:: Sponsors

Great news for the TaorminaFilmFest! From this 48th edition, the Festival will have a new name, Taormina BNL FilmFest. The Festival will be -as ever- organized by the Taormina Art Committee, chaired by the Mayor of Taormina, Mario Bolognari, and composed by the President of the Regional Province of Messina, Giuseppe Buzzanca, and by the Mayor of Messina, Salvatore Leonardi. The general secretary will be Antonino Panzera, with the primary support of the Sicilian Region - Regional Board of Counsellors of Tourism and of the Ministry of Goods and Cultural Activities - General Direction for cinema. BNL will sustain the event with a decisive investment of resources and know-how for the next three years. This partnership is intend to develop the Sicilian artistic event in order to project it in a more international context. The new agreement with BNL provides the festival with two important new competitive sections - with the collaboration of the Sicilian Regional Board of Counsellors of Cultural Affairs , Regional Film Library- to award short film makers: the BNL International Short Film Award and the Sicilian Short-Films BNL Award. The great interest for the Sicilian event - literally reborn in the last three years under the direction of Felice Laudadio, director of the Venice Film Festival in 1997 and 1998 and currently the president of Cinecittà Holding - is confirmed by the significant intervention of both BNL and another new partner, the air company Air One, as the official carrier of the festival's important guests. The traditional sponsor of the Festival, the Centro d'Informazione Diamanti, representative of DTC (Diamond Trading Company) of De Beers Group in Italy, world leader in the extraction and commercialisation of rough diamonds, is again supporting the Taormina-BNL FilmFest. The big stars of international cinema who will be awarded with the Taormina Art Diamond Award will thus travel with Air One. The official prize of the Festival, like in the past years, consists in a precious tennis bracelet made of diamonds offered by Centro d'Informazione Diamanti.
As well as last year, in collaboration with the Bureau for Stay and Tourism the Festival will become an integrated product with the offers of the city and the territory.

:: Aprilia is at the Taormina Arte Festival 2002

Aprilia is the second European producer of motorcycles and scooters and it is the first and only non-Japanese producer of the whole range of road vehicles with two wheels.
A little more than thirty years have elapsed and Aprilia, due to its successes, design, technologic researches, and executive organisation has grown to such an extent as to become a reference for both Italian and European industry of motor vehicles with two wheels.
Passion, enthusiasm, technology, these are the special characteristics distinguishing Aprilia and these have given it the opportunity to realise innovative products as regards both their style and technology.
Aprilia will be taking part in the 2002 edition of the prestigious Taormina Arte Festival, whose first editio dates back to 1983, and that, for almost 20 years, has been distinguishing itself as one of the most important events in the Italian and European show business.
For a company like Aprilia, which has always esteemed creativity to be very important, the date with Taormina Arte represents a great moment as this meeting brings together, ideally, the two worlds of industry and art.

:: UNIQUE CELEBRITY PICTURES BY PHOTOMOVIE

At the Congress Hall, on the first floor, the Festival is hosting an exhibition realised in association with the Centro d'Informazione Diamanti and with Photomovie, Polaroid Unique Celebrity Pictures. For three years, the Taormina Bnl Film Fest has been hosting this extraordinary collection of photographs of the artists who were presented the Diamond Award and of other important guests as well. It is a unique collection in the world and it counts more than 800 pictures of some of the greatest national and international stars of cinema.