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Tiziana Rocca The Taormina Film Festival and Filming Italy Visionary
- Ariel Lavi
- Jun 3
- 5 min read
Festival director and producer Tiziana Rocca opens up about bridging the worlds of Italian cinema and Hollywood, championing emerging female voices, and the vulnerable journey of bringing deeply personal stories to the screen.
You have brought Italian cinema to Los Angeles through Filming Italy. Securing a Walk of Fame star for Franco Nero was an unforgettable milestone. When you stand on Hollywood Boulevard, what thoughts come to mind about the journey that bridged these two cinematic worlds?
"Standing on Hollywood Boulevard, reflecting on the honor bestowed upon Franco Nero, is to see a journey materialized—one built over time through continuous dialogue between Italian cinema and the international industry," Rocca observed. "Bringing Italian cinema to Los Angeles with Filming Italy meant creating a real, not symbolic, bridge between two worlds that feed off each other," she added, her tone grounded in deep gratitude. "Moments like the Walk of Fame star do not signify an arrival but rather a responsibility: to continue giving space and visibility to our cinematic culture abroad."
Honoring legends like Franco Nero and Giancarlo Giannini is a beautiful act of cultural preservation. Looking back at your own beginnings, who was the first person to recognize your potential and give you the confidence to become a champion for other artists?
"Throughout my journey, many encounters have been decisive, but often trust arises from small gestures rather than a single name," she shared thoughtfully. "I was fortunate to work with professionals who recognized my organizational commitment and cultural vision from the start. Fieldwork at festivals and productions was a continuous school." Emphasizing her current mission, she noted, "Today, I feel the duty to pass that trust on to new talents, as a natural continuation of my professional story." Acknowledging the steep climb required in her field, she pointed out, "There is also the challenge of being a woman in a male-dominated environment.
Being a female director—such as at the Taormina Film Festival—is always a challenge, requiring triple the effort. Female festival directors are rare, which inspired my project to promote women within festivals. This is reflected in giving space to first-time female directors, as well as actresses and screenwriters."
A core part of your mission at festivals like Taormina is giving equal visibility to female filmmakers and young talent. When you watch the shorts from this new generation, what unique emotional threads give you hope for the future of storytelling?
"Every year at the Filming Italy Sardegna Festival, we see shorts and works that speak a very direct language, often free of artifice," she said with evident pride. "This gives me hope: a narrative sincerity unafraid of fragility. The work with new generations and support for female directors and students shows that diversity of perspective is not only an ethical value but also a creative one.
The future of cinema lies in the ability to listen to these voices." She firmly believes in moving forward, adding, "There is also a fundamental need to advance continuously. It is essential to keep pace with technological and cultural advancements and to consider young people, who represent the festival audiences. We have many students both in Sardinia and Taormina, and organizing sessions for them means offering hope for the future in such a complex world."
"Festivals also have an ethical and social value of sharing, as we strive to have guests share their emotions, passion, and achievements with the students, often through their professional stories," she explained. "Last year, Martin Scorsese held a one-and-a-half-hour seminar, giving hope and confidence to all the young people. The message was clear: from nothing, if you commit and believe in what you do, you can achieve results. This is hope for the future."
Your recent film, Judas’ Gospel, tackles an intense story of love and betrayal from a highly unconventional perspective. Producing such heavy material takes an emotional toll. How did you and your husband, director Giulio Base, find harmony on set while capturing such raw human vulnerability?
"Producing such an intense film means entering a complex emotional territory, but collaborating with Giulio Base allowed us to find a precise balance between instinct and control," Rocca reflected. "On set, the key was mutual trust: sharing a vision without overlapping, letting the direction guide the creative part while production maintained the structure. Judas is not only the guilty one but also the victim, and this emerges in the film," she detailed.
The film takes major creative risks, alternating between color and black and white to show opposing forces. As the producer guiding this specific visual language, what was your immediate reaction upon seeing the final cut through that unique thirty-two-millimeter lens?
"The choice to alternate black and white with color is one of the project’s strongest elements," she noted. "Seeing the final edit shot on film gave a very powerful, almost physical visual impact. As a producer, the moment of the final viewing is always delicate: moving from idea to reality. In this case, the feeling was of a coherent language where form and content support each other."
Expanding on the thematic weight, she explained, "This is not a film that seeks to provide answers: it is a heartbreaking confession. Judas becomes a fundamental instrument for the fulfillment of the Scriptures, but for this to happen, he must transform into one of the most evil men of all time. Perhaps also one of the most generous: he gives his life. He betrays his master, condemning himself to eternal damnation until what is written is fulfilled. Of all the apostles, he will be the only one to die with Jesus."
Because you are usually the one organizing massive events like Taormina and Sardegna, you often play the host. How does it feel to step onto the exact opposite side of that equation, presenting your own deeply personal productions to an audience of your peers?
"Those who organize festivals like Taormina or Filming Italy Sardegna are often used to creating spaces for others," she admitted. "Presenting one’s own project changes the perspective completely: one becomes more exposed but also more aware. It is a passage that requires detachment from the organizational role and a return to the more personal dimension of storytelling."
À la Recherche captures a beautiful nostalgia and a deeply personal search for lost time. Does guiding a piece so rooted in the past change the way you value your own present moments in this industry?
"Working on a piece tied to memory inevitably changes how one observes the present," Rocca said softly. "One becomes more attentive to details and moments often taken for granted. In such a rapidly moving audiovisual sector, focusing on the theme of time also means questioning what truly remains: relationships, images, emotions that survive daily work," she concluded.