Jane Campion to Head Jury at Italy’s Taormina Film Festival
According to the CinemaDrame News Agency, Jane Campion will serve as the head of the jury at Italy’s Taormina Film Festival. The cinematic event will take place from June 10 to 14 along the Sicilian coastline.
Having a jury chaired by the Oscar-winning director—recipient of two Academy Awards for The Piano (1993) and The Power of the Dog (2021), and the first woman in history to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival—will enhance the international prestige of the long-standing Sicilian festival. Now in its seventy-second edition, the festival is being revitalized under the guidance of marketing and festival expert Tiziana Rocca.
Rocca, who maintains close ties with Hollywood, resumed leadership of the Taormina Festival in 2025, eight years after stepping down in 2017 due to political disagreements. Her first initiative last year was to reinstate the competitive section featuring ten films.
The 2025 Taormina jury was chaired by Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who won an Oscar for her role in The Holdovers.
Campion, who previously chaired the jury at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and served on the main competition jury at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, represents an important selection for Rocca.
In a statement, Rocca said:
“We are deeply honored and delighted to welcome Jane Campion as the head of the jury for the seventy-second edition of the Taormina Film Festival. Her extraordinary talent, innovative vision, and foundational contribution to the history of contemporary cinema make her an essential reference. Her artistic sensitivity and authority will add tremendous value to this edition, highlighting quality films and inspiring the filmmakers attending the festival.”
The festival, held along the Sicilian coast since the mid-1950s and known to American audiences as a filming location for the second season of The White Lotus, features a large, open-air ancient amphitheater in the shadow of Mount Etna.
Last year, the festival honored Martin Scorsese along with Michael Douglas, Catherine Deneuve, Helen Hunt, and Olivia Wilde.
Over the decades, Taormina Film Festival guests have included Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Steven Spielberg, Federico Fellini, Pedro Almodóvar, and Tom Cruise.
