Taormina harnesses the power of Hollywood and independent cinema

The world premiere of the horror film “Saint Clare” by Mitzi Peirone will open the Taormina Film Festival, which this year celebrates its 70th anniversary. The adaptation of Don Roff's novel stars Bella Thorne, Ryan Phillippe, Frank Whaley and Rebecca De Mornay. It is the first of four world premieres showing at the Sicilian city's open-air Teatro Antico, which overlooks Mount Etna, an active volcano, to the west.

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

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

Nicolas Cage presents the final chapter of his long farewell to cinema with a vintage performance from Cage in “The Surfer,” Lorcan Finnegan's surreal comedy-drama, which premiered at Cannes in May.
Dramatically changing gears from his Idris-Elba film “Beast,” Baltasar Kormákur’s adaptation of Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson’s bestselling Icelandic novel “Touch” is one of three films that Mueller has described as comedies anti-romantic romantics.

The other two are both Italian films: Corrado Ceron's “The Invention of Noi Due” with Lino Guanciale, Silvia D'Amico and Paolo Rossi, and the closing film “Finché Notte Non Ci Separi” by Riccardo Antonaroli, with Pilar Fogliati, Filippo Scicchitano. and Valerie Bilello. Italian comedy stars Christian De Sica and Carlo Verdone will also receive Silver Ribbon lifetime achievement awards.

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

The political turmoil of the current global situation may seem a long way from the Sicilian city, which received a boost to its tourism industry thanks to season 2 of “The White Lotus” in 2022. But Mueller said 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 the work of 22 Palestinian filmmakers to record life in Gaza during the war. Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai will present “Shikun,” which premiered 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.

After several years of political uncertainty, it seems that Mueller's vision and experience are precisely what the Sicilian festival needed, to take it into the future by supporting young filmmakers, while maintaining its traditional Mediterranean identity.

The festival will take place from July 12 to 19.