‘For Your Sake’ Grabs Top Prize at Taormina Film Festival

The Taormina Film Festival wrapped its 71st edition with Axel Monsú’s “For Your Sake” taking home the top prize. The Argentinian film tells the story of a young girl played by Sabrina Melgarejo, whose life is restricted by poverty and an oppressive religion until she decides to make an attempt at taking her destiny into her own hands. The prize for best director went to Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza for their Iraqi set war movie “Warfare,” which plays out in real time and is based on real events experienced by Mendoza who wrote the script with Garland.

The jury – led by Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and including Academy Award winning costume designer Sandy Powell, former Variety vice-president of content Steven Gaydos and Italian actresses Ilenia Pastorelli and Alessandra Mastronardi – gave the acting honors to Ebada Hassan, who starred in Nadia Fall’s “Brides” and Geoffrey Rush for the thriller “The Rule of Jenny Pen,” in which he starred with John Lithgow.

Rush had already received a Taormina Excellence Award earlier in the festival. Similarly honored with prizes were the likes of Michael Douglas, Catherine Deneuve, Helen Hunt, Dennis Quaid, Billy Zane, James Franco, Rupert Everett and Olivia Wilde. The biggest pull of the festival was almost certainly Martin Scorsese, who received a lifetime achievement award and spoke movingly of his family’s Sicilian roots.

Having only been placed in her post three months prior to the start of the Sicilian festival, artistic director Tiziana Rocca has managed to create a celebration which included both top class Hollywood talent alongside Italian stars such as Luca Zingaretti (“Ispettore Montalbano”), Salvatore Esposito (“Gomorra”) and Monica Bellucci, who will close the festival in a sold out ceremony on Saturday night, accompanied by her husband Tim Burton and introducing a screening of Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Malena” on its 25th anniversary in the Ancient Greek Theater.