Bella Thorne set down at Italy’s Taormina Film Festival this week as guest-curator for its Influential Shorts event in which her own directorial debut Paint Her Red also premiered.
“I sent my short and it got picked and the head of the festival Barrett [Wissman] reached out and asked if I would be down to curate the festival line-up for the shorts. I was like ‘Oh my goodness, obviously, yes’,” Thorne told the Deadline Studio on how she got the job.
Related Stories
Her new film is a portrait of a woman trying to shake off the shackles of male domination. The film also taps into Thorne’s experience of sexual abuse, which she has talked openly about in the past.
“The whole film is like a giant metaphor for what we feel like, these boxes that we were born into, the song that we keep singing… you sing this song and then at some point, you say, ‘What are the words to this song? Do I know the words’. You look around and you’re kind of questioning but you’re dancing too,” said Thorne.
The actress-director delivered a diverse and thoughtful ten-title selection, which screened at the festival’s landmark Ancient Greek amphitheater on Wednesday evening, with a number of the filmmakers joining her on stage.
“To be on the same stage as so many of the greats – wow – would be really be an understatement,” said Thorne of the opportunity to play a film in a venue that has welcomed a host of directing and acting stars in the past.
There were world premieres for Craig Goodwill’s documentary FIFA: A Love Letter To Rwanda; fronted by supermodel Adriana Lima; I Am Khabane, the first short film from Italian-Senegalese TikTok star Khaby Lame, as well as Rita Aldridge’s reflection on beating addiction My Colorful Mind, and Young Wallander actor Yasen Atour’s London-set tragedy drama Good Intentions.
A number of titles had previously made waves on the festival circuit including The Vampire Diaries actress Nina Dobrev’s near-future maternity tale The One; Eva Vik’s sci-fi work Serpentine, starring supermodel Barbara Palvin; Saudi director Taibah’s touching tale Don’t Go Too Far and Leaf Lieber’s post-apocalyptic sexual awakening tale Burrow, which just played at Tribeca.
Talking about her choices, Thorne said of Serpentine: “Eva has a really different way of showing sci fi, especially with a female character lead. That’s always fun, when you can do it different and not just kind of abide by the same boxes that we’re always put into. And so that really attracted me to the short:
“I had also seen it at Tribeca on the big screen. And I was just like, wow, it is a beautiful artwork. I wanted it to have its chance in Italy. I think that people respond very well to this kind of material. It’s different, it’s fun and very beautiful to watch.?
Click above to watch the Deadline Studio to watch the full interview with Thorne on her selection and directorial debut.
Must Read Stories
Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.
