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 :)!

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)

Characters in film noir are often on the move. They travel by car (their own, a rental, or a stolen one), train, bus, and plane, or they simply walk. They’re on the trail of criminals, looking for work, searching for love, returning to the places of their youth, or fleeing from the law. In some cases, traveling from point A to point B is even their livelihood. The section titled Trucker Noir will focus specifically on films in which the noir protagonists are professional drivers and their workplace is a truck cab. But driving these motorized giants is no picnic; on the contrary, in each of the selected films, it involves a great deal of adventure and life-threatening situations. They Drive by Night (1940), directed by Raoul Walsh, belongs to the canon of classic Warner Bros. noir films and features, among other things, an attractive cast led by George Raft, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, and Ida Lupino. The French film The Wages of Fear (1953) offers an adrenaline-fueled ride through the South American mountains that, thanks to Henri-Georges Clouzot’s thrilling direction, will leave no one unmoved. And Hell Drivers (1957) is no slouch either, vividly depicting the macho microcosm of a transport company in industrial England. As is customary, two more films are still waiting to be revealed. (mh)

Hamlet-businessman lighting a cigarette, two Othellos in one body and third one in the dynamic urban jazz scene – that and more will be offered by the program section Shakespeare Meets Noir, an apt example of how many forms can a noir narrative take. Shakespeare has more in common with the genre that is commonly associated with brooding antiheroes in raincoats, dangerous seductresses and dark city streets, than might be apparent at the first glance. In his oeuvre we find, just like in film noir, not only quite a lot of crime, but also complicated interpersonal relationships and a romance tested by fate (or at least circumstances). In this section you can look forward to, for example, a unique piece from the never finished Northern Shakespeare trilogy, Hamlet Goes Business (1987) by the legendary Aki Kaurismäki. The tragedy of Hamlet is remarkably changed in this 80s version, through Kaurismäki’s specific style and extremely dry Finnish humor. You will also have an opportunity to watch a layered variation of Othello directed by the versatile George Cukor. A Double Life (1947) earned an Academy Award for the male lead Ronald Colman and represents an interesting double adaptation of Shakespeare’s play. It is more than adequately seconded by a successor twenty years its junior, All Night Long (1962), directed by Englishman Basil Dearden, who takes Othello from theatre to a musical environment. This film can boast for instance the presence of Richard Attenborough and a long line of established jazz musicians cast as themselves. (bk)

If you don’t want to sleep in a “luxury dungeon” near the castle (see photo :)), don’t hesitate to book your festival accommodations as soon as possible—accommodation capacity below Český Šternberk Castle and in the surrounding area is once again limited!

Starting May 4, 2026, you can also support the 14th Noir Film Festival by purchasing one of six “accommodation packages”—each including either a Noir Pass or a Full Festival Pass. For more information, visit https://www.noirfilmfestival.cz/cz/pro-navstevniky/festivalove-ubytovani/.

Packages can be ordered only via email at: ubytovani/at./noirfilmfestival.cz.

Philip Marlowe is arguably the most iconic figure in American crime fiction. In his novels and short stories, Raymond Chandler created a world in which a modern-day knight – who, though flawed, stands on the side of honor and justice – serves as a counterweight to pervasive corruption. As the author wrote in his famous 1944 essay “The Simple Art of Murder,” “down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.” In film, Marlowe was most memorably portrayed by Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946), although Chandler himself preferred the 1944 version of the character played by Dick Powell in the early noir Murder, My Sweet. Marlowe, however, has many more film and television incarnations, and it is precisely these that we will focus on in this year’s Noir Film Festival program. In 1947, two men with the same last name played the private eye: George Montgomery appeared in the adaptation of the novel The High Window (released as The Brasher Doubloon) directed by the underrated John Brahm, while actor and director Robert Montgomery transformed The Lady in the Lake into one of the boldest experiments with subjective camerawork in the history of cinema. Almost thirty years later, Robert Mitchum, a man who seemed born for the role, portrayed Marlowe twice. The first time was in a new adaptation of Chandler’s second novel, Farewell, My Lovely, released in 1975. (mh)

The Noir Film Festival has long sought to demonstrate that alongside the US, film noir with its archetypal characters, dark visual style and existential outlook on life has also taken root in a number of other countries around the world. After circling the globe and making stops in Europe, Latin America and Asia, we return to a place where, given the historically strong tradition of detective stories and crime narratives, we have perhaps the greatest debt – the United Kingdom. The section focusing on British contributions to the noir aesthetic will demonstrate the high level of craftsmanship as well as ingenuity of the local film industry. Gaslight (1940), based on Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 play, is every bit as good and suspenseful as the more famous Hollywood adaptation of the same material from 1944, and offers an atmospheric glimpse into Victorian England with the brilliant Anton Walbrook in the lead role. Obsession (1949), directed by American Edward Dmytryk, is a notable psychological study of pathological fixation and revenge. The latest film in the collection, The Hunted (1952), presents a variation on the popular theme of characters on the run from the law and their past, and features a brilliant performance by Dirk Bogarde in his breakthrough role. Two more titles are still to be announced. We are honored that the British Ambassador to the Czech Republic, Matt Field, has agreed to lend his patronage to this year’s festival. (mh)

Today (April 1), we are launching the booking system for the sale of basic accreditations (full-festival, weekend, and one-day passes) and the remaining Noir passes (currently 10 out of a total of 25) for this year’s 14th edition of the festival.
You can find more information about the individual passes at https://www.noirfilmfestival.cz/en/tickets-and-passes/. And this is no April Fool’s joke :)!
Treat yourself and/or your loved ones—we look forward to seeing you in Český Šternberk :)!”