Former Venice Movie Pageant head Marco Müller has been named Creative Director of Italy’s Taormina Movie Fest. 

The announcement was made immediately by the particular commissioner of the Taormina Arte Sicilia Basis/ Fondazione Taormina Arte Sicilia, Sergio Bonomo, who stated: “Maestro Müller’s skilled contribution will probably be a driving drive of success for the celebrated movie occasion”.

The competition’s seventieth version runs this yr from July 12 to 19. 

“I’m joyful to work in Sicily to rediscover my roots – I used to be born and raised in Rome, however my solely quarter of Italian blood is from Palermo,” Müller stated. 

“I thank all of the individuals, within the establishments and amongst associates of cinema, who’ve constructed for me this chance to experiment in Taormina the shifting considered how a helpful in style competition can nonetheless be constructed. We’ll use the extraordinary Teatro Antico – which was at all times a supply of jealousy for me once I was programming Locarno’s Piazza Grande – and different cinemas in Taormina.” 

Müller will curate this yr’s version with a wider choice committee, together with Sandra Hebron, Enrico Magrelli, Carmelo Marabello, and Édouard Waintrop, who will probably be joined by Joumane Chahine as guide for worldwide relations. 

Taormina relaunched final yr, with fest organizers drawing in some heavy star energy. Company included Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Mads Mikkelsen from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Future, Amber Heard from Within the Fireplace, Zoe Saldana and Marco Perego from The Absence of Eden. Different honored visitors included John Landis, Willem Dafoe and Abel Ferrara.

Cateno De Luca, Mayor of Taormina, added: “The Taormina Movie Fest represents an appointment of nice significance that brings status to our splendid metropolis and enhances its cultural excessive worth. A convention that has been happening for 70 years and that has given Taormina unforgettable pages of movie historical past. I hope that the Taormina Movie Fest will at all times stay as much as its historical past and to the Taormina model. I congratulate Maestro Müller on his appointment and want him a wonderful route of the Pageant being positive that he’ll have the ability to give us a prestigious seventieth version.”