Marco Mueller Takes Taormina Film Festival Back to Formula Used in Golden Age (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

John Bleasdale Guest Contributor Veteran festival director Marco Mueller was only hired to take over as the artistic director of the Taormina Film Festival in April this year. “I’m stressed out,” he told Variety, two weeks ahead of the festival opening, but he is philosophical. “The history of this island is one of people trying to conquer Sicily, but Sicily has always ended up conquering the conquerors.

We are conquered not only by the beauty of the place, but also the local customs, not to mention the food and wine, of course.” Mueller, who has previously headed the Locarno and the Venice film festivals as well as the Pingyao Film Festival more recently, has a clear vision for the direction he wishes to pursue. “From the moment I signed my contract, I knew I really wanted to go back to the formula that was used in the golden years of the festival, which for me, is the festival of the 1980s.” The beginning of this golden period can be traced back to one event: “In 1976, Peter Weir won the Golden Charybdis for ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock,’ and it established the importance of the film.

From that moment onwards all the producers in the English language territories started thinking that Taormina was a great launching pad for their films.

So, that made it possible for the artistic director Guglielmo Biraghi in the 80s to create a festival which really became a meeting place for everybody.” Mueller is intent on repeating that by discovering and promoting young talent and attracting a new and younger public to the festival. “I never believed that the audience, as a general entity, really exists.