Amber Heard Attends Taormina Film Festival.Photo:Cobra Team / BACKGRID

Amber Heard Attends Taormina Film Festival

Cobra Team / BACKGRID

Amber Heardis making her first major appearance since her defamation trial with ex-husbandJohnny Deppcame to a close a year ago.The actress, 37,attended the 69th Taormina Film Festivalin Italy on Friday to support the premiere of her filmIn the Fire, whichcompleted filming in March 2022, months before the Virginia trial began.In the Firedirector Conor Allyn and costar Eduardo Noriega also attended the film festival’s grand opening celebration.Heard seemed relaxed and happy as she joked and laughed with friends andIn the Firecast and crew members, as they headed to Teatro Antico in the Sicilian town.Dressed in a white calf-length wrap-around skirt, a simple T-shirt and high black heels, Heard accessorized her look with silver earrings and gold bracelets and had her hair styled in loose curls that fell around her shoulders.

Amber Heard Attends Taormina Film Festival.Cobra Team / BACKGRID

Amber Heard Attends Taormina Film Festival

In a sweet moment, one staffer told Heard, “You are my favorite person” to which the actress sweetly responded, “I believe you.” Another fan laughed and joked to Heard: “Oh, he says that to everyone.”The film’s premiere is planned for Saturday night in Taormina. In the supernatural thriller, Heard plays a “pioneering psychiatrist who sets out to treat a desperate child at a time when psychiatry is not yet a respected science,” per a press release.

“While the woman tries to psychoanalyze the child, the nefarious events intensify and her ‘cure’ becomes a race to save the little boy from the fury of his fellow citizens, and perhaps, even from himself.”

In the Fire(2023).

Amber Heard’s film In The Fire to premiere at Taormina Film Festival

Heard and Depp, 60, reached a settlement and dropped their appeals in December. As part of the agreement, she paid the actor $1 million, which he saidwill go to five different charities.

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When she announced the settlement, Heard said it was “not an act of concession” and “there are no restrictions or gags with respect to my voice moving forward.”

Amber Heard in the Virginia courtroom on May 3, 2022.JIM WATSON/POOL/AFP/Getty

US actress Amber Heard arrives in the courtroom at the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Fairfax, Virginia, on May 3, 2022. - US actor Johnny Depp sued his ex-wife Amber Heard for libel in Fairfax County Circuit Court after she wrote an op-ed piece in The Washington Post in 2018 referring to herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” (Photo by JIM WATSON / POOL / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

She later added, “I cannot afford to risk an impossible bill — one that is not just financial, but also psychological, physical and emotional. Women shouldn’t have to face abuse or bankruptcy for speaking her truth, but unfortunately it is not uncommon.”

Heard also said she was “choosing the freedom to dedicate my time to the work that helped me heal after my divorce.”

The actress, who will also appear in this December’sAquaman and the Lost Kingdom, relocated to Madrid, Spain, where she lives with her 2-year-old daughterOonagh Paige.

Johnny Depp at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2023.Lionel Hahn/Getty Images

Johnny Depp attends the “Jeanne du Barry” photocall at the 76th annual Cannes film festival

Depp added, “I keep wondering about the word comeback because I didn’t go anywhere. As a matter of fact, I live about 45 minutes away. So yeah, maybe people stopped calling out of whatever their fear was at the time. But no, I didn’t go nowhere. I’ve been sitting around.”

source: people.com