International Booker films out

The International Booker Prize has put out its 2026 shortlist films, turning six translated books into short screen performances ahead of the May 19 winner announcement. (thebookerprizes.com) The films were released on April 16 and feature Toby Jones, Indira Varma, Toheeb Jimoh, Jehnny Beth, Xelia Mendes-Jones and Kae Alexander reading extracts from the shortlisted titles. Director Holly Blakey shot them at London’s Southbank Centre, with original music by Gwilym Gold and costumes drawn from vintage and contemporary Vivienne Westwood. (thebookerprizes.com) The Booker Prize Foundation has commissioned these shortlist film sets since 2022, and it said the 2025 films drew more than 100 million views across its social channels. This year’s films will also be screened at a 10th-anniversary International Booker event at the Southbank Centre on May 8. (thebookerprizes.com) The prize itself is for fiction translated into English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland, with £50,000 split equally between the winning author and translator. Each shortlisted title also receives £5,000, divided equally between author and translator. (thebookerprizes.com, thebookerprizes.com) This year’s shortlist was announced on March 31 from 128 submitted books, and the six finalists span five original languages, eight nationalities and four continents. The judging panel is chaired by novelist Natasha Brown, with Marcus du Sautoy, Sophie Hughes, Troy Onyango and Nilanjana S. Roy. (thebookerprizes.com) The six shortlisted books are tied together by history-heavy settings, from 1930s Taiwan under Japanese rule to Nazi Germany to Iran after the 1979 revolution. The Booker site says the list includes two debut novels and one previously shortlisted author-translator pairing. (thebookerprizes.com) The film rollout landed a week before World Book and Copyright Day on April 23, the annual UNESCO observance for books, reading and copyright. UNESCO also names a World Book Capital each year, with Rabat holding that role in 2026. (unesco.org) South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism tied into that date by launching a copyright-awareness campaign on April 17 that runs through April 30. The ministry is working with the Korea Copyright Commission and the Korea Copyright Protection Agency on book talks, contests, bookstore promotions and social media events. (koreatimes.co.kr) Two talks are scheduled for April 23: author Kim Gyeo-ul is due to speak at Kyobo Book Centre Gwanghwamun, and applied linguist Kim Soung-u is set to speak at the National Copyright Museum on artificial intelligence, copyright and literacy. Starting the same day, 100 bookstores will distribute 100,000 bookmarks carrying copyright messages, and Kakao plans a reading club on its Kakao Brunch platform from April 23 to 30. (koreatimes.co.kr) Taken together, the two rollouts put the week’s book politics in plain view: one campaign is using actors and short films to widen the audience for translated fiction, while the other is using World Book Day events to argue that reading culture and copyright enforcement belong in the same conversation. (thebookerprizes.com, koreatimes.co.kr, unesco.org)