Booker shortlist films
The International Booker Prize unveiled a series of short films narrated or performed by actors including Indira Varma, Toheeb Jimoh, Tom Goodman‑Hill and Toby Jones, with the 2026 winner to be announced on May 19 at Tate Modern. (deadline.com) The film rollout is being used as a promotional layer around the six‑novel shortlist from six countries. (irvinetimes.com)
The International Booker Prize has recruited six screen performers to front short films for its 2026 shortlist, extending the prize’s campaign beyond the page before the May 19 winner announcement. (thebookerprizes.com) The cast includes Indira Varma, Toheeb Jimoh, Toby Jones, Kae Alexander, Jehnny Beth and Xelia Mendes-Jones, and the films will be released on Thursday, April 16, 2026. (thebookerprizes.com) The Booker Prize Foundation said the six films perform extracts from the shortlisted books, and this year’s series is directed by Holly Blakey with original music by Gwilym Gold. The actors are dressed in vintage and contemporary Vivienne Westwood, a first for the shortlist films, according to the foundation. (thebookerprizes.com) The films sit on top of a prize that awards translated fiction published in the United Kingdom or Ireland between May 1, 2025 and April 30, 2026. The winner receives £50,000, split equally between the author and translator, and each shortlisted title receives £5,000, also split evenly. (thebookerprizes.com) This is the 10th year of the International Booker Prize in its current form, with the prize explicitly centered on translation as well as authorship. The 2026 shortlist was chosen from 128 submitted books after a 13-book longlist announced on February 24. (thebookerprizes.com) The six shortlisted books are *The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran*, *She Who Remains*, *The Director*, *On Earth As It Is Beneath*, *The Witch* and *Taiwan Travelogue*. The Booker Prize site says the books move across settings including 1930s Taiwan, Nazi-controlled Europe, 1979 Iran, suburban France, Brazil and the Albanian Alps. (thebookerprizes.com) The judging panel is chaired by novelist Natasha Brown and includes Marcus du Sautoy, Sophie Hughes, Troy Onyango and Nilanjana S. Roy. The foundation says five of the six authors and four of the six translators on the shortlist are women. (thebookerprizes.com) The films will also be shown at a 10th-anniversary event at London’s Southbank Centre on May 8, where the Booker Prize Foundation said Dua Lipa, 2021 winner David Diop and 2025 winning translator Deepa Bhasthi are scheduled to appear. (thebookerprizes.com) The winner will be announced at Tate Modern in London on Tuesday, May 19, closing a campaign that now includes trailers, performances and live events alongside the books themselves. (thebookerprizes.com)
