22/06/2009

The European region of the Mediterranean Basin took a back seat at the awards of the 55th Taormina Film Fest in Sicily (June 13-20). The festival jury – comprising directors Laurent Cantet (The Class [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carole Scotta
interview: Laurent Cantet
film profile]) and Ari Folman (Waltz with Bashir [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) and US actress Aimee Mullins – gave the Golden Tauro Award of the Mediterranea competition to Syrian film The Long Night by Hatem Ali.

The Special Jury Prize went to Egyptian title Fawzeya’s Secret Recipe by Magdi Ahmed Ali and Best Director to Nour-Eddine Lakhmari’s Casanegra (Morocco).

The only European winner was Emilie Dequenne, who picked up the Best Performance prize for her turn in Andre Téchiné’s The Girl on the Train [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

The Audience Award from the Beyond the Mediterranean competition was won by US documentary Corso: The Last Beat, by producer-director Gustave Reininger.

This year, parts of the main festival programme were also screened in three other cities (Palermo, Siracusa and Palma di Montecchiaro). The initiative was successful enough to inspire festival director Deborah Young to “expand to still other cities next year, and do a lot more advertising in the ones we already have.”

The second edition of the festival market, Spazio Taormina, was also successful according to Young. Participants included [EFM Director] Beki Probst and representatives of nearly 20 distribution companies, among them Roissy Films (France), Bavaria Film (Germany), Rosebud (Greece) and The Weinstein Company (US).

In the future, says Young, “we really need one more screen in Taormina, devoted only to Spazio Taormina. In order to also screen some Sicilian productions and films from the competition that want to participate.”

This year’s Taormina Arte Awards for lifetime achievement went to international icons Catherine Deneuve, Fanny Ardant, Jessica Lange and Dominique Sanda.