Already consolidated trajectories, with great first screenings, national and international guests, but also new goals, including the Short Film Competition – Sguardi di Sicilia section, at the seventy-second edition of the Taormina Film Festival, scheduled from today to Sunday with the artistic direction of Tiziana Rocca. Between the Palazzo dei Congressi, the Casa del Cinema, Palazzo Ciampoli and the Teatro Antico, a rich program of meetings, debates and screenings, starting with the Italian preview of the third season of «House of The Dragon», the acclaimed prequel to «Game of Thrones», which will open the screenings at the Teatro Antico this evening. The protagonists Steve Toussaint (Lord Corlys Velaryon), Tom Glynn-Carney (Aegon), Harry Collett (Jacaerys), Bethany Antonia (Baela Targaryen) and Phoebe Campbell (Rhaena) will present the first episode.
Italian cinema on the 11th with «Lemons in Warsaw», a comedy by Bruno Colella presented out of competition. The cast of the film includes Ninni Bruschetta and Nino Frassica from Messina, who will also receive the Taormina Film Festival Achievement Award. On the same day, conversations at the Palacongressi with the international star Clive Owen, Can Yaman and Marco D’Amore, protagonist of «Piccolo Miracle» by Guido Chiesa, the only Italian film in competition. On 12 June, two great presences: Helen Mirren, protagonist of a conversation with the public in the morning, and Giancarlo Giannini, at the festival to present both the film «Baracoa» by Luis Ernesto Doñas and the docufilm «A journey to meet Mimì» by Alfredo Lo Piero, a tribute to Lina Wertmüller’s cult «Mimì metallurgico wounded in honor». Both actors will receive the Taormina Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award. A prestigious recognition, the Taormina Film Festival Achievement also for Russel Crowe, at the Teatro Antico on 13 June with the world premiere of the film «Bear Country» by Derrick Borte. On the same day, Gore Verbinski, Oscar winner for the animated film “Rango”, will be the protagonist of a conversation at the Palacongressi and will present in competition his new film “Good Luck, have fun, don’t die”, a science fiction comedy on the theme of Artificial Intelligence starring the actor Sam Rockwell.
Among the most awaited conversations, the one with the Acese actress Miriam Leone, on the afternoon of the 13th, and on the 14th with three great artists: Michele Placido, Alessandro Preziosi – who will present his documentary «Waiting for King Lear» – and Franco Nero. And, also, Connie Nielsen, Tony Renis, Paola Navone and Scott Eastwood. During the final evening Nero, Placido and Renis will be awarded lifetime achievement awards, while the English actor Sam Nivola – face of Lochlan Ratliff in the series «The White Lotus» and coordinator of the juries of the Campus Giovani and Arca Enel festivals, new to this edition – will receive the Taormina Film Festival Rising Star Award as an emerging talent on the international film scene.
The British action film «Fuze» by David Mackenzie, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, will close. In the afternoon the “Short Film Competition” will close at the Casa del Cinema with the short film “Spalla a shoulder” by Louis Nabil Djalili and the short documentary “Fango” by Daniele Gonciaruk from Messina, on the flood that hit Giampilieri, a hilly hamlet of Messina, in 2009. Godmother of the festival is the Roman actress, Lentinese by adoption, Anna Valle.