The Booker Prize 2025 is once again bridging the worlds of literature and performance with the announcement of a stellar cast for its annual shortlist films. Multi-award-winning musician Stormzy and Olivier Award-winning actor Rory Kinnear are among the high-profile artists set to perform extracts from the six nominated books.
The impressive lineup, revealed in a trailer on the Booker Prizes’ social media, also includes BAFTA-winning actor Katherine Parkinson (The IT Crowd, Humans), BAFTA Cymru-winner Gabrielle Creevy, actor Shazad Latif, and Mercury Prize-winner Arlo Parks. Each artist will read from one of the six books shortlisted for the world’s most significant award for a single work of fiction.
The full films will be released on Wednesday, October 8, 2025, on the Booker Prizes' website and social channels. They are directed by Sasha Nathwani, whose recent debut feature Last Swim won the Crystal Bear at the 2024 Berlinale. Nathwani aimed to create an intimate, cinematic space where "the intimacy of the readings could breathe," allowing the emotion of the extracts to connect deeply with the audience.
This cinematic approach has proved hugely successful for the Booker Prize Foundation. The 2024 films amassed over 83 million views online, highlighting the power of celebrity performance to bring challenging literature to a mass audience.
The Readings
The films feature these pairings:
Stormzy reads from Flesh by David Szalay.
Rory Kinnear reads from The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits.
Arlo Parks reads from The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller.
Katherine Parkinson reads from Audition by Katie Kitamura.
Gabrielle Creevy reads from Flashlight by Susan Choi.
Shazad Latif reads from The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai.
The films will also be shown at the highly anticipated Booker Prize 2025 ceremony on Monday, November 10, where the £50,000 winner will be announced.
