Best Movies Based on Booker Prize Winning Novels

1. Schindler’s List

Based on the prize-winning 1982 novel by Thomas Keneally originally titled Schindler’s Ark, this is a harrowing and emotional story of a repentant businessman who risks everything to save over a thousand Jewish refugees from certain death in a WWII concentration camp. Directed by Steven Spielberg, it remains one of the most powerful booker prize winning books brought to life on screen.

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2. The Remains of the Day

Adapted from the 1989 Booker Prize winning novel of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro, this 1993 film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson captures all of the drama and romance that made the book so brilliant in the first place. Much like exploring reasons classic film adaptations match the book, this movie captures Ishiguro’s subtle narrative style onto the screen.

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3. Life of Pi

Written by Yann Martel, many believed that it was a novel that could never be transferred to the big screen, but Life of Pi was brought to vivid life thanks to the amazing talent and creativity of filmmaker Ang Lee, crafting one of the top movies based on novels in recent cinema history.

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4. Heat and Dust

This 1982 Merchant Ivory production is a lush, atmospheric period piece based on the book by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who also wrote the screenplay. Set in two distinct eras—colonial India of the 1920s and the independent, freewheeling India of the early 1980s—it explores Anglo-Indian relations through the power of romance as told by the story of two women.

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5. Disgrace

A novel by J.M. Coetzee from 1999, this big screen adaptation of the gripping drama Disgrace stars John Malkovich as a South African professor who seduces a student and is fired. It stands out among booker prize winning novels adapted for film.

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6. The English Patient

In my opinion, The English Patient is one of those rare cases when the film adaptation is even better than the already amazing novel. The book was written in 1992 by Michael Ondaatje, and they could only wait until 1996 to bring it to the big screen. It really is an amazing movie.

Key elements that make movies based on english novels stand out on screen:

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7. Midnight’s Children

The book was written by Salman Rushdie. Two children, born within moments of India gaining independence from Britain, grow up in the country that is nothing like their parent's generation. It remains a fascinating booker prize shortlisted novel made into a movie.

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8. Oscar and Lucinda

Based on a 1988 novel by Australian writer Peter Carey, the film tells a sweeping story about a couple who love each other as much as they love gambling!

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9. Wolf Hall

Not a movie, but definitely worth a mention is the TV series of Wolf Hall, based on the amazing novel by author Hilary Mantel that details the drama of the Tudor reign in England. (Mantel’s sequel to Wolf Hall – Bringing Up the Bodies - also won the Booker Prize.) If you loved The Tudors, you must watch this.

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Which of these have you seen? Midnight’s Children is the only one I haven’t watched yet but will set that right this year.