The Jury and the Eighth Film

The heart-pounding Spanish noir Golpes by Rafael Cobos, starring Luis Tosar and Jesús Carroza, is the eighth and final title on the international lineup. The film, which comes out in Spanish theaters on December 5th, will be presented at the Cinema Arlecchino – Cineteca on December 3rd at 9 pm.

Screenwriter on series such as The Anatomy of a Moment and films like 7 Virgins, Marshland, Smokes & Mirrors, Prison 77, and Los tigres, all directed by Alberto Rodríguez, Cobos makes his directorial debut with Golpes, a peregrination between crime and legality by two brothers who are very close. Sons of a political prisoner under Franco, the fates of Migueli and Sabino take different paths back in the ‘80s, the former winding up in jail for robbery, the latter becoming a cop. When Migueli has served his time and reconnects with his old cronies, his brother is the one told to track him down.

Closing the festival on December 6th (Cinema Arlecchino – Cineteca, at 9 pm), the film Primate (Ben – Rabbia animale), directed by horrormeister Johannes Roberts, is a natural horror that promises to be the sensation of the year (after impacting with critics). It will be released in Italy in January, courtesy of Eagle Pictures, and simultaneously on American screens with Paramount.

“These two titles,” observes Giorgio Gosetti, “perfectly reflect the variety of styles on the lineup and Noir’s attention to both quality independent film lovers and the tastes of young audiences who, in recent months, have driven the triumphal return of horror pics as part of the noir universe. Primate, in fact, is not just a high-octane whirl through fear, but also a disturbing and spectacular metaphor for our near future.”

The jury that will bestow the 2025 Black Panther on the best film in competition is headed this year by the screenwriter, director, producer, and author Santiago Amigorena (who recently scripted Colours of Time by Cédric Klapisch) and is made up of actress and model Giulia Maenza (The Bad Guy), actress and filmmaker Donatella