The new edition of Noir in Festival falls into place with the announcement of several of its star players and the events connected with them. The international film jury will be headed by the most famous woman director in Chinese film, Ning Ying (founder of the "Sixth Generation" along with Jia Zhangke), and the jury members are Rome Film Fest winner Edoardo De Angelis; Katharina Kubrick, daughter of the iconic filmmaker and his collaborator up through Eyes Wide Shut; Barbara Chichiarelli, star of the first season of the series Suburra: Blood on Rome; and Norway’s Erik Madsen.

Descending on Como will be the Manetti Brothers, for a memorable tribute to Stan Lee, the creator of Marvel’s superheroes; Stefano Mordini, for a sneak peak at his latest film, Il testimone invisibile (in theaters on December 13, courtesy of Warner Bros.); and the debut filmmaker Igort, one of Italy’s most popular comic book artists, at Noir to present his hotly awaited foray into film, 5 è il numero perfetto, starring Toni Servillo and Valeria Golino.  The closing night event, devoted to the Frankenstein story and the 200th anniversary of the Creature’s birth, will see actress Maya Sansa reading passages from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a new edition of which has been published this year by Neri Pozza).

Noir guests expected in Milan and Como include: Dario Argento; the special effects wizard Sergio Stivaletti; Iceland’s Baltasar Kormákur, with the first few episodes of his brand new mini-series Trapped 2, the biggest hit to hit the Nordic thriller genre; author Carlo Lucarelli, at Noir for a talk with Chandler Award winner Jo Nesbř; best-selling Scandinavian mystery writer Lars Kepler; and writers Mariolina Venezia, Gianni Biondillo and Roberto Costantini. The guest lineup for the International Competition features, among others, Harkaitz Cano, who scripted the animated film Black Is Beltza, set during the Cold War; Sergio Olguin, writer of El Angel, and the star of Birds of Passage, Carmina Martinez.

The festival wraps up on December 9 with a tribute to Joe Dante (Noir’s Lifetime Achievement Award) including a screening of Explorers, one of his most fascinating and controversial films, and a workshop on film tourism on the very lake where film icons such as Alfred Hitchcock and Luchino Visconti took their first cinematic steps - a location revisited last summer by Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler, on set for Netflix’ Murder Mystery.