Booker shortlist films cast
The 2026 International Booker Prize shortlist of six novels is being pushed into public view with commissioned short films featuring actors like Toby Jones, Indira Varma and Toheeb Jimoh reading extracts. (thephrasemaker.com) Organizers say the films are designed to amplify the six novels from six countries and make the shortlist more accessible to wider audiences. (standard.co.uk) The casting roster and production push were also confirmed in Deadline’s report on the campaign. (deadline.com)
The International Booker Prize has unveiled the cast for six new shortlist films, with Toby Jones, Indira Varma and Toheeb Jimoh reading from the nominated books. The Booker Prize Foundation said the films will be released on Thursday, April 16, 2026, and shown again at a 10th-anniversary event at London’s Southbank Centre on May 8. The 2026 winner will be announced on May 19 at Tate Modern. The full cast also includes Kae Alexander, Jehnny Beth and Xelia Mendes-Jones. Holly Blakey directed the films, Gwilym Gold composed the original music, and the actors were dressed in vintage and contemporary Vivienne Westwood. Each actor is paired with one shortlisted title: Jones reads Daniel Kehlmann’s *The Director*; Varma reads Marie NDiaye’s *The Witch*; Jimoh reads Shida Bazyar’s *The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran*; Alexander reads Yáng Shuāng-zǐ’s *Taiwan Travelogue*; Beth reads Rene Karabash’s *She Who Remains*; and Mendes-Jones reads Ana Paula Maia’s *On Earth As It Is Beneath*. The six-book shortlist was announced on March 31 after judges considered 128 submissions from publishers. The prize honors fiction translated into English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland between May 1, 2025, and April 30, 2026. This year’s shortlist includes books translated from five original languages, two debut novels and one title first published more than 30 years ago. The authors and translators represent eight countries across four continents. The foundation has been making these promotional films for its Booker and International Booker shortlists since 2022. Chief executive Gaby Wood said in 2025 that the videos had been seen more than 100 million times across the first three years of the project. Organizers are treating the films as a bigger part of the prize campaign, not just a side feature. This year’s announcement ties the cast reveal to the prize’s 10th year in its current format and to a London event featuring Dua Lipa, 2021 winner David Diop and 2025 winning translator Deepa Bhasthi. The money remains split between writer and translator: the overall prize is £50,000, shared equally, and each shortlisted book gets £5,000, also divided equally. The films arrive just over a month before the winning title is named.
