The Messina Film Festival between 1995 and 2001 brought important guests to the city (Nanni Moretti, Stefania Sandrelli, Matteo Garrone, Rocco Papaleo, Citto Maselli) and produced shows with international artists, Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, Zbignew Preisner, who live music, exclusively for the Festival, silent films by the Messina director-actor Febo Mari. Important collaborations also with Ennio Morricone who set the rediscovered 1909 silent film L'orfanella di Messina to music and Franco Battiato who performed a live soundtrack for a montage film on the images of the 1908 Messina earthquake.