Taormina Film Festival Harnesses Power of Hollywood, Independent Cinema to Drive 70th Edition

The world premiere of Mitzi Peirone’s horror film “Saint Clare” will open the Taormina Film Festival, this year celebrating its 70th anniversary edition. The adaptation of Don Roff’s novel stars Bella Thorne, Ryan Phillippe, Frank Whaley and Rebecca De Mornay. It’s the first of four world premieres to screen at the outdoor Teatro Antico in the Sicilian town, which looks out towards Mount Etna, an active volcano, to the West.

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Lee Isaac Chung’s highly anticipated remake/sequel “Twisters,” distributed by Warner Bros. in Italy, is blowing into town for its local premiere. Starring “Normal People’s” Daisy Edgar Jones and “Hitman” star Glen Powell, the “Minari” director’s film is a reupping of Jan de Bont’s mid-90s classic, with a James Cameron-esque title promising to multiply the mayhem.

Marco Mueller, who has taken over as the festival’s artistic director (see interview ), commented that one of the world premieres, “Mother Stone,” is a film made by a pair of volcanologists turned filmmakers, Daniele Greco and Mauro Maugeri. “If we can get them to stimulate Etna, maybe a little fire, I’m sure that Warner Bros. will want to come to Taormina every year if we can manage that,” he joked.

Nicolas Cage introduces the latest chapter in his long goodbye to cinema acting with a vintage Cage performance in “The Surfer,” Lorcan Finnegan’s surreal dramedy, which premiered at Cannes in May.

Cage attends the event alongside Thorne, De Mornay and Sharon Stone, among other stars. Italian comedy stars Christian De Sica and Carlo Verdone will receive Silver Ribbon awards for their careers.

Changing gears dramatically from his Idris-Elba-fights-a-lion movie “Beast,” Baltasar Kormákur delivers his adaptation of Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson’s bestselling Icelandic novel “Touch.”

Two Italian films are what Mueller describes as anti-romantic rom-coms: Corrado Ceron’s “L’invenzione di Noi Due,” with Lino Guanciale, Silvia D’Amico and Paolo Rossi, and the closing film Riccardo Antonaroli’s “Finché Notte Non Ci Separi,” starring Pilar Fogliati, Filippo Scicchitano and Valeria Bilello.

Bella Thorne-Starrer 'Saint Clare,' Directed by Mitzi Peirone, to Open Italy's Taormina Film Festival

A section of the program will also be dedicated to Sicilian filmmakers and features five world premieres and shows a wide range of genres and concerns. As well as the contemporary Sicilian scene, there will also be a retrospective of restored prints including an early documentary work by Oscar-winning “Nuovo Cinema Paradiso” director Giuseppe Tornatore: “Diary of Guttuso,” a portrait of the Sicilian painter and politician Renato Guttuso from 1982. Valeria Golino will also be showing the cinematic version of her episodic drama “The Art of Joy,” starring Jasmine Trinca.

The political turmoil of the current global situation can seem a world away from the Sicilian town, which received a boost to its tourist industry via Season 2 of “The White Lotus” in 2022. But Mueller has told Variety that the festival “will not hide from the contemporary contradictions of the world.” In the Mediterranean Focus program, “From Ground Zero,” a collective film produced by Rashid Masharawi, brings together work from 22 Palestinian filmmakers to record life in Gaza during the war. Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai will present “Shikun,” which was first shown at the Berlinale in February this year.

A new 4K restoration of Peter Weir’s “Picnic at Hanging Rock,” which won the Charybdis Prize in 1976, will also be shown as part of the 70th anniversary celebrations.

Following several years of political uncertainty, it feels as if Mueller’s vision and experience is precisely what the Sicilian festival needed, taking it into the future with its championing of young filmmakers, while still holding on to its traditional Mediterranean identity.

The festival will run from July 12-19.

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