Lucy Boynton, Omari Douglas and Ambika Mod among actors to star in new International Booker Prize films
The cast of actors who star in the International Booker Prize 2025 shortlist films are today revealed in a trailer for the highly anticipated series of shorts, broadcast on the Booker Prizes’ social media channels
The new films showcase the six books shortlisted for this year’s International Booker Prize, the world’s most influential award for translated fiction. The line-up of critically acclaimed actors from film, television and stage who perform extracts from the nominated titles are: Lucy Boynton (A Cruel Love: the Ruth Ellis Story, Bohemian Rhapsody, Sing Street, Miss Potter); Jamie Demetriou (Stath Lets Flats, Fleabag, Barbie, Cruella); Omari Douglas (It’s a Sin, Black Doves, I Hate Suzie Too, Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club); Rosalind Eleazar (Missing You, Slow Horses, The Personal History of David Copperfield, NW); Ambika Mod (One Day, This is Going to Hurt, White Rabbit Red Rabbit, The Stolen Girl); and Peter Serafinowicz (Amandaland, The Gentlemen, Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace).
The films, which will be released in full at 2pm BST on Tuesday, 22 April on the Booker Prizes’ website (thebookerprizes.com) and social channels (@thebookerprizes), are directed by Roxy Rezvany, an award-winning writer-director and producer working in documentary, film and TV, who is currently one of BAFTA’s Elevate filmmakers for 2025-26. They will also be shown at the International Booker Prize ceremony on Tuesday, 20 May at Tate Modern, London.
Lucy Boynton
© Neo Gilder for the Booker Prize Foundation
The Booker Prize Foundation has created the series of six two-minute films featuring well-known actors for its two annual prizes since 2022. The films, released in spring and autumn, have become one of the highlights of the International Booker Prize and the Booker Prize seasons, with the 2024 films viewed online more than 83 million times. The films produced for the Booker Prize 2022, directed by Kevin Thomas, won the Culture category of The Drum Awards for Marketing EMEA 2023.
Previous featured performers include: Dua Lipa, Will Poulter, Jason Isaacs, Adelayo Adedayo, Eleanor Tomlinson, David Jonsson, Anna Friel, Jarvis Cocker, Michelle de Swarte, Caitriona Balfe, David Harewood, Paterson Joseph, Alfred Enoch, Adjoa Andoh, Aisling Bea, Tobias Menzies and Tanya Reynolds.
This is the first time that the Booker Prizes have partnered with Schedule Nine Productions to produce the films. Led by Nikki Isbell, Schedule Nine thrives on collaboration, working with visionary creatives to deliver captivating content that resonates with wide-ranging audiences. Previously, the Booker Prizes partnered with Sharon Horgan’s production company Merman Television. The executive producer for this year’s International Booker Prize films is Jonathan Davenport, who has overseen the previous five sets of shortlist films for the Booker Prizes. The director of photography is Karol Jurga, who counts Givenchy, Stella McCartney and Adidas among his onscreen credits.
The shortlist films are part of a tradition of Booker Prizes adaptations. More than 77 books that have been longlisted or shortlisted for the Booker or International Booker Prize have been adapted for the big or small screen over the years, with several going on to win Oscars, BAFTAS and Emmys. They range from The Remains of the Day to Atonement, Normal People to The Handmaid’s Tale, Wolf Hall to Life of Pi, The True History of the Kelly Gang to The Line of Beauty, The Underground Railroad to Small Things Like These, Hurricane Season to Elena Knows, and releasing this week, The Narrow Road to the Deep North starring Jacob Elordi, and Harvest.
Gaby Wood, Chief Executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, says:
‘More than 70 stories first recognised by the Booker Prizes have been adapted for film and TV, many of which – from Schindler’s List and The English Patient to Life of Pi and Wolf Hall – have become screen classics.
