Abel Ferrara, the diabolical director of The Bad Lieutenant and King of New York, will be in the limelight on the the closing day of Noir in Festival 2017. He’ll be receiving the Noir Honorary Award for Lifetime Achievement in Como for his filmmaking, which, as critic Giona Nazzaro put it, "has taken tragedy beyond the confines of noir. His films are tales of religion, redemption, sin, betrayal and violence and are set in hellish urban landscapes by night."

Originally from the Bronx and now a self-styled Neapolitan street urchin and a European citizen, Abel Ferrara has created his own legend as a talented rebel who broke the mold through his twenty-odd films, documentaries, clips and TV series (from Miami Vice to  Crime Story, for Michael Mann). Then there are the films that won over noir fans everywhere, such as Ms. 45 (1981), King of New York (1990), the "trilogy of sin" that got underway with The Bad Lieutenant (1992) and The Funeral (1996) starring Chris Penn, who won kudos at the Venice Film Festival for his role. Ferrara’s cinematic portraits of DSK and Pasolini stirred up a storm of controversy, while his documentaries devoted to Naples and Rome attested to his interest in the "cinema of the real" and bridged the distance between his native New York and the vital energy of Italy today. Abel Ferrara comes to Noir in Festival as a shining example of an independent and unorthodox filmmaker, and Noir pays tribute to him to honor a career that is fresh and surprising at every turn. Abel Ferrara will be meeting Noir audiences and receiving the Noir Honorary Award on Saturday, December 9 at the Teatro Sociale in Como.