fifth B3 Biennale of the Moving Image will take place from October 9 to 18.Once again, that program is working with Frankfurt as part of Holger Volland‘s The Arts+, the annual Frankfurt programming that emphasizes books and many nearby creative industries.
Other partners include SODEC/MUTEC Québec, TAICCA, Licensing International, Telefilm Canada, the Berlinale film festival, the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, Hessenagentur, and Creative Business Cup.
Today (September 30), the show has announced shortlists for its annual film awards.
The Frankfurter Buchmesse Film Awards are not particularly well known among Frankfurt’s myriad annual events, programs, and activities. A small niche program, they can get past you. They carry no monetary prize, but each of the three honors looks at a way in which publishing and cinematic work sometimes parallel each other.
They’re housed in the trade show’s “Focus Film” division that includes the still-young Cannes pitching event. This year, the film awards are to be presented on October 9, before the start of Frankfurter Buchmesse, at the B3 BEN Awards, the B3 Biennale’s opening “online gala.” That program will include actor Willem Dafoe’s win of the event’s main prize and “live performances by international artists.”
That awards program starts at 7 p.m. CEST (1700 GMT) on the 9th, and registration free of charge is here.
Shortlist: Adaptation for Children or Young Adults

A still from a shortlisted title in the Frankfurter Buchmesse Film Awards, ‘Pinocchio,’ from Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone
- Als Hitler das rosa Kannichen stahl (Caroline Link)
- Jacob, Mimmi and the Talking Dog (Edmunds Jansons)
- Pinocchio (Matteo Garrone)
Shortlist: Interntational Literary Adaptation

Nahéma Ricci in ‘Antigone’ from director and writer Sophie Deraspe. Image: promotional still, ACPAV
- Antigone (Sophie Deraspe)
- First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)
- I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman)
- Shirley (Josephine Decker)
- Unorthodox (Maria Schrader)
The above two categories were juried by Frankfurter Buchmesse president and CEO Juergen Boos; Frederic Boyer, Tribeca Film Festival and Les Arcs European Film Festival; film critic Beat Glur, Ellen M. Harrington, Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum; Ulrich Höcherl, Blickpunkt:Film; Rajendra Roy (The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA); Signe Zeilich-Jensen, The Netherlands Film Fund; Leo Barraclough; Variety Magazine; Margret Albers, European Children’s Film Association; and Bobby Allen; MUBI.
Shortlist: Illustrated Book on Film
This category will be decided by the jury of the Motovun Group of International Publishers.
- French New Wave: A Revolution in Design by Alison Elangasinghe with an introduction by Sir Christopher Frayling (Reel Art Press)
- The Story of Film by Mark Cousins (Pavilion Books)
- Color Mania edited by Barbara Flückiger, Eva Hielscher, and Nadine Wietlisbach (Lars Müller Publishers)

A shot from Charlie Kaufman’s ‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things,’ currently offered by Netflix
More from Publishing Perspectives on Frankfurter Buchmesse is here, more from us on awards in publishing is here, and more on the development of book content for film and television is here. And more from us on the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on international book publishing is here and at the CORONAVIRUS tab at the top of each page of our site.