Taormina, the pearl of Sicily nestled above the Mediterranean shoreline, annually hosts the Taormina FilmFest. This year’s celebration, which begins on June 20^th, marks the 52^nd Taormina FilmFest. Sponsoring the event for the past four years, Harry Winston Rare Timepieces could not have chosen a better venue to present the "Taormina Arte Awards
for Cinematic Excellence”. These two awards – one for a man and the other for a woman–are the crown jewels of the festival and this year the recipients will receive the Premier Lady Chronograph special series and the Ocean Diver. Both timepieces will debut
to the public for the first time since Baselworld...

A new version of a famous collection that will premiere at Taormina, the Premier Lady Chronograph is a timepiece of remarkable beauty and distinctive character: featured on an elegant tweed strap, its 18K rose gold case is set with 125 brilliant-cut white diamonds, with a total of 2,37 carats. Not only a limited edition but also the epitome of glamour and craftsmanship, this dazzling timepiece is offered engraved with the words "Harry Winston Taormina FilmFest 2006" on the back.

At the 2005 Taormina FilmFest, Harry Winston presented a timepiece that embodied the brand’s vision of sport: the Project Z2 Diver. It was the first Zalium® chronograph in the world to be designed for diving. Each year, the House crafts a gold version based on this Z concept model.

And what better setting than the Taormina Film Festival to launch the 2006 edition rose gold Ocean Diver? It is in this quaint Sicilian city, where the passion for nautical sports meets an appreciation for luxury and glamour, that Harry Winston unveils this timepiece. Its overall design and finish constitute a genuine challenge to even the most skilled
watchmaker. At 3 o’clock, the shuriken, a little star composed of four rose gold branches and inspired by martial arts, rotates to the rhythm of the small second hand, indicating that the movement is working perfectly. Moreover, the mobile attachment lugs, a hallmark of Harry Winston timepieces, have been developed to tilt to 30° in order to better fit the
wrist. But this chronograph would not have been true to the Harry Winston tradition if the craftsmen of the House had not, once more, skillfully combined the three materials that symbolize the brand: zalium and rose gold for the case, white gold for the pushpieces and the crown, and rose gold for the bezel and the lugs.

With their simultaneous emphasis on nautical sports and luxurious glamour, like Taormina itself, these two timepieces will no doubt be among the stars of this event celebrating the art of filmmaking.

Taormina, Sunday, 25 June 2005 - The curtains have closed on the Taormina Filmfest after a week of celebrations and awards honouring the world of cinema and those who make it a national and international success.

The seven winners of the “Taormina Arte Award for Cinematic Excellence” 2005 are:

His almost thirty-year long career of actor, director, writer and producer was rewarded in Taormina with the Taormina Arte Award. Born in Rome in 1950, he achieved a great success in the comical TV program Non Stop, to the point that Sergio Leone decided to produce his first movie, based upon the program's sketches. Un sacco bello (1979) was an enormous success and gave Carlo the possibility to show his chameleonic talent, giving life to a series of funny characters of great success. Among movies, Il bambino e il poliziotto (1989), Gallo cedrone (1998), Tonight at Alice's (1990), L'amore è eterno finche dura (2003). In his career, among many other awards he won 3 Nastro d'Argento.

Film director, he was born in Warsaw in 1939. Since 1980 he has been artistic director of the production company Film Studio TOR. From 1990 to 1994 he was President of the European Federation of Audiovisual Director and President of Eurovisioni. Among the many awards and acknowledgments, he won a David di Donatello, and is a Cavalier of the Restituta Cross of Poland and a Chevalier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, also member of the Polish Academy of Science and the Association of Polish writers. He is the author of numerous essays, as O montazu w filmie amatorskim (1968), Pora umierac (It is time to die 1999).

The pianist and composer Luis Bacalov was born in Buenos Aires and began his music performances in Argentina when he was very young. From the 60s on, he's been an active composer of soundtracks for cinema, both in Italy and France writing for films as La noia (1963), Questa volta parliamo di uomini (1965), Milano calibro 9 (1972), etc. He becomes extremely famous when Federico Fellini assigns him the soundtrack of La citta delle donne (1980) and was awarded numerous awards and had several nominations for the movie soundtrack of Il Postino. Bacalov is also an active conductor and pianist in Europe, USA and Latin America.

Born in Naples from an Italian father and a Greek mother she did some modelling before moving back to Rome at 16 years old. She met director Lina Wertmuller who cast her for the movie Scherzo del destino in agguato dietro l'angolo come un brigante da strada (1983). In 1988, she moved the USA where she was well greeted, siding Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man from Barry Levinson. She was directed by Sean Penn in 1991 in Lupo Solitario. Her career has proved to be constant and we have seen her recently in the role of a terminally ill young woman in Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her (2000) by Rodrigo Garcia, and an outcast islander in Respiro (2002), then in La Guerra di Mario (2005).

Dante Ferretti, the famous scene designer and Francesca Lo Schiavo (interior decorator), began to work together in 1980 on the set of Liliana Cavani's “The Skin”. A working union that began, as Ferretti explains, after their sentimental union. The Ferrettis have worked together since then and have created sets for great Hollywood masterpieces. In Hollywood, in fact, Ferretti made his debut with Martin Scorsese, who he had met at Cinecitta on the set of Fellini's film “City of Women” and since then he has become an indispensable collaborator for the American producer. With Scorsese he has made, among other movies, “The Age of Innocence”, “Casino”, “Kundun”, “Gangs of New York”.

She was born in Amritsar, India, and received a degree in Philosophy from the University in New Delhi. In 1991, Mehta produced and directed her first feature film Sam & Me, winning the first Honorable Mention at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1993, she directed her second feature film, Camilla. Fire, Mehta's third feature film, won the federal Express Award for Best Canadian Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Earth won the Prix Premiere du Public at the Festival dufilm Asiatique de Deauville in March 1999. Water (2004) is the third film in the elements trilogy.