Sıvacı's 'Hear the Yellow' Sweeps Taormina With Four
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- "Hear the Yellow" won Best Film and Best Script at the 72nd Taormina Film Festival, with leads Süleyman Kadim Kabaali and Selva Erdener taking Best Actor and Best Actress in a clean sweep for director Banu Sıvacı.
- Sıvacı's drama follows Suna, a young woman who returns to her drought-stricken Turkish village to confront fracturing family and community ties; the film began its festival run at Berlin in February and marks the director's sophomore feature after 2018's "The Pigeon."
- Jane Campion presided over a Taormina jury that also included Holly Hunter, casting director Francine Maisler, Amazon MGM's Sue Kroll, and director Akinola Davies Jr., with the panel splitting the Best Actress prize ex-aequo to give Greta Scarano a shared award for Guido Chiesa's "Piccolo Miracolo."
- Tut Nyuot won Best Emerging Actor for Ashley Walters' prison drama "Animol," and Berfin Sönmez won Best Emerging Actress for Ben Voit's "Gropiusstadt Supernova."
- Gore Verbinski's genre-bending sci-fi "Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die" won the Golden Cariddino from the festival's Taormina Youth Campus — a body of 300-plus students and 25 young jurors — while Fabio Schifilliti's short "Fili Invisibili" took the ARCA award for Best Short Film.
- The June 10–14 edition opened with the Italian premiere of HBO's "House of the Dragon" in Taormina's ancient Greek theater and hosted the world premiere of Derrick Borte's "Bear Country" starring Russell Crowe, who used a masterclass to discuss his upcoming role in the Chad Stahelski-directed "Highlander" reboot.
- Competition slate also included Mahnaz Mohammadi's "Roya," about an Iranian teacher detained in Tehran's Evin prison, and Michael Gallagher's "The Leader," a true-story drama about the Heaven's Gate cult starring Tim Blake Nelson and Vera Farmiga.
Why it matters: A jury led by Jane Campion and stocked with A-list talent validated a character-driven Turkish drama over bigger-tent competition titles, handing Sıvacı — whose debut premiered in Berlin seven years ago — her most visible international platform yet just as the film moves from festivals toward wider release.
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