The Taormina Film Fest in Sicily, Italy's premier summer festival, celebrates its 56th anniversary from June 12 to 19, 2010 with a new name and a radical change of direction. With the aim of offering festival access to audiences around Sicily, finding extra screening space for its shows, increasing its impact in Sicily, offering a wide range of media stories and increasing tourism in the entire region, from this year the festival becomes the Taormina Film Fest in Sicily. In addition to sharing Taormina’s films and entertaining many of its actors, directors and journalists, each of the new locations around the island will participate in the eight-day festival with its own exclusive film program. Noted American film critic Deborah Young became the festival director in 2007 and has committed to strengthen Taormina’s identity as a Mediterranean festival with strong ties to the US and world cinema.