03/07/2024 - Between 12 and 19 July, the Sicilian city’s film festival will combine Hollywood action, psychological thrillers, rom-coms and arthouse cinema to celebrate its 70th edition

The line-up assembled by Marco Müller for the 70th edition of the Taormina Film Festival - opening on Friday 12 July - is set to satisfy all kinds of audiences, from big fans of blockbusters to lovers of Italian romantic comedies.

The Gala is at the heart of the event, a line-up showcasing 7 titles at the Teatro Antico - including 4 world premieres - and placing particular focus on first and second works. It kicks off on 13 July with Mitzi Peirone’s American horror Saint Clare, followed by Lee Isaac Chung’s action film, Twisters, starring British actress Daisy Edgar-Jones, known for the miniseries Normal People. There’ll also be the psychological thriller The Surfer [+see also:
film review
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interview: Lorcan Finnegan
film profile] (Australia/Ireland - treated to a Midnight Screening in Cannes) by Irish director Lorcan Finnegan, starring Nicolas Cage; Il giudice e il boss by Pasquale Scimeca, in memory of the anti-mafia hero, judge and politician Cesare Terranova, and, last but not least, a rom-com trio consisting of the British-Icelandic work Touch [+see also:
film review
film profile], directed by multiple-award-winner Baltasar Kormákur (known for 101 Reykjavik and Everest [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile], among others) and starring Japanese model and singer Kôki, and the two Italian movies L’invenzione di noi due by Corrado Ceron, starring Lino Guanciale, Silvia D’Amico and Paolo Rossi, and Finché notte non ci separi by Riccardo Antonaroli, starring Pilar Fogliati, Filippo Scicchitano and Valeria Bilello, which is scheduled to close the festival.

The Focus Mediterraneo, for its part, will host an international premiere of From Ground Zero [+see also:
film review
film profile], a collective film born out of a project which Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi launched after war broke out on the heels of the terrorist attacks on 7 October 2023: it tells “untold stories” of everyday life in Gaza, as penned by 22 young Palestinian filmmakers. The master of Israeli cinema Amos Gitai is returning to Taormina with Shikun [+see also:
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film profile] (screened in this year’s Berlinale Special) and Danish-Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel will explore the world of illegal Arab immigrants in the European Union by way of To a Land Unknown [+see also:
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interview: Mahdi Fleifel
film profile] (selected in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight). Two films by French authors also feature in this section: an international premiere of the unabridged version of Who Knows? by Jacques Rivette, starring Sergio Castellitto (who’ll introduce the screening), and a world premiere of the English-language version of Filmlovers! [+see also:
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film profile] by Arnaud Desplechin (treated to a Special Screening in Cannes). There’ll also be Chilean-Swedish director Daniel Espinosa telling the story of a people trafficker in the Italian South in Madame Luna [+see also:
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film profile] (presented in the IFFR), and Thierry de Peretti will return to his birth-country, Corsica, by way of In His Own Image [+see also:
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interview: Thierry de Peretti
film profile] (selected for the Directors’ Fortnight), to tell the tale of the political tumult on the island at the end of the 1970s, as explored through the life of a young photographer.

Officina Sicilia, meanwhile, is a special showcase for TV series shot on the island – such as Valeria Golino’s series The Art of Joy [+see also:
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series profile] – and for four first works and one second work, namely Quir [+see also:
film review
interview: Nicola Bellucci
film profile] by Nicola Bellucci, La bocca dell’anima by Giuseppe Carleo, Tre regole infallibili by Marco Gianfreda, Pietra madre by Daniele Greco and Mauro Maugeri, and Il ladro di stelle cadenti by Francisco Saia, not to mention Aurelio Grimaldi’s new movie La rieducazione, screening in a world premiere.

(Translated from Italian)