Why Palermo “Will Always Be Home” To Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese. Billions know him as the legendary American filmmaker from New York City, but since Sunday, the director who gave cinephiles Taxi Driver, Goodfellas and The Aviator has been adopted by a small Sicilian town in the province of Palermo.

Serie B club Palermo FC also ensured Scorsese understood his significance to the city.

“This will always be your home,” read part of the Rosaneri‘s post on X, who gifted Scorsese his customised jersey.

Fittingly the number 10, often reserved by Italian teams for their star attraction, accompanied Scorsese’s name on the back.

Football fans have long understood that the regista position on the pitch defines a midfielder with a creative licence to pull the strings, someone who controls the game’s tempo. Andrea Pirlo is the first player to come to mind, and more recently, Jorginho and Hakan Calhanoglu.

But outside of the calcio lexicon, regista (in Italian) means director, and is associated with film.

“Finally, we have our regista,” wrote a Palermo supporter on Instagram. “For us Palermo fans and cinema lovers, this is an immense joy,” said another.

Revered for making films that expose political corruption and mafia gangsters, Scorsese is often acknowledged as Sicilian or, more accurately, Palermitano.

Born as Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese in 1942, the 81-year-old, born in Flushing, New York, hails from a Sicilian bloodline which predates US-born parents, Charles and Catherine.

Scorsese’s mother has ties to Ciminna, a hilltop town that is home to under 4,000 people (2017). His father, Charles, lays claim to Polizzi Generosa, the historic mountaintop village made famous for birthing writer Giuseppe Antonio Borgese and Domenico Dolce of Dolce & Gabbana.

Both Ciminna and Polizzi Generosa are situated within the province of Palermo, Sicily’s capital city. Palermo FC took advantage of the international break and attended Sunday’s ceremony to witness Scorsese become an honorary citizen of Polizzi Generosa, the birthplace of his paternal grandfather, Francesco Scorsese, in 1880.

“The past is the torch that lights our way,” Palermo also wrote on their official Instagram account which contains an identical photo of Scorsese holding a framed jersey. “The blood of this land (is) in the roots of the teacher Martin Scorsese. Palermo, the mountains of Polizzi, and Sicily will always be his home”.

Polizzi Generosa is buzzing with successive days of celebration, marking Scorsese’s arrival with the Dalle Radici All’Orizontale (from the roots to the horizon) masterclass, where fellow Palermitano director Giuseppe Tornatore also spoke at Cristallo cinema.

The two-time Oscar-winning filmmakers stayed back to take questions from an emotional audience grateful to be in the same room as Scorsese, the man from the family who made Polizzi the most globally recognised Italian village you’d never heard of.

“Your work makes us proud to be Palermo 💗🖤🦅 Scorsese,” read another reply on Instagram.

The province of Palermo has grown in popularity for movie makers. Over the past three years, around 150 productions have been shot there, including the White Lotus series and The Lions of Sicily. Scorsese himself has returned to acting over the past year, playing an elderly sage who advises Dante Alighieri in The Hand of Dante, partially filmed in Palermo as well as Venice, Verona and Rome.

Scorsese has been nominated 271 times (BAFTA/Golden Globe/Academy), racking up a remarkable 54 accolades throughout his career.

His steep incline to greatness began in the 1970s during a period when Scorsese felt compelled to explore his origins, returning from Hollywood to make ItalianAmerican, a documentary celebrating his experiences as the child of Italian immigrants to Little Italy.

Later in his career, he gifted us award-winning films like Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, both featuring Robert De Niro and, more recently, Gangs Of New York and The Wolf of Wall Street.

Nobody can deny that Scorsese is a master storyteller, not even Pope Francis, who met the director of The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) on multiple occasions.

It’s unknown whether Scorsese is a Palermo supporter or not, but the club has firmly set its sights on Serie A after reaching the Serie B playoffs in 2024.

Gifting one of Sicily’s favourite foreign sons a framed jersey may be an offering the Serie A gods will most certainly favour. Is there a return to Paradiso on the horizon?

Thankfully, for Polizzi and Palermo citizens, Scorsese has again returned to the place that will “always be home.”

Watch our special on Football Clubs of the South where we focus on Palermo FC: