Films noirs are most often set in bars and nightclubs, dark back alleys, around horse racing tracks and boxing rings, or in seedy hideaways – in short, in environments where seasoned criminals feel at home and where, on the contrary, ordinary citizens go only reluctantly or under coercion. Sometimes, however, the wheels of justice are set in motion, and the film’s stories take us to the offices of private detectives, police stations or stately courtrooms. It is the courts, where the guilt and innocence of noir protagonists are decided, that will be the focus of another section of the 13th Noir Film Festival.

In addition to the court setting, all four selected films share an exceptionally strong cast that is bound to please any noir fan. In Knock on Any Door (1949), Humphrey Bogart plays a defense attorney who, as a family acquaintance, takes on the case of a juvenile delinquent accused of murdering a police officer. In The People Against O’Hara (1951), Spencer Tracy excels as an aging and fallible attorney who discovers he’s simply not up to the high court game anymore. One of the many films that made Edward G. Robinson’s acting mastery stand out is the noir drama Illegal (1955), in which an articulate prosecutor makes a fatal mistake and faces a precipitous career fall. And finally, Witness for the Prosecution (1957) by the legendary Billy Wilder – with a stellar cast led by Charles Laughton and Marlene Dietrich – offers a tangled tale of murder based on Agatha Christie’s play, culminating in a series of startling revelations that create a link to this year’s main section Spoiler alert!

From 18. 4. 2025 on it is possible to support the 13th Edition of Noir Film Festival also by purchasing „an accommodation package“ in one of the five varieties – with one Noir or ttwo All-festival passes.

*The owners of individual Sponsor and Noir passes  are eligible for arrangement of festival accommodation through the e-mail mention below, the owners of Partner passes have  accommodation included in the price of their accreditation.

For detailed information please visit: https://www.noirfilmfestival.cz/en/for-visitors/accommodation/.

Most major film projects today are shrouded in secrecy during their preparation, and production companies carefully consider what type of information to release to the world. The threat of the uncontrolled spread of information via social media has also transformed viewing habits. Much of the film-going public is gripped by spoiler panic, fearing that they will stumble upon unwanted information about the story, characters, cast, or other key areas of an eagerly anticipated project online. For this reason, it may come as a surprise to discover that there was a time when information about films was disseminated much more freely, without fear that revealing a significant portion of the plot (even including a surprise twist) could significantly spoil the viewing experience. Those were the days when film critics gleefully revealed the identity of the killers in reviews and trailers assured audiences that the lovers would end up together despite numerous obstacles.

In the main program section of the 13th Noir Film Festival, we will look at five films from the 1940s to the 1960s that helped lay the foundations for the spoiler panic phenomenon, however much their contemporary promotion differed from today’s conventions, which include varying degrees of secrecy and non-disclosure clauses for crew members. All five films rely heavily on shocking narrative twists or revelations, the prior knowledge of which can greatly alter (some argue outright ruin) the viewing experience. You have been warned! You can look forward to, among others, The Woman in the Window (1944) by noir stalwart Fritz Lang, the legendary Les Diaboliques (1955) by French director Henri-Georges Clouzot, and the lesser-known British film Taste of Fear (1961), made after the enormous box-office success of Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960).

Starting February 1st, you can support the upcoming NFF edition by purchasing one of the remaining generous passes that haven’t yet been allocated as benefits for festival donations. Forty of these passes have already found their owners.

As of today, there are still 10 Noir passes available (10 out of 30 total). Both Partner and Sponsor passes are already SOLD OUT (0 out of 5 and 0 out of 15, respectively).

Basic passes for this year’s edition will be released on May 1, 2025, while individual screening ticket sales will start on June 26, 2025.

Thank you for supporting the festival! We look forward to seeing you in August at the courtyard of Křivoklát Castle.

Starting next year, the Noir Film Festival will alternate between two castles. The 13th edition (August 27–30, 2025) will return to the royal Křivoklát Castle after five years, while the 14th edition in August 2026 will take place at Český Šternberk Castle.

The festival will continue to rotate between these two castles – Křivoklát for odd years and Český Šternberk for even years. The festival is also changing its schedule, running from Wednesday to Saturday, which means there will be four main evening screenings. Both the opening and closing ceremonies will take place in the upper castle courtyard under the open sky.

Keep coming back with us, we look forward to seeing you!

We are very honored that the international edition of the prestigious The New York Times (12 September 2024) has published a mention of the Noir Film Festival, with a link to the festival’s English website.

The mention is part of a quote from an interview conducted by editor David Belcher with programmer Milan Hain.
The article was published in both the print and electronic versions of this important world media.

Thank you!

The voices of detectives, villains and femmes fatales in the castle premises and in the cinema located below the castle have fallen silent and the 12th Noir Film Festival has been over for more than two weeks…

So let me first of all thank everyone who made the past festival of film noir possible – from the programmers, production, festival centre, subtitle translators, PR, technicians, venue staff, the „Black Market“, HamTam catering, Kávy pitel café and others. Of course, we would also like to thank our partners, donors and the administration of Český Šternberk Castle, without whom we would not have been able to meet for the twelfth time and talk about interesting (not only film) experiences.

And last but not least, thank you, the visitors, for coming to the festival again in large numbers and enjoying all fifty festival screenings, you were great!
Finally, I apologize to those who did not enjoy the film screenings as much as they expected due to the higher temperature in two halls. I promise that we will try to provide a „cooler environment“ in them at next year’s event.

I am looking forward to seeing you at the 13th edition, enjoy the end of summer and come to the traditional autumn Echoes of the festival, which we are preparing for you, for example, in Prague’s Lucerna cinema and Brno’s Art cinema…

Sincerely,

Vítek Grigartzik
Executive Director of the festival