Deborah Young was nominated Artistic Director of the Taormina Film Fest in 2007. Born in Saint Louis, Missouri, she graduated with honors from Wellesley College and received an M.A. in Cinema Studies from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
She is well-known as a journalist, film critic and editor for Variety, where she covered not only Italy but Eastern Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East. From 1990 to 1993 she acted as Variety’s Rome Bureau Chief. In 2008, she left the paper to assume the role of Chief International Film Critic for The Hollywood Reporter. She is also Italian editor for the American monthly magazine Cineaste.
Alongside her journalistic career, Deborah has been a consultant for festivals like the Tribeca Film Festival. She took part in the selection committee of the Venice Film Festival in 1998 before joining the Taormina Film Fest in 1999, where she was named deputy director in 2002. After leaving the festival in 2005, she returned two years later as its artistic director. Under her mandate, Taormina has assumed a strong Mediterranean focus without closing its doors to world cinema. Two new sections have been created, Campus Taormina for young people and Spazio Taormina for industry. She has been instrumental in opening the festival to the rest of Sicily, and in 2009 many new locations around the island are participating under the new festival’s name, Taormina Film Fest in Sicily.
Deborah also continues to select films by emerging directors for New Italian Cinema Events (N.I.C.E.), a traveling showcase for independent Italian cinema that screens new films by young directors in New York, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Moscow and St. Petersburg.
She has been a member of international juries at the following film festivals: Cairo, Edinburgh, Tribeca, Jerusalem, Haifa, Rio de Janeiro, Manaki Brothers Film Camera Festival (Macedonia), Varna (Bulgaria), Carthage, Milan African Film Festival, Naples (jury president), Rotterdam (Fipresci jury president), Mystfest, Pescara and the Grolle d’oro. Since 1999 she has been a permanent member, along with Mario Monicelli, Suso Cecchi D’Amico and Giuliano Montaldo, of the Premio Flaiano jury for achievements in cinema.
She is the director of The Tour (2002), a short feature film of 17 minutes which was shown at the Venice Film Festival, Alpe Adria, Buenos Aires International Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival.
She is well-known as a journalist, film critic and editor for Variety, where she covered not only Italy but Eastern Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East. From 1990 to 1993 she acted as Variety’s Rome Bureau Chief. In 2008, she left the paper to assume the role of Chief International Film Critic for The Hollywood Reporter. She is also Italian editor for the American monthly magazine Cineaste.
Alongside her journalistic career, Deborah has been a consultant for festivals like the Tribeca Film Festival. She took part in the selection committee of the Venice Film Festival in 1998 before joining the Taormina Film Fest in 1999, where she was named deputy director in 2002. After leaving the festival in 2005, she returned two years later as its artistic director. Under her mandate, Taormina has assumed a strong Mediterranean focus without closing its doors to world cinema. Two new sections have been created, Campus Taormina for young people and Spazio Taormina for industry. She has been instrumental in opening the festival to the rest of Sicily, and in 2009 many new locations around the island are participating under the new festival’s name, Taormina Film Fest in Sicily.
Deborah also continues to select films by emerging directors for New Italian Cinema Events (N.I.C.E.), a traveling showcase for independent Italian cinema that screens new films by young directors in New York, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Moscow and St. Petersburg.
She has been a member of international juries at the following film festivals: Cairo, Edinburgh, Tribeca, Jerusalem, Haifa, Rio de Janeiro, Manaki Brothers Film Camera Festival (Macedonia), Varna (Bulgaria), Carthage, Milan African Film Festival, Naples (jury president), Rotterdam (Fipresci jury president), Mystfest, Pescara and the Grolle d’oro. Since 1999 she has been a permanent member, along with Mario Monicelli, Suso Cecchi D’Amico and Giuliano Montaldo, of the Premio Flaiano jury for achievements in cinema.
She is the director of The Tour (2002), a short feature film of 17 minutes which was shown at the Venice Film Festival, Alpe Adria, Buenos Aires International Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival.
