By Hugo Wintrebert
Copyright vanityfair
We’ve been supporting this movement from the written word to the screen for so long. How many stories that have appeared in Vanity Fair have found a second life in film or on platforms? Michael Mann’s The Insider (1999) was adapted from an investigation into the tobacco industry published in VF’s American edition. The Big Short (2016) owes everything to a series of articles by Michael Lewis on the subprime crisis. The industry has drawn inspiration from the pages of VF France, too. our investigation into the carbon tax scam inspired the documentary Lords of Scam. More recently, our work on the theft of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 2010 gave rise to the comedy The French Job, directed by Dominique Baumard and starring Melvil Poupaud and Sofiane Zermani. This new literary prize, conceived as a bridge between the worlds of literature and cinema, follows in these footsteps.
In addition to the formal qualities of writing and storytelling of the classic awards, the goal is to distinguish books that hold the promise of a film or series. In three categories: novels, graphic novels and non-fiction.
Vanity Fair is joining with two prestigious partners who know a thing or two about adaptation: Mediawan Pictures, represented by its managing director Élisabeth D’Arvieu, and Netflix France, and its vice-president of content Pauline Dauvin.
“Mediawan is proud to partner with Netflix on the Vanity Fair Prize to celebrate the vitality of contemporary literature and its dialogue with cinema,” said D’Arvieu. “We deeply believe in the unique synergy that exists between words and screen, as demonstrated by our recent adaptations of Beating Hearts and The Count of Monte Cristo, as well as our upcoming adaptations of The Man with a Thousand Faces and Fresh Water for Flowers.”
Dauvin, meanwhile, declared herself “extremely honored” to join the jury. “I didn’t hesitate to be part of this first edition because it echoes our mission at Netflix: storytelling is our DNA. At the heart of our business is the constant quest for powerful texts and original ideas. Every day, my team and I are obsessed with unearthing these literary gems, discovering new voices and spreading the wealth of French imagination to reach a wide audience. We can’t wait to discover the next works that will set French audiences on fire.”
A Prestigious Jury
Joining them is a renowned distributor, MK2, in the person of its co-general manager, Elisha Karmitz, who also produced Joachim Trier’s latest film, Sentimental Value.
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
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.
