EXCLUSIVE: Actor Bella Thorne is heading to the Taormina Film Festival this month with her directorial debut, a short titled Paint Her Red. Today, Deadline can share the first official trailer for the project.
Thorne, who has branched into singing, writing, and directing since breaking out alongside Zendaya at the Disney Channel in the 2010s, wrote the original screenplay for Paint Her Red and also stars.
The work is produced by Sofie Warshafsky and Paige Starke and executive-produced by Julian Wayser. Influencer and model Juliet Sterner also features in the cast.
Paint Her Red will screen at Taormina as part of the festival’s headline Influential Shorts gala, which will screen a series of shorts curated by Thorne. The event will unfold in the festival’s landmark, open-air venue of the Ancient Greek Teatro Antico, set against the backdrop of Sicily’s Mount Etna volcano.
The shorts event was one of the first initiatives put in place by newly appointed Taormina Film Festival Executive and co-Artistic Director Barrett Wissman.
To accompany the shorts program, Thorne is also set to invite a host of well-known artists, celebrities, and influencers to screen their projects as directors and introduce fresh talent she has recently discovered. Titles set for the program include Don’t Walk Too Far from Saudi artist and author Maram Taibah.
Launched in the Sicilian town of Taormina in 1955, the Taormina Film Festival has a long track record of inviting local and international talent with recent guests, including Francis Ford Coppola, Eva Longoria, Susan Sarandon, and Nicole Kidman.
Check out the full trailer above.
