21 Sicily Movies & TV Shows To Inspire Your Trip

Watching Sicily movies and TV shows is the perfect way to daydream about visiting or get excited about a trip!

Sicily has well and truly made its mark on the Italian film industry despite (or, perhaps, because of) its turbulent history. Year after year, production companies at home and overseas cannot get enough of the island’s volcanic landscapes, glistening blue coastlines, and tough-talking locals.

I last visited Sicily in 2019 and discovered so many great movies about Sicily that I hadn’t seen before. Many of them I return to again and again and some great TV shows set in Sicily have popped up since.

Using my love of travel-inspiring films and Italian cinema, I’ve curated a list of movies that will inform you of the most famous movies filmed in Sicily. Not only the most famous but the ones that will paint a picture of what it might have been like to live in a Sicilian town during a bygone era or travel there today.

Let’s grab a box of cannoli, set up a projector in the village piazza, and watch some of the best Sicily movies of all time!

Best TV Shows & Movies Set In Sicily

1. La Terra Trema (1948)

Sicilian, Italian | 165m
82% Rotten Tomatoes

Known as The Earth Trembles in English, let’s start with one of the earlier movies filmed in Sicily. Post-World War II, neorealism was the flavour of the month in Italian cinema. Filmmakers liked shooting gritty movies about the working classes shot outside of studios on location. La Terra Trema was one of those films.

Directed by Luchino Visconti, this film follows the plights of fishermen working in Aci Trezza and their attempt to improve their lives. It was set and shot in this beautiful coastal village using fishermen to play the roles. Visconti (correctly) thought that real-life fishermen could portray the characters better than actors.

If you want to watch movies that take place on the water almost entirely, La Terra Trema is a great example.

2. Stromboli (1949)

Italian, English, Spanish | 107m
71% Rotten Tomatoes

Stromboli is another neorealist movie set in Sicily often paired with La Terra Trema. Even if you’re not a huge cinema lover, you might just recognise lead actress Ingrid Bergman.

She plays a Lithuanian displaced in Italy after WWII who manages to leave an internment camp by marrying an Italian fisherman. He promises her a fantastic life on his home island of Stromboli, but, of course, the conservative and suspicious locals living on the isolated island don’t make things easy.

One of the most famous Italian directors Roberto Rossellini (and future husband of Bergman) shot Stromboli on the real Stromboli, one of the Aeolian Islands off the north coast. Fun fact: It’s home to an active volcano of the same name, one of three in Italy!

3. L’Avventura (1960)

Italian | 143m
96% Rotten Tomatoes

Ranked N.40 on Empire Magazine’s list of The 100 Best Films of World Cinema, L’Avventura is a certified classic. It’s the first movie in director Michelangelo Antonioni’s trilogy and the only film set in Sicily. La Notte (1961) is set in Milan and L’Eclisse (1962) is set in Rome.

L’Avventura is about a young woman who disappears on a boating trip in the Mediterranean and her boyfriend and best friend go looking for her. It doesn’t seem like a nice ‘adventure’ if you ask me! (I’ll see myself out.)

It’s a veritable Sicily travel guide because Antonioni shot L’Avventura all over the island. Sicily movie locations include Messina, the Aeolian Islands, the capital of Palermo, Catania, Syracuse, and even Mount Etna makes an appearance. You can’t skip Mount Etna on a tour of Sicily!

4. Divorce, Italian Style (1961)

Italian | 108m
100% Rotten Tomatoes

Italian movies aren’t all tragedy and war, I promise! There are so many incredible comedies like Divorce, Italian Style. Just check out that Rotten Tomatoes score and all the Academy Awards it was nominated for, even winning Best Original Screenplay.

Divorce, Italian Style stars Marcello Mastroianni fresh from his performance in La Dolce Vita (1960) which even features as an Easter Egg in this film. He plays a rich Sicilian man who plans to kill his wife so he is free to marry another. Divorce wasn’t legal in Italy until 1970, and that’s why this is ‘Italian style’ divorce.

Some of the locations include the Sicilian cities of Ragusa and Catania. Director Pietro Germi shot some scenes at the De Paolis Studios in Rome.

