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Saint Clare starring Bella Thorne will open this year’s Taormina Film Festival.

The July fest has unveiled gala lineup, including action title Twisters directed by Lee Isaac Chung starring Daisy Edgar-Jones; psychological thriller The Surfer by Lorcan Finnegan starring Nicolas Cage and Il giudice ed il boss, which comes from the director of Placido Rizzotto, Pasquale Scimeca.

The main titles are completed by three rom-coms with the British-Icelandic Touch, directed by filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur and starring Kôki; and two Italian films, L’invenzione di noi due by Corrado Ceron starring Lino Guanciale, Silvia D’Amico and Paolo Rossi; and Finché notte non ci separi by Riccardo Antonaroli starring Pilar Fogliati, Filippo Scicchitano and Valeria Bilello, which closes the festival.

There will be an international premiere of From Ground Zero that presents the “tale of untold stories” signed by 22 young Palestinian filmmakers who have filmed daily life in Gaza. As ever,...

The world premiere of Mitzi Peirone’s horror film “Saint Clare” will open the Taormina Film Festival, this year celebrating its 70th anniversary edition. The adaptation of Don Roff’s novel stars Bella Thorne, Ryan Phillippe, Frank Whaley and Rebecca De Mornay. It’s the first of four world premieres to screen at the outdoor Teatro Antico in the Sicilian town, which looks out towards Mount Etna, an active volcano, to the West.

Lee Isaac Chung’s highly anticipated remake/sequel “Twisters,” distributed by Warner Bros. in Italy, is blowing into town for its local premiere. Starring “Normal People’s” Daisy Edgar Jones and “Hitman” star Glen Powell, the “Minari” director’s film is a reupping of Jan de Bont’s mid-90s classic, with a James Cameron-esque title promising to multiply the mayhem.

Marco Mueller, who has taken over as the festival’s artistic director (see interview), commented...

The news that two hitherto heterosexual patriarchs are getting married — to each other — roils both of their families in amiable “An Almost Ordinary Summer.” This slickly produced . Released last February on its home turf, the Italian comedy was selected to open this year’s Palm Springs Film Festival following several other prominent American fest screenings. Wolfe will give it a limited U.S. theatrical release on Jan. 10, with a home-formats launch on Jan. 21.

A spectacularly situated cliffside villa in coastal Gaeta is the getaway home for wealthy art dealer Toni (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), who has gathered his Earth Mother sister (Lunetta Savino) and his daughters there for his birthday. Somewhat to their surprise, he’s supposedly rented out the guest house to a clan of working-class strangers led by Roman fishmonger Carlo (Alessandro Gassmann).

But this turns out to be a ruse. In fact, Toni and Carlo have been seeing each other for over a year,...

Following the Toronto International Film Festival line-up earlier this week, the 69th Venice Film Festival has weighed in with their choices this morning. Outside of films also premiering at Tiff — including most notably Ramin Bahrani‘s At Any Price and Terrence Malick‘s To the Wonder – they have a strong batch of films not at that fest. We have the highly anticipated next feature from Olivier Assayas (Summer Hours, Carlos), titled Something In The Air, as well as Brian De Palma‘s sensual thriller Passion with Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace.

Then things get a little silly with Harmony Korine‘s James Franco and Selena Gomez gangster/party film Spring Breakers. Rounding out the other major titles are Susanne Bier following up her Oscar win with Love Is All You Need and Spike Lee’s Michael Jackson documentary Bad 25. The lack of Paul Thomas Anderson‘s heavily rumored The Master...

After a remarkable presence at Cannes Film Festival this year, Indian cinema hasn’t had much luck with the prestigious Venice International Film Festival.

The festival, headed by new Director Alberto Barbera announced its lineup today, but no Indian film figures in any of the sections.

The 69th edition of the festival will run from August 29-September 8, 2012. Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist will be the opening film.

In its 2011 edition, the festival had screened Sonchidi by Amit Dutta and Anhey Ghorhey da Daan(Alms of the Blind Horse) by Gurvinder Singh in the Orizzonti (New Horizons) section.

Films in Competition:

Olivier Assayas – APRÈS Mai (Something In The Air)

France, 122′

Clément Métayer, Lola Créton, Félix Armand

Ramin Bahrani – At Any Price

USA, UK, 100′

Zac Efron, Dennis Quaid, Kim Dickens, Heather Graham

Marco Bellocchio – Bella Addormentata

Italy, France, 115′

Toni Servillo, Isabelle Huppert, Alba Rohrwacher, Michele Riondino, Maya Sansa, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio

Peter Brosens,...