Last year, Italian marketing guru Tiziana Rocca returned to the post of artistic director of Italy’s Taormina Film Festival eight years after she was forced to step down due to political infighting following a successful five-year stint. The festivals specialist, who nurtures close ties to Hollywood, revived Taormina’s competitive strands and brought major names such as Martin Scorsese to speak at the festival in her return year.
This year’s edition is set to be another starry one, with major names such as Helen Mirren, Russell Crowe, Clive Owen, Jane Campion and Scott Eastwood set to land in the Sicilian town next week. Speaking with Variety amidst preparations for the upcoming event, Rocca says her priority is to build a festival that “feels like it is for everybody.”
“We have this incredible Greek theater with so much history that is a spectacular venue for 6,000 people,” she adds of the festival home, an imposing auditorium carved into a Sicilian hillside above the Ionian Sea. “But to fill this theater, we need to make sure that the program is very popular. This year, we have films from all over the world, and we want to have lots and lots of young people in the theater every evening. This festival energy is very important.”
