Patricia Arquette, Richard Gere to Headline Taormina Film Fest

Sicily’s most glamorous event, the Taormina Film Festival, put together by general manager Tiziana Rocca, brings out the Hollywood glitz this year with a full schedule of new films and international guests.

Recent Oscar winner Patricia Arquette will share the wisdom of her career during a special master class. Guests Richard Gere, Ellen Pompeo and Rupert Everett have also signed up to teach one of the festival’s signature classes.

Guests including Susan Sarandon, James Marsden and Dolph Lundgren will participate in onstage conversations with festival guests.

Jurassic World will have a special outdoor screening on June 11, before the official festivities begin.

Pixar’s latest, Inside Out, will open the festivities at the ancient open-air Greek theater. Director Asia Argento will serve as master of ceremonies.

Rosario Dawson will receive the Taormina Humanitarian Award for her Studio One Eighty Nine, along with partner Abrima Erwiah. Vogue Italia’s Franca Sozzani will host an event for the United Nation’s Fashion 4 Development initiative.

The final two episodes of Game of Thrones, season five, will have a special screening on June 15 in the 8,000-seat Greek theater, a venue that would make even the Khaleesi proud.

Competition films include Beyond the Reach, starring Michael Douglas and Jeremy Irvine, and Cop Car, starring Kevin Bacon.

Hollywood films feature prominently throughout the festival lineup. Out of competition films include the Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara comedy Hot Pursuit and The Diary of a Teenage Girl, starring Alexander Skarsgard and Kristen Wiig.

How to Make Love Like an Englishman, with Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek and Jessica Alba, will have a special screening. And Noah Baumbach’s latest, While We’re Young, starring Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver and Amada Seyfried, will also play.

Italian director Gabriele Salvatores will also teach a master class after a screening of his crowd-sourced film Italy in a Day. The film, cut together from 45,000 videos sent in from all over Italy, premiered in Venice last year.

A sidebar on Cuba will showcase recent shorts and features from the island.

Clint Eastwood’s classic The Bridges of Madison County will have a special 20-year anniversary screening.

And Warner Bros. exec Sue Kroll will be honored with the Taormina Arte Award.

600 Miles, starring Tim Roth, will close the festival. Gabriel Ripstein took home the best first feature award in Berlin for his Mexico-set drug war thriller.

The Taormina Film Fest takes place June 13-20.

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