International Booker partners with Foyles, Mubi and Garden Cinema

The International Booker Prize has collaborated with streamer Mubi, bookseller Foyles and The Garden Cinema to match up the shortlisted books with a film, accompanied by a special screening and competition.

Mubi, a global streaming service, production company and film distributor, has curated a selection of six films from around the world to complement each of the six International Booker Prize 2023 shortlisted books. The curated films reflect the themes or tone of the accompanying book, organisers said.

The collaboration follows the shortlisting announcement which last month featured research, commissioned by the prize, on the surge of translated fiction particularly among younger readers with around half of all translated fiction titles now bought by people under the age of 35.

Fiammetta Rocco, administrator of the International Booker Prize, said: “There is a natural and under-exploited union between international fiction and international film, and between the readers and viewers of both. We want to encourage people who love translated fiction to explore more global cinema, and vice versa, expanding their cultural horizons.”

Next Friday (26th May) at 8 p.m., The Garden Cinema, a new independent cinema in the heart of London, will host a special event: an intimate Q&A featuring the winners of the International Booker Prize 2023, chaired by writer and editor Sarah Shaffi. The Q&A will be followed by a screening of the film that MUBI has paired with the winning book. Tickets to the event are available to buy here.

To celebrate the collaboration, the partners have launched a competition including prizes of the shortlisted books, lifetime membership to the Garden Cinema and £50 eGift card from Foyles.

Additionally The Booker Prizes has, for the second time, commissioned actress and producer Sharon Horgan’s production company Mermade to produce a series of short films featuring six of the UK and Ireland’s best known actors reading extracts from the books on the International Booker Prize 2023 shortlist.

The new films, which will be published on the Booker Prizes website and YouTube channel, as well as being shown at the winner ceremony, are directed by Hannah Berry George. The performers include Adjoa Andoh (of “Bridgerton”), Jessica Brown Findlay (“Downton Abbey”), “Duchess” actress Michelle de Swarte, Toby Stephens (“Die Another Day”), “This Way Up” actress Aisling Bea and Osy Ikhile (“Citadel”).

The International Booker Prize, which will be awarded next Tuesday (23rd May), is given annually to a novel or short story collection originally written in any language, translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland.

The six shortlisted books and their corresponding films, curated by Mubi, are:  

• Boulder (And Other Stories) by Eva Baltasar, translated from Catalan by Julia Sanches, matched with “EMA” directed by Pablo Larraín (Chile, 2019) 
• Whale (Europa Editions) by Cheon Myeong-kwan, translated from Korean by Chi-Young Kim matched with “Arabian Nights: Volume 1, The Restless One” directed by Miguel Gomes (Portugal, France, 2015) 
• The Gospel According to the New World (World Editions) by Maryse Condé, translated from French by Richard Philcox which has been paired with Petite Maman directed by Céline Sciamma (France, 2021) 
• Standing Heavy (MacLehose Press) by GauZ’, translated from French by Frank Wynne with “Limbo”, directed by Ben Sharrock (United Kingdom, 2020) 
• Time Shelter (Weidenfeld & Nicholson) by Georgi Gospodinov, translated from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel with “One Fine Morning” directed by Mia Hansen-Løve (France, Germany, 2022) 
• Still Born (Fitzcarraldo) by Guadalupe Nettel, translated from Spanish by Rosalind Harvey with Lamb, directed by Valdimar Jóhannsson (Iceland, Sweden, 2021)