Welcome to Český Šternberk! We’ll kick off the festival with seven fantastic screenings, including They Drive by Night, which you can look forward to at the official opening word in the Kašpar Sternberg Courtyard at 20:30. Come experience the one-of-a-kind atmosphere of watching (not only) classic noir films in the unique space of a castle. We look forward to seeing you!
In addition to a rich daytime program, you can look forward to four real gems screened every festival evening in the Kašpar Sternberg courtyard. We’ll open the festival with the genre-mixing film They Drive by Night (1940), starring Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino. Thursday evening will belong to the iconic The Big Combo (1955), which is a vocabulary of noir techniques. A truly exceptional screening awaits you on Friday evening —Kachyňa’s Christmas with Elizabeth (1968) will be screened with audio description for the visually impaired and blind, and will be preceded by the documentary Black Days (1968) with live music. And on Saturday, we’ll wrap up the festival with the award-winning Hunted (1952), starring Dirk Bogarde.
The festival evenings thus won’t be boring either! Tickets are available through the festival reservation system until Monday Aug 17 until 12 AM., and then from Aug 19 12:00 AM in the festival center at the lower courtyard at Castle Český Šternberk.
We look forward to seeing you at these exceptionally atmospheric cinematic experiences!
Phil Marlowe looks forward to seeing you at Český Šternberk from August 19 to August 22, 2026! You don’t have to be the best private eye in the business to find a film in our program just for you – we have something for everybody, come have a look!
On Friday, July 24, the 14th Noir Film Festival was added to the ČEZ Foundation’s „EPP – Pomáhej pohybem” („help through movement“) mobile app, which has decided to support our festival—and we’re very grateful for that! But to access this support, you’ll need to confirm it by earning points through physical activity. Whether you run, dance, ride a bike or a horse, or simply hike up the hill to Český Šternberk, once you download the EPP app, you can convert your activities into points and support the festival in ways other than financially.
Thank you :)!
Yes, that’s exactly how much time is left until Český Šternberk Castle dons its noir look for the first time in two years…
The followingf 8 of our screenings are already sold out:
So if you don’t have tickets yet, don’t hesitate—we look forward to seeing you :)!
The 8th and final section of this edition arethe Special Screenings. This year they will balance the other program sections, celebrate two anniversaries and, as is customary, remember actor Hana Maciuchová, friend of the festival. This year we will revisit her work with TV film Open Your Eyes (1975), which will follow the intensely psychological line apparent in the entire program. Celebrating a 100-year anniversary, Marilyn Monroe will blow out the candles with Don’t Bother Knocking (Roy Ward Baker, 1952), a fairly rare example of a darker narrative in the filmography of this iconic actor. This anniversary is followed by another, a 40-year celebration of the release of a less known neo-noir Mona Lisa (Neil Jordan, 1986), with hypnotic Cathy Tyson and legendary Bob Hoskins as the titular cast. This section will also offer an alternative adaptation of The Wages of Fear, and offers the US variation The Sorcerer (1977), directed by William Friedkin, by then of The Exorcist fame.The contemporary Czech film and television landscape is then represented in this section by the biographical miniseries Monyová, mapping the life, career and tragic death of writer Simona Monyová, whose work has left a distinct impression on the tradition of Czech popular literature. In the main role you will see the exceptional Tereza Ramba, who has collected numerous awards for her acting over the last decade. This year’s Special Screenings certainly do not shy away from complex female characters and stories. Come enjoy this show in the big screen! (bk)
Last night, we opened ticket reservations for individual screenings to those of you who don’t have accreditation for this year’s festival. The castle halls at Český Šternberk are filling up—there’s no time to waste :)! The reservation system can be found here!
This edition’s Czechoslovak noir program section offers several true delicacies with larger emphasis on the psychology of characters and relationships. You can especially look forward to Karel Kachyňa’s film Christmas with Elizabeth (1968), DVD of which will be launched during the festival. The film presents a sensitively depicted relationship of two incompatible people, set against an almost naturalistic backdrop of (not only) Czechoslovak countryside. We will then visit a starkly different environment in a film few years older than Christmas, Blizzard (1962), boasting a star-studded cast including for example Vladimír Menšík and Slávka Budínová. Its setting in winter Krkonoše will present a welcome distraction from the no doubt intense August temperatures. On the contrary, Shadows of a Hot Summer by František Vláčil (1977) will be in line with them. The film presents one of the most interesting pieces not only in the career of the director but also the titular actor Juraj Kukura. This taciturn, psychologically tense probe into post-war Beskydy countryside unceremoniously confronts the viewer with the question “what would you do in this situation?”. This and more will be offered by this year’s local noir selection. The psychological line will be continued in the almost Rashomon-like TV film Seven Witnesses (1967), and the dark crooked alleys and Hana Vítová in Sign of the Anchor (1947) will bring a tinge of the supernatural into the section. This year’s selection of local noir is truly colorful; don’t miss it! (bk)
Audrey Totter: „What?! The program of the 14th edition of Noir Film Festival is already out??“
„The Lady in the Lake“ already found her spot at the festival. How about you? Don’t hesitate and get those tickets! The complete program is available here.
This year’s tributes are dedicated to two actors who had little in common. Welsh-born Ray Milland (1907–1986) enjoyed a career spanning several decades, marked by many twists and turns. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, he made a name for himself in Hollywood as a charming leading man in romantic comedies and adventure films, but with the advent of film noir, his image underwent a dramatic transformation. He won an Oscar for his evocative portrayal of an alcoholic in The Lost Weekend (1945), and other dark films such as Ministry of Fear (1944), The Big Clock (1948), and The Thief (1952) also provided him with interesting opportunities. We’ll revisit this phase of his creative development with the lesser-known mystery noir Alias Nick Beal (1949), in which Milland played none other than the devil himself. Later, the charismatic actor made his mark in horror, sci-fi, and action films, while also appearing regularly on television. He died at the age of 79; his wife, Muriel Frances Weber, with whom he had been married for more than fifty years, survived him by six years.
Unfortunately, actress Cathy O’Donnell (1923–1970) did not live to see such a ripe age. After turning forty, she fought a long battle with cancer, which she ultimately succumbed to in 1970. She was born Ann Steely in Alabama to the family of a small local movie theater owner. During her studies, she began acting in theater and, as the heroine of her favorite film A Star Is Born (1937), dreamed of a career in Hollywood. Her dream began to come true when she was noticed by an agent working for the legendary producer Samuel Goldwyn. She had her first major role in Goldwyn’s big-budget, Oscar-winning film The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), where audiences could already recognize her under the stage name Cathy O’Donnell. She also made a strong impression alongside another young star of the late 1940s, Farley Granger, in Nicholas Ray’s directorial debut They Live by Night (1949). At the NFF 2026, we will screen Side Street (1950) by another noir master, Anthony Mann, in which O’Donnell and Granger appeared together again as a young married couple facing existential struggles. Throughout the 1950s, O’Donnell appeared alternately in film and television: her last appearance on the big screen was in 1959 in the biblical epic Ben-Hur, and on television five years later in the fifth season of the Western series Bonanza. (mh)
