Author Susan Johnson’s memoir, Aphrodite’s Breath, will be pitched to leading producers and directors this week after being chosen for the Cannes Film Festival’s Shoot the Book! initiative.
The book, which recounts Johnson taking her 85-year-old mother to live in Greece, is one of only two English-language titles chosen in the main selection by producers and directors from France, the US, Taiwan, and Quebec.
Johnson’s work has been longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Dublin IMPAC Literary Award and shortlisted for the Queensland Premier’s Prize, the Voss Literary Prize, the Christina Stead Award, the National Biography Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.
Shoot the Book! brings together international publishers and agents during the Cannes Film Festival with the aim of connecting them with international producers and directors looking to adapt new literature.
A recent study by SCELF (Civil Society of French-Language Publishers) found that 30 per cent of the books selected as part of the business-focused Marché du Film market (held in conjunction with the Cannes Festival) have signed option agreements with producers.
Shoot the Book! was launched in 2014 by the SCELF and is supported by Centre National du Livre, Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée – CNC, Film Paris Region, Centre Français d’exploitation du droit de Copie, SOFIA, Pro Helvetia, BIEF and Frankfurter Buchmesse.
The judging panel who chose the ten books to be pitched from a field of several hundred were:
- Jacques-Henri Bronckart, Producer, Versus Production, Belgium
- Gabriela Bussmann, Producer, Golden Egg Production, Switzerland
- André Dupuy, Producer, Amalga, Quebec
- Guillaume Ivernel, Director, France
- Edward Noeltner, Producer, Cinema Management Group, USA
- Jérôme Rougier, Head of Development N9ne studio, France
- Wei-Ching Su, Director of Content Development Dep. at TAICCA, Taiwan