How does Books at Berlinale work?
About 200 European film producers, publishers, and agents come together for a day of pitch sessions and matchmaking. Publishers submit books, and then a jury selects 10 of them. The pitches are in English, and moderator Syd Atlas is legendary for drawing out what’s cinematic about a book for the audience. Then we have a cocktail party where the deals are done.
Are there books being pitched you’re particularly excited about this year?
Yes, we have some special books on motherhood and feminism, including Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel, from Mexico, and Tove Ditlevsen’s Dependency and Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume, both from Denmark. And there’s Eli Beneš’s Slight Loss of Loneliness, about Auschwitz survivor Peter Stein, from the Czech Republic, which is the guest of honor at Frankfurt this year.
How do European and American approaches to book-to-screen adaptation differ?
The film industry in Europe is different, because it is more diverse—each country has its own culture. As a result, I think independent cinema is more alive in Europe probably. There is a bigger tradition in auteur film. In the U.S., I feel like it’s more uniform. It’s a huge machine. The gap between indies and the big studios is bigger. But I admire American storytelling, which has a strong sense of pace and narrative structure. I think Europeans have a taste for the small stories, for the troubled, difficult personalities, while Americans tend to look for more heroic, feel-good stories of empowerment.