‘So it seemed natural to offer a taste of the books shortlisted for the Booker Prizes in a filmed format, brought to life by superb actors and creative visionaries behind the camera. It’s hugely gratifying to see this come to fruition: since we started making these ‘film trailers for books’ three years ago they have been seen over a hundred million times, and their release has become one of the most anticipated moments of our prizes calendar.
‘We’re hugely grateful to the incredibly talented people we’ve been lucky enough to work with on these short films, including our director for this year’s International Booker Prize shortlist films, Roxy Rezvany. We hope that as well as inspiring more readers to pick up the books, they showcase the best contemporary fiction in translation for the award-winning screenwriters and directors of tomorrow.’
Gaby Wood, Chief Executive of the Booker Prize Foundation
© Clara MoldenRoxy Rezvany, Director, says:
‘All the books hold such vibrant worlds, so the approach was simply to lean into what excited us about the writing. It was a privilege to bring the work of all the nominated writers to life in some small way through these films.’
The six shortlisted books – and the actors reading the extracts – are as follows:
- On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, translated from Danish by Barbara J. Haveland – read by Lucy Boynton
- Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated from French by Helen Stevenson – read by Omari Douglas
- Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami translated from Japanese by Asa Yoneda – read by Rosalind Eleazar
- Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico translated from Italian by Sophie Hughes – read by Jamie Demetriou
- Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi – read by Ambika Mod
- A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre translated from French by Mark Hutchinson – read by Peter Serafinowicz
The International Booker Prize 2025 shortlist
© Yuki Sugiura for the Booker Prize FoundationMore about the International Booker Prize 2025 shortlist
The shortlist of six books – five novels and one collection of short stories – were chosen by the 2025 judging panel, chaired by bestselling Booker Prize-longlisted author Max Porter. Porter is joined by prize-winning poet, director and photographer Caleb Femi; writer and Publishing Director of Wasafiri Sana Goyal; author and International Booker Prize-shortlisted translator Anton Hur; and award-winning singer-songwriter Beth Orton.
The selection celebrates the best works of long-form fiction or collections of short stories translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland between 1 May 2024 and 30 April 2025, as judged by the 2025 panel. The judges whittled down their shortlist from a longlist of 13, selected from 154 books submitted by publishers – the highest number since the prize was launched in its current format in 2016.
The shortlisted books, which are translated from five original languages, feature stories that capture the indomitability of the human spirit, from AI ‘mothers’ parenting manufactured children in a futuristic world to the resilience of girls and women in patriarchal communities in southern India; from a protagonist forced to relive the same day over and over to the distress calls of migrants on a small boat in the Channel; from the agony and joy of lifelong friendship in the shadow of mental illness to a couple’s search for meaningful connections in their digitally curated lives.
This year, the Booker Prize Foundation launched a marketing campaign for the prize, ‘A feast of fiction from around the world’, which features a series of engaging videos to introduce readers to the nominated books and the judges. Watch here.
The International Booker Prize recognises the vital work of translation, with the £50,000 prize money divided equally between the winning author and translator. Each shortlisted title will be awarded a prize of £5,000: £2,500 for the author and £2,500 for the translator. In championing works from around the world that have originated in a wide range of languages, the prize fosters an engaged global community of writers and readers whose experiences and interests transcend national borders.
The International Booker Prize continues to build in global importance each year. The winning author and translator can expect a worldwide readership and a significant increase in profile and sales, including in the author’s home country.
The prize has helped to drive a boom in translated fiction in the UK, with print sales in 2023 reaching a record £26m, up by 12% on the previous year, according to Nielsen BookData. This is largely down to younger readers, with almost half of translated fiction in the UK bought by under-35s. The prize’s influence also extends to other awards, with five authors recognised by the International Booker Prize going on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Further reading at thebookerprizes.com:
The International Booker Prize 2025 judges, Anton Hur, Beth Orton, Caleb Femi, Max Porter and Sana Goyal
© Neo Gilder for the Booker Prize FoundationFor media enquiries, please contact:
Alice Ingall, Communications Manager at the Booker Prize Foundation, at [email protected] / 07899 096 299