Taormina Film Festival Celebrates 65 Years with a Star-Studded Week

Under the shining sun of Sicily, the festival's exciting guests and standout films helped to prove why the city is an influential center of cinema.

The Taormina Film Festival has built an impressive reputation over the past 65 years, seeing names like Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Sydney Pollack, Martin Scorsese, and Tom Cruise cross its path. And this year's events were no exception: actress Nicole Kidman, on site for a master class, illuminated the Teatro Antico with her red carpet looks, and American director Oliver Stone (Platoon, Scarface), president of the jury, was the star of the week.

Picciridda, a movie by Italian writer-director Paolo Licata, was a standout winner, earning the Best Screenplay award as well as special mentions for performances by Lucia Sardo and Marta Castiglia. Svetlana Cvetko's Show Me What You Got won Best Film, and Minhal Baig received Best Director honors for her work on Hala. Ellen: Die Stories van Ellen Pakkies stood out for acting chops, with Jarrid Geduld and Jill Levenberg taking home Best Actor and Best Actress respectively, and Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang shared a Best Documentary win for One Child Nation.

Taormina has a solid reputation as one of cinema's most beloved cities, and it has the added bonus of its location in Sicily, which is always a hot summer destination.