To students, Taormina is home to one of Auburn's summer study-abroad programs. To everyone else, the hillside town on the coast of Sicily is host to the internationally acclaimed Taormina Film Festival.
Each summer, students' travel to Taormina to take classes at the Babilonia Italian Language School, visit the Sicilian cities of Palermo, Agrigento and Catania, and walk the streets alongside Hollywood actors like Jack Black and James Franco. Dr. Rosetta Giuliani Caponetto, assistant professor of Italian and the program's director, said Hollywood celebrities attend the festival.
"Rarely they bring bodyguards with them, so you see these famous people wandering the streets and having gelato," Caponetto said. "[...]You can go and say, 'Hey, how are you?' and they'll shake your hand. They're very approachable. It's something that you would not see in the United States because, you know, they do not want to be bothered at all."
This summer marks the festival's 58th year and Taormina's fifth year as host. Although held in Italy, the festival screens films from all over the world. "There was Kung Fu Panda 2, but on various nights they showed the really long version of Alexander, which took two nights to screen," said Amanda Cameron, junior in English and history. "And they had French films and German films and a lot of more independent stuff, but it was mixed in with things you could recognize."
Michelangelo Simoni, junior in journalism, said the festival's array of international movies was his favorite part.
"What was really cool is they had these movies from England and Ireland that premiered there that were just amazing," Simoni said.
"[...] There were some really amazing movies, and they weren't Italian movies, but it was just really cool to see the premiere of them internationally."
Held in the Teatro Antico, a 2,300-year-old Greek theater, the festival incorporates a blend of culture and history. "What is amazing is that the films are screened in a Greek theater, so the landscape is amazing," Caponetto said. "You have this clash of ancient Italy together with the modern, contemporary world. It's really a clash, a beautiful clash." Simoni said the mix of small town history and unprecedented cultural overload makes the festival a special part of the study abroad program.
"When you think of film festivals, you think of New York City, you think of Los Angeles, you think of, even there's another one I think in Venice, but you think of big cities," Simoni said. "Like, you know, it'd be surprising if Auburn had a major film festival, but Taormina is like this little, small coastal town in Sicily, and it has this film festival that a lot of really famous and reputable people in the film industry go to, so it's kind of nice to be in such a historical place that seems to still have a lot of culture."
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