The jury, headed by former Cannes Festival president Pierre Lescure, includes a number of leading figures from the world of cinema: actress Camille Cottin, who was on our cover just a few months ago, will soon be starring in Pierre Schoeller’s Rembrandt; Alice Winocour, whose film Couture, starring Angelina Jolie, is eagerly awaited (spoiler: we’ve seen it, and it’s a great film); successful screenwriter Noé Debré, who is also the director of A Good Jewish Boy; Thibault Gast, producer of, among others, Fresh Water for Flowers, the forthcoming adaptation of Valérie Perrin’s bestseller; and Sayyid El Alami, a young actor introduced in Oussekine, and soon to headline Fief, the adaptation of David Lopez’s novel. Two authors will be representing the literary world: Anne Berest, the novelist who just released Finistère and wrote the script for Rebecca Zlotowski’s next film, A Private Life; and Karine Tuil, whose Les Choses Humaines was brought to the screen by Yvan Attal in The Accusation. Literary podcast producer Léa Marchetti, VF France’s literary page contributor, will complete this prestigious jury. The three winners will be announced on October 16 at an awards ceremony to be held in the salons of the Paris’s glamorous Le Meurice Hotel.
The launch of this award is also an opportunity to introduce a new feature on our pages. Each month, a director will explain the adaptation of his or her dreams. As Julien Gracq once said, “For a novel to become a really good film, the film has to be something else.” Our aim is twofold: to highlight great books before dreaming up great films.
The Nominees: thirteen books across three categories
Novel
Tssitssi, Claire Castillon (Gallimard)
La Condition artificielle, Paul Monterey (Le Cherche Midi)
La Bonne Mère, Mathilda Di Matteo (L’Iconoclaste)
Le monde est fatigué, Joseph Incardona (Finitude)
Non-fiction
De silence et d’or, Ivan Butel (Globe)
La Jeune Fille et la mort, Negar Haeri (Seuil)
Vasarely, l’héritage maudit, Julie Malaure (Le Cherche Midi)
Goutted’Or connexion, Tess and Marc Fernandez (Flammarion)
Mon vrai nom est Elisabeth, Adèle Yon (Le Sous-Sol)
Graphic novels
Les gorilles du général, Julien Telo and Xavier Dorison (Casterman)
Albertine a disparu, Vincenzo Bizzarri, François Vignolle and Vincent Guerrier (Glénat)
Sanglier, Lisa Blumen (L’Employé du Moi)
Pyongyang parano, Emmanuelle Delacomptée, Antoine Dreyfus and Fanny Briant (Marabulles)
Originally published in Vanity Fair France.
