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The business area

Photos by Ilaria Palmas

The IBF 2010 featured a special focus on India

A record number of participants for the 2010 IBF – International Book Forum, the business area at the Torino International Book Fair that is dedicated to rights exchange for publishing and audiovisual materials for translation or adaptation. Over 800 people used the service, 120 of whom were invited as part of the collaboration with the National Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE). These professionals came from more than 30 countries (e.g. Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Germany, Mexico, Romania, Russia, Sweden, and the USA) and included literary agents, rights managers, producers and publishing scouts for cinema, television and multimedia productions. For the three days of the Forum (from Thursday 13 to Saturday 15 May) they occupied the 200 tables set up in the Lingotto Conference Centre, the hub of the b2b operations at the Torino International Book Fair, taking part in a total of 7500 meetings (1500 more than in 2009).

These three days saw many deals struck: Arlina Dudaj, head of Dudaj Publishing (Albania), bought the publishing rights for the translation of several books, as for example, Bianca come il latte rossa come il sangue by Alessandro D'Avenia from Mondadori, and Che la festa cominci by Niccolò Ammaniti from Kylee Doust agency (Dudaj had already bought the rights to his previous three books at the London and Frankfurt Book Fairs).

No European publisher, much less those in Italy, could contemplate their business growth and development solely through the output of their national authors.Over one in five publishing houses in Italy “works” abroad: 21% of Italian publishers who produced a new book in 2007 have bought or sold publishing rights abroad over the last four years, a significant growth bearing in mind that the figure in 2004 was 15% (+75%).The two periods examined (2001-2003 and 2004-2008) have seen an increase in the number of publishers involved in exchange programmes and processes. There has been an increase both in the number of publishers who purchase from abroad and those who sell abroad. However, there are different dynamics due to company size that affect their organizational capacity, personnel and theeconomic-financial resources available for editorial projects:

Among the international guests of the IBF 2010, expect to meet several North-American producers and book scouts looking for good ideas for an adaptation. Mark James is Director of Development & Production at Columbia Pictures/Sony Entertainment (they recently produced the film based on David Peace’s novel, Damned United, a book on the life of the legendary football manager Brian Clough), Claire Lundberg is the literary scout of Metro Goldwyn Mayer/United Artists (MGM/UA is co-producing  the two-part film Hobbit, expected for 2012-2013, based on the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien and directed by Guillermo del Toro), Anna Kokourina is the Director of Development of Fox International (co-producers of the next Michele Placido movie, based on the biography of the notorious Italian bandit Renato Vallanzasca). The representatives of two talent agencies are also attending: Josie Freedman of International Creative Management (the talent agency representing actors, directors and writers such as Al Pacino, Samuel L. Jackson, Woody Allen, Patricia Cornwell and Cormac McCarthy) and Steve Fisher of the Agency for Performing Arts (the agency that recently sold the film rights of the novels The opposite of love by Julie Buxman and Talent Thief by Alex Williams). Canada will be represented by Anthony Cianciotta, head of acquisitions of D Films and president of  T.C. Film Marketing and Distribution.