Noir steers the course

As the wonderful news came in – that one of the titles on our official selection, The Girl with the Needle by Magnus von Horn, is a nominee for best international feature at the Golden Globes, as well as Denmark’s official entr at the Oscars®, the 2024 Noir in Festival came to a close.

The Girl with the Needle is being released in Italy by Mubi, while the winner of the Black Panther Award, the debut film by JJ Lin, Brief History of a Family, comes to Italian theaters courtesy of Movies Inspired, after a series of previews scheduled for the coming days in Italy’s major cities.

“The numbers for this edition,” declare Marina Fabbri and Giorgio Gosetti, “serve up a positive picture that bears out the claim that the most important mystery festival has put down roots in the city of Milan and Italy as a whole.” The figures for 2024 point to a thirty percent growth in audience over the 2023 edition and a twenty-five percent increase on social media channels. Joyce Carol Oates was applauded by over eight hundred people at the Teatro Franco Parenti (an event jointly arranged with La Milanesiana run by Elisabetta Sgarbi, whose La nave di Teseo publishes Oates’ works).

Then there was the special tribute to Steven Soderbergh, with the premiere of his new psychological horror film, Presence (distributed by Lucky Red); the Claudio Caligari Prize bestowed on Brando De Sica for Mimì – The Prince of Darkness; the success of literary lights Maurizio de Giovanni, Carlo Calabrò, and Juan Gómez-Jurado; the Giorgio Scerbanenco Award for best Italian noir novel going to Orso Tosco’s L’ultimo pinguino delle Langhe (Rizzoli Editore); and the festival’s new sections devoted to TV series (Gangs of Milano – Le nuove storie del Blocco,created and starring the rapper Salmo, for Sky), podcasts (featuring Pablo Trincia and Gabriella Simoni), and comics (with Paolo Bacilieri, Vanna Vinci, and Lorenzo Palloni).

Thanks to the backing of the Municipality of Milan and the efforts of its Cultural Councillor Tommaso Sacchi, on hand to bestow the Chandler Award on Joyce Carol Oates; thanks as well to the support of the MiC’s Directorate General for Cinema; the ongoing partnership with IULM University, Noir’s “nerve center” from the start; the collaboration with the Casa Manzoni, Cineteca Milano, and the Teatro Franco Parenti; and our prized friendship with La Milanesiana, Noir in Festival has taken its rightful place on Milan’s cultural calendar, as was seen during BookCity, which hosted the first in a series of celebrations of Andrea Camilleri’s centenary in 2025: a tribute arranged by Noir in an accord with the author’s family and the Fondo Andrea Camilleri.

“This edition of Noir saw so many unforgettable artists take part,” say Fabbri and Gosetti, “and it was a pleasure to have them, from this year’s revelation, actress Letizia Toni and that formidable story hunter, James Jones (author of Antidote); to the filmmakers shortlisted for the Caligari Prize and Fulvio Risuleo and Chiara Caselli, on the international jury; Felix Ysys (star of Misericordia by Alain Guiraudie) and Gustav Möller (director of one of the most potent films in the official selection, the Danish film Sons); the critic and storyteller of Milan’s own noir tradition, Luca Crovi; Fabrizio Ferracane, winner of the  Luca Svizzeretto Award, in Milan for the premiere of Indelebile, and the YouTuber and debut filmmaker Violetta Rovetto (Il migliore dei mali, starring Andrea Arru, currently in the spotlight and in demand for his role in The Boy with Pink Pants).“

“We’ll be back in twelve months,” the two directors promise, “for a significant anniversary, the 35th, for our festival, one not to be missed. Noir is made possible by the passionate commitment of a stellar team of professionals, the ever-growing popularity of the genre, and the support of public and private partners, whom we once again thank wholeheartedly.”