Rome Film Festival Incumbent Artistic Director Speaks Out About Rival Candidate Marco Mueller

ROME – International Rome Film Festival incumbent artistic director Piera Detassis said Wednesday that statements from the head of the film industry association ANICA on their preference for the new head of the festival were “disrespectful” amid suggestions that rival candidate Marco Mueller might be a good fit to fill the recently vacated spot as head of the Taormina Film Festival.
 
Detassis, who, along with Mueller, is one of two favorites to head the next edition of the seven-year-old Rome event, referred to the announcement Monday from ANICA that Mueller should be appointed to the position, arguing that the festival could “disappear” without him.
 
Speaking to a standing-room-only crowd of journalists and industry figures at Rome’s Cinema Library in a discussion on the future of the Rome festival, Detassis scolded ANICA for opining on a decision in which he had no official say. She said Tozzi’s remarks were disrespectful to her and that they did not give the proper importance to the process being used to select a new artistic director in Rome.

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In addition to her comments about Tozzi, Detassis briefly referenced the Sicily-based Taormina Film Festival, where The Hollywood Reporter’s new International Film Editor, Deborah Young, vacated the artistic director job on Feb. 9. Detassis made a nod toward media speculation that Mueller, who was removed as the Venice Film Festival’s artistic director in December, could be a good fit in Taormina.
 
Other figures named as possible replacements for Young in Taormina were author, film director, and producer Elisabetta Sgarbi and Union of Journalists director Laura Delli Colli.
 
The decision on the next artistic director of the Rome event could come at any time: votes on the subject have already been delayed at least three times.  
 
Taormina officials told THR they are searching for a replacement for Young, though they have not officially released any names associated with the search.