5. Salvatore Giuliano (1962)

Italian, Sicilian | 123m
100% Rotten Tomatoes

Salvatore Giuliano may seem like one of the slightly more obscure Sicily movies, but it’s an excellent neorealist movie with a non-linear narrative. It tells the story of the real-life Salvatore Giuliano, an outlaw in the 1940s. He was involved in the black market food-smuggling business back when locals bought 70% of their food from the black market.

Scratch that, Salvatore Giuliano tells the story of the lives of the people he affected. He had a ‘live fast, die young’ mentality and that unfortunately meant he was dead at 27 years old. Director Francesco Rosi filmed in Trapani and Palermo.

6. The Leopard (1963)

Italian | 161m
98% Rotten Tomatoes

Let’s swing the pendulum back towards comedy with The Leopard, one of the best movies set in Sicily. It’s actually a period movie set in 1860 and follows the Prince of Salina as he tries to hold onto his titles and wealth during a time of great social and political change in Sicily.

It’s a true epic – not just because of the running time – akin to Gone with the Wind (1939) or Lawrence of Arabia (1962) so it has a high production value. Director Luchino Visconti (yes, of La Terra Terma! He’s come a long way from fishermen) shot a many scenes in Palermo on grand estates like Palazzo Valguarnera-Gangi. He also filmed in Rome.

7. The Godfather (1972)

English, Italian | 177m
98% Rotten Tomatoes

I think, I think, there’s a slim chance you’ve heard about The Godfather before. It’s probably the first film you thought of when searching for the best movies about Sicily, right? No one will blame you for that. There aren’t many (mostly) English-speaking movies set (partly) in Sicily.

In a nutshell, The Godfather follows Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, the son of Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) who is a Sicilian immigrant and Mafia boss living in New York City. Despite his attempts to stay out of his family’s less-than-legal family business, he gets pulled in when another member of the Five Families tries to kill his father.

The Corleone family are named ‘Corleone’ because that’s the Sicilian town where Don Vito is from. When filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola was scouting filming locations for The Godfather‘s Sicily scenes, he wanted to shoot in Corleone. However, The Godfather was set in the 1940s and when he was filming in the 1970s, the town looked too modern.

So, he mostly filmed in towns and villages along Sicily’s east coast near Messina and Taormina. If you’re looking for movies filmed in Taormina, Sicily then it’s definitely the most notable. I have an extensive The Godfather filming locations guide you should read!

Read more: The Godfather Filming Location Guide (Parts I, II, & III)

8. The Godfather Part II (1974)

English, Italian | 200m
97% Rotten Tomatoes

Of course, the next item on my films set in Sicily list is The Godfather Part II. Al Pacino is back playing Michael Corleone, the new don, but there’s a new addition of Robert de Niro playing the young Vito Corleone. The movie straddles two timelines and there is a trip to Sicily in the flashback.

Again, Francis Ford Coppola returns to Sicily to film the Corleone scenes. There’s a new Sicily location, a train station, but many filming locations are the same as those in The Godfather.

Some people say they like The Godfather Part II better than The Godfather but those people are out of their d*mn minds! The Godfather Part II is phenomenal, but The Godfather is one of the greatest movies ever made.

9. Cinema Paradiso (1988)

Italian, Sicilian, English, Portuguese | 155m
90% Rotten Tomatoes

I feel a little sad for anyone who hasn’t experienced the joy of watching Cinema Paradiso. Actually, I should feel sad for people who will never again experience the joy of watching Cinema Paradiso for the first time. This is one of the most special Sicily movies and one of the best Italian coming-of-age movies of all time.

Set in the fictional village of Giancarlo, Cinema Paradiso follows the life of fictional filmmaker Salvatore Di Vita and his childhood growing up in small-town Sicily. He spends much of his time in the ‘Cinema Paradiso’ projection booth where he becomes pals with the projectionist.

This movie is a celebration of cinema and all types of love. Director Giuseppe Tornatore brings Cinema Paradiso to life and ‘Giancarlo’ through filming locations in Cefalù and Palermo. I have a filming locations guide you should check out if you want a full location breakdown and a map!

Read more: Cinema Paradiso Filming Locations in Sicily Guide

10. The Godfather Part III (1990)

English, Italian | 162m | 68% Rotten Tomatoes

Let’s briefly return to New York City and Sicily with The Godfather Part III. Branded easily the worst movie of the trilogy, I don’t think it’s that bad! It’s just absolutely, unequivocally, nowhere near the quality of the first two films.

