On the Agora at Frankfurter Buchmesse 2024. Image: FBM, Holger Menzel
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Frankfurter Buchmesse as ‘a Bridge-Builder’
As trade visitors prepare for the 2025 edition of Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 15 to 19), the trade fair’s president and CEO, Juergen Boos, is emphasizing the trade fair’s expanding commitment represented by Book-to-Screen Day this year.
Set for Frankfurt Friday, October 17, the day is designed to offer filmmakers, producers, and screenwriters a full day of new stories, characters, and original concepts from the international book-publishing industry.
By putting the content needs of the streaming networks and various world markets’ film industries into a spotlight on the show’s Friday, the important goal, organizers say, is to create a platform for exchange—between the publishing industry and the audiovisual industry. The programming created for the assignment uses master classes, “matchmaking” formats, networking availabilities, lectures, and panel discussions.
Juergen Boos
In a comment on the release of some programming details for Book-to-Screen Day, Boos says, “With our Book-to-Screen Day, Frankfurter Buchmesse is sending a clear signal: it sees itself as a bridge builder between the publishing world and other creative industries, in particular the film, television, and streaming-series industries.
“The aim is to bring content developers and producers together with authors and publishers at an early stage, promoting the path from book to film adaptation and implementation in other formats such as games.”
Selected Events of the Day
Book-to-Screen Day is set in Hall 5.1, using rooms Arrival and Relation, and in the Frankfurt Studio “Pop-Up” area.
9 a.m.: Exclusive guided tour for international filmmakers
Advanced registration: film@buchmesse.de
10 a.m.: A master class held in cooperation with the Berlinale Co-Production Market
Claire Lundberg, the founding managing director of CTL Scouting (UK, USA), provides insights into her work as an international literary scout in film and television.
In conversation with Publishing Perspectives
Advanced registration: film@buchmesse.de
11 a.m.: Spotlight, in cooperation with the Brazilian Consulate General
The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector
A discussion with Britta Egetemeier of Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe, with director Luiz Fernando Carvalho of Brazil
2 p.m.: Book-to-Screen Spotlight, in cooperation with Hessen Film & Medien: 22 Bahnen (22 Lengths)—From Bestseller to Film
In German
Author Caroline Wahl talks with director Mia Maariel Meyer and screenwriter Elena Hell about the film adaptation of 22 Lengths
Moderated by Julia Weigl, artistic director of the Munich Film Festival.
► At 7:30 p.m., the film adaptation will be awarded the Frankfurter Buchmesse Prize for Best Adaptation on the evening of October 17 as part of the Hessian Film and Cinema Awards, at Alte Oper Frankfurt
3 to 5 p.m. Open Book-to-Screen Lounge in room Relation
A meeting place for publishing, film, and games professionals; no registration required
Related Programming
October 14, 5 to 7 p.m.: At the networking reception of the Frankfurt Rights Meeting, Keith Bennie, vice-president for public programming with the Toronto Film Festival, will talk about the journey of intellectual property across different formats and the roles of festivals and fairs as places for dialogue and innovation. (More on Frankfurt Rights Meeting).
Partnerships
International Partners
- ACE Producers
- Czech Film Center
- EAVE (European Audiovisual Film Entrepreneurs)
- ICAA (Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales, Spanish Film Institute)
The Czech Film Center and ICAA are bringing delegations of international producers to Frankfurt.
German Partners
- Berlinale Co-Production Market
- Hessen Film & Medien
- Film und Kinobüro Hessen e.V, PROG, Producers of Germany
- DDV (Deutscher Drehbuchverband)
This year, Frankfurter Buchmesse showcases book-to-screen formats with partners at book fairs in Brussels, Thessaloniki, and Prague as well as at the film festival in Karlovy Vary.
More information on Frankfurt’s Book-to-Screen Day is here.
More from Publishing Perspectives on film and television development is here, more on Frankfurter Buchmesse is here, and more on the German book-publishing industry and marketplace is here.
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