At “Books at Berlinale” on February 16, film producers will be able to discover eleven new literary works with outstanding potential for adaptation to the big screen. The selected novels will be presented in a pitching session at the Berlinale Co-Production Market. At the get-together following the pitch, invited producers will have the opportunity to get to know the rights holders – respected, internationally active representatives of publishing houses and literary agents – to network or to directly negotiate the film rights options for the featured works.

Around 130 books from more than 25 countries were submitted this year for consideration for presentation at “Books at Berlinale”. The eleven books selected for 2016 are represented by publishing houses and agencies from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Turkey, France and Sweden.

The final selection includes exciting new releases, bestsellers and award winners, all with great potential for cinema adaptation.

The spectrum of themes, genres and protagonists on display in the selected works, which also include a graphic novel (Guy Delisle’s “Run Away”), is very broad, ranging from an extended Georgian family and desperate hooligans to canned kids and grumpy magicians. Themes of current high relevance, such as a young Syrian woman’s experiences as a refugee in Meltem Yılmaz’s novel “Soraya”, are presented side-by-side with fantastic scenarios and visions of the future, such as “A Robot in the Garden” from British author Deborah Install, which investigates what artificial intelligence has to tell us about what it means to be human.

Since its inaugural edition in 2006, “Books at Berlinale” has been organised by the film festival in co-operation with the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Festival Director Dieter Kosslick: “Together with the Frankfurt Book Fair, we have established this platform as an important event for active exchange between the worlds of publishing and film, which has enabled us to support collaborations between publishing houses, literary agents and film producers.”

Producers who are active or interested in the field of literary film adaptations as well as publishers and literary agents may register before February 10 at books@berlinale.de.

“Books at Berlinale“ will take place in the Berlin House of Representatives within the scope of the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

Its main partners are the Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) and Creative Europe – MEDIA, a programme of the European Union.

The Berlinale Co-Production Market is part of the European Film Market (EFM).

The following literary works have been selected for “Books at Berlinale” 2016: (listed in alphabetical order according to the companies presenting them):

“A Robot in the Garden” (Deborah Install), Andrew Nurnberg Associates, United Kingdom

“Spy Toys” (Mark Powers), Bloomsbury Publishing, United Kingdom

“The Ice-Cream Makers” (Ernest van der Kwast), De Bezige Bij, The Netherlands

“Der Trick” / “The Trick” (Emanuel Bergmann), Diogenes Verlag, Switzerland

“Hool” (Philipp Winkler), Elisabeth Ruge Agentur, Germany

“Das achte Leben (Für Brilka)” / “The Eighth Life (For Brilka)” (Nino Haratischwili), Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt, Germany

“Poppyseed Lemon Cake” (Cristina Campos), Grupo Planeta, Spain

“Soraya” (Meltem Yılmaz), Kalem Agency, Turkey

“Run Away” (Guy Delisle), Mediatoon, France

“The Eyes of the Lake” (Jessica Schiefauer), Nordin Agency, Sweden

“Konrad oder Das Kind aus der Konservenbüchse” / “Conrad: The Factory-Made Boy” (Christine Nöstlinger), Oetinger Filmrechte-Agentur, Germany