The Godfather Part III brings the entire family to not just Corleone but Palermo as Michael Corleone’s son is appearing in concert at Teatro Massimo. There are some brand new locations in this final part that you can find out more about in my The Godfather locations guide.

11. Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

English | 110m
90% Rotten Tomatoes

This is the first Sicily movie on this list set in Sicily but not even partly shot in Sicily. I ummed and aahed about featuring it but it has a great cast. Much Ado About Nothing is a Kenneth Branagh adaptation of a Shakespeare play of the same name. As with many of his plays, it has a complicated plot featuring many characters who fancy and/or betray different people.

Much Ado About Nothing centres on soon-to-be-wed couple Hero (Kate Beckinsale) and Claudio who attempt to matchmake their single friends Benedick (Branagh) and Beatrice (Emma Thompson). This would be a relatively straightforward task if Benedick and Beatrice didn’t loathe each other. Keanu Reeves, Denzel Washington, and others also star.

Much Ado About Nothing is set in Messina, hence why it makes the list! Branagh filmed almost the entire movie in a Tuscan villa called Villa Vignamaggio, now a hotel.

12. Il Postino: The Postman (1994)

Italian, Spanish | 108m
94% Rotten Tomatoes

You can tell that Il Postino was a real passion project for star and co-writer Massimo Troisi who tragically did not live to see the film released. Set in 1950, he plays the Chilean poet Paolo Neruda (real person, fictional story) exiled to the Sicilian island of Procida. He strikes up an unlikely friendship with former fisherman-turned-postman Mario Ruoppolo.

The main Il Postino film location is the island where it is set, Procida. Other filming locations include Salina (one of the Aeolian Islands) and Corricella. This is a really beautiful film featuring some stunning locales.

13. Malèna (2000)

Italian | 108m
53% Rotten Tomatoes

Monica Bellucci stars as the titular character in another film by Cinema Paradiso’s Giuseppe Tornatore. Set in the fictional Sicilian town of Castelcutò in 1940, a teenage boy named Renato falls for Malèna and becomes obsessed with her. The events of WWII, of course, play a huge role in the events that transpire in Malèna including death, destruction, and a lost youth.

As Castelcutò is a fictional place, it was an amalgamation of Syracuse, Messina, and Trapani. It’s not one of the best Sicily movies out there but they really did choose the best actress to portray the prettiest woman in town.

14. Respiro (2002)

Italian, Sicilian | 95m
76% Rotten Tomatoes

Set on the small Sicilian island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean, a free-spirited mother lives with her three children and timid fisherman husband. Her ‘mad’ behaviour draws unwanted attention from her community who think she should be institutionalised. Respiro is about the realities of close-knit island life and the misunderstandings of mental health.

Emanuele Crialese filmed Respiro on the island where it’s set! I love watching Sicilian movies about everyday life because many travelers see islands as exotic places to escape but the reality can be very different for locals.

15. Ocean’s Twelve (2004)

English | 125m
55% Rotten Tomatoes

How do you pull off a sequel to a successful heist film set in Las Vegas? You set it in Europe!

Andy Garcia plays the casino owner who demands that Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his ragtag group of specially skilled criminals (Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, etc.) repay the money they stole. Unfortunately, they’ve already spent most of it.

They fly across the pond for the bright lights of Amsterdam, Paris, Lake Como, Monaco, Rome, and, of course, Sicily to earn it all back. The Sicilian location appears at the very end of Steven Soderbergh’s sequel (spoiler alert!) when Catherine Zeta-Jones unites with her long-lost father in the small coastal village of Tonnara di Scopello.

Read more: Ocean’s Twelve Filming Locations in Europe Guide

16. Palermo Shooting (2008)

German, English, Italian | 124m
63% Rotten Tomatoes

Many films about Sicily focus on island life. This does make some sense. Sicily is an island, after all. But let’s look at some films set in Palermo, Sicily’s capital city and leave the themes of isolation and remoteness to the side for a bit.

Palermo Shooting is a movie by genius German filmmaker Wim Wenders. It’s about a German photographer who visits Palermo to take a break from his wild lifestyle. Wenders shot parts of the movie back in Germany but most of it is set and shot in Palermo.

I adored Palermo when I visited it and watching movies like Palermo Shooting brings it all back! I can almost taste the panelle and arancini.

17. A Street in Palermo (2013)

Italian | 90m
Rotten Tomatoes

Movies about Palermo are like buses. You wait all day for one and then two show up at once. This one is even – finally – directed by a woman, Emma Dante. A Street in Palermo is about two drivers whose cars meet face-to-face down a narrow street and both refuse to budge.

Not only is this a movie about Sicily, but it’s a movie based on something so authentically Sicilian. Yes, the streets are super narrow and the drivers do seem super erratic. You can absolutely see this happening in real life! Dante shot A Street in Palermo exactly where it is set, in Palermo.

18. The Mafia Kills Only in Summer (2013)

Italian | 90m
63% Rotten Tomatoes

Scratch that. Three movies about Palermo have come at once! You could not watch a better film to learn more about the Mafia in Sicily than The Mafia Kills Only in Summer. This is a fictional black comedy based on true stories directed by Pif.

It’s set during the height of the Mafia’s power between the 1970s and 1990s and focuses on a young boy named Arturo. He lives in Palermo and wants to be a journalist when he grows up but it’s only when he starts falling for a girl named Flora that he slowly realises the extent of the Mafiosa’s power in the city.

The Mafia Kills Only in Summer mocks the Mafia while simultaneously paying tribute to the police officers and anti-Mafia judges who have lost their lives. Pif filmed the movie in Palermo and gave it Wes Anderson-esque, sweet shop-coloured vibes which I adore.

19. A Bigger Splash (2015)

English, Italian | 124m
90% Rotten Tomatoes

Not only is A Bigger Splash one of the most wanderlust-inducing Sicily movies, it’s also my personal favourite on this list. It’s the second movie in director Luca Guadagnino’s Love Trilogy after I Am Love set in Milan (2009) and before Call Me By Your Name (2017) set near Crema. A Bigger Splash has an all-star cast and he set and shot the film on the rugged, volcanic landscape of the Sicilian island Pantelleria.

It follows world-famous singer Marianne Lane (a David Bowie-esque Tilda Swinton) who takes a much-needed break with her boyfriend (Matthias Schoenaerts). Marianne’s ex-lover (Ralph Fiennes) and his newly discovered daughter (Dakota Johnson) crash their dreamy holiday and quickly turn it into a nightmare.

Pantelleria is 100% on my bucket list after watching this film about Sicily. It’s like an advertisement and all the filming locations are authentic.

Read more: A Bigger Splash Filming Locations in Sicily Guide

20. White Lotus Season Two (2022)

English, Italian | 7 Episodes | 60m
92% Rotten Tomatoes

If you want to watch a new TV show or new movie set in Sicily, you couldn’t do any better than White Lotus. It’s an anthology series which means the second season, set in Sicily, contains almost an entirely new cast.

You do not need to watch the first season set in Hawaii to necessarily understand the narrative of this one! (Although you should, because it’s awesome.)

White Lotus is a TV show about the guests of a luxury resort chain of the same name. In season two, the guests are in Taormina, a coastal resort town in Sicily. Someone was murdered in the first scene of the first episode and the entire series is a flashback to discover whodunnit and whoisdead.

It’s a 10/10 show with 10/10 stunning scenery. Cefalù and Noto also feature. While Sicily has some amazing coastal resorts, consider staying in a villa in Sicily for a more relaxing break.

21. From Scratch (2022)

English, Italian | 8 Episodes | 60m
86% Rotten Tomatoes

There aren’t many Sicily movies on Netflix that will always be on Netflix if you know what I mean. Not good ones, anyway! But if you’re looking for a Netflix series set in Sicily, From Scratch can take care of that itch. It’s based on the incredible memoir by American actress Tembi Locke (I’ve read it and can confirm it’s amazing) about how she met her Sicilian husband on a study-abroad trip to Florence.

Florence, Los Angeles, and I’m sure a few other places in the US feature in From Scratch. However, many scenes were shot in the Sicilian towns of Cefalù, Pollina, and Termini.

Other Sicily Movies: The Voyage (1974), Excellent Cadavers (1976), Kaos (1984), Johnny Stecchino (1991), The Star Maker (1995), One Hundred Steps (2000), Baarìa (2009), Purple Sea (2009), 365 Days (2020), Operation Mincemeat (2021)

And those are the top Sicily movies! Are you planning a trip to Sicily? Or have you watched any travel-inspiring Sicilian films? Let me know in the comments!