Taormina Film Festival Organizers On Challenge Of Mounting Their First Fest With Two Months To Plan – Taormina Studio

The 69th Taormina Film Festival in Sicily drew starpower that included Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Mads Mikkelsen from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Amber Heard from In the Fire, Zoe Saldana and Marco Perego from The Absence of Eden, and honored guests like John Landis, Willem Dafoe and Abel Ferrara.

The fest, which needed to be rebooted, was put together two and a half months after Ester Bonafede, the superintendent of the Taormina Arte Sicilia Foundation, tapped Beatrice Venezi and Barrett Wissman as the fest’s co-artistic directors.

The co-directors and Bonafede hail from musical backgrounds — Venezi is a conductor who served that role during an opening-night performance by opera stars Placido Domingo, Vittorio Grigolo, Marcelo Alvarez, Aida Garifullina and Andrea Griminelli for the benefit event Pavarotti Forever — and while the location is picturesque and an evening premiere at the ancient Greek-built and Roman refurbished Teatro Antico amphitheater is a singular showcase, the organizers learned the limitations of a small village with narrow corridors.

While they wanted to show off stars like the legendary Ford, delivering him for a red-carpet stint was a mission impossible due to heavy crowds. There were also political hurdles to overcome, like when a local politician flexed some muscle by locking the festival headquarters in the final moments of the gathering.

At Deadline’s Taormina Studio, they discuss the challenges, and their plans to draw more starpower and better manage the logistics for the 70th Taormina Film Festival next year, when they have more than a short burst of time to put together the program.

Watch the conversation above.