Taormina Film Festival Entices Hollywood Royalty & Indie Stalwarts

Pop star Dua Lipa and actor Callum Turner put Sicily in the spotlight this past weekend with their lavish three-day wedding in Palermo with the likes of Elton John, Charli XCX and Donatella Versace in attendance.

The paparazzi will now be heading to the other side of the Southern Italian island for the Taormina Film Festival where a raft of stars is expected over the course of its 72nd edition running from June 10 to 14.

Unfolding in the picturesque hilltop town of Taormina, which has gained extra fame in recent years as the main location of the second season of The White Lotus, the festival is laying on a mix of starry open-air gala events and a competition program of hardcore arthouse cinema.

Helen Mirren, Russell Crowe, Clive Owen, Emile Hirsch, Scott Eastwood, Abbie Cornish, Miles Teller, Jane Campion, Holly Hunter, Akinola Davies Jr., Sam Nivola, Steve Toussaint and Connie Nielsen are among the talents due in town.

They will be joined by a host of Italian stars including Oscar-nominee Giancarlo Giannini (The Seduction of Mimi, Casino Royale), who will be celebrated with a Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as Franco Nero and Michele Placido who will feted with festival awards.

The festival kicks off this Wednesday with an open-air preview of the third season of HBO’s House of the Dragon ahead of its launch on June 21 in U.S., in Taormina’s famed Ancient Greek Amphitheater. Toussaint, who plays Lord Corlys ‘The Sea Snake’ Velaryon in the show, will be joined by cast members Tom Glynn-Carney, Harry Collett, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell and Tim Blake Nelson.

Hirsch will be feted with a festival international award that same evening. The Into the Wild breakout and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actor will also be exhibiting a selection of his artwork at special show in the heart of the town.

Other gala highlights across the five days and nights, include celebrations of Helen Mirren, with a Lifetime Achievement Award on Friday and an International Achievement Award for Russell Crowe over the weekend.

Mirren will be presented with the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award at a special gala evening dedicated to late Italian acting icon Anna Magnani. The latter will be commemorated with a screening  of a restored version of Luchino Visconti’s Bellissima marking the 75th anniversary of the film’s release and her award-winning lead performance.

Crowe will also be presented with his award ahead of the world premiere of Derrick Borte’s action thriller Bear Country, in which he stars as an ageing club owner who dreams of selling-up and retiring are scuppered when an armed robbery cleans the business out.

The Australian star will be joined in Taormina by the director and co-stars Nina Dobrev and Aaron Paul and also participate in an on-stage public Q&A about his career.

This edition is once again under the stewardship of Artistic Director Tiziana Rocca, who returned to the role in 2025 after being unceremoniously ousted in 2017 amid political turmoil.

After a rocky interim period marked by the pandemic and a revolving door of short-lived festival directors including former Venice head Marco Mueller in 2024, Rocca has thus far ably steered a course through Sicily’s ever choppy political waters and cultural scene.

She is determined to restore the prestige of the festival, which was once a summer stop-off point for major studio titles, at the same time as acknowledging the turbulent times in the backdrop

“At a time when the world is changing rapidly, cinema remains a privileged space for encounter, dialogue, and mutual understanding. This 72nd edition aims to be a celebration of the power of stories, creative freedom, and cinema’s ability to unite different cultures, generations, and sensibilities,” said Rocca in press notes.

One of her first acts on taking up the festival baton in 2025 was to reinstate the International Competition.

Showcasing 10 recent features, it kicks off on Wednesday with screenings of Japanese horror-thriller Erica by Taro Miyaoka as well as Turkish drama Hear the Yellow by Banu Sivaci; female-focused Iranian picture Roya by Mahnaz Mohammadi and Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die by Gore Verbinski which all premiered at the 2026 Berlinale. (scroll down for the full lineup)

This year’s jury is presided over by Jane Campion, with jury members spanning Holly Hunter, who won Best Actress in Campion’s 1994 Oscar winner The Pianist,  costume designer Miyako Bellizzi (Marty Supreme), casting director Francine Maisler (Sinners), director Akinola Davies Jr.(My Father’s Shadow), Amazon MGM Studios Head of Global Marketing, Film, Series Sue Kroll, and Italian star Pietro Castellitto (The Predators, Enea).

This year’s edition also features the Glances of Sicily short film competition with Sam Nivola (The White Lotus) presiding over the youth and student juries.

In sidebar events, jury members Campion, Maisler,  Bellizzi and Hunter, will join Italian actresses Donatella Finocchiaro and Paola Minaccioni; singer Malika Ayane; French actress Clotilde Courau; director Francesca Archibugi; Brazilian actress and writer Fernanda Torres; and young performer Romana Maggiora Vergano in a female focused panel entitled “Women Beyond the Gaze” on Thursday.

Taormina Film Festival 2026 Lineup

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM COMPETITION

SHORT FILM COMPETITION – SGUARDI DI SICILIA (GLANCES OF SICILY)

OUT OF COMPETITION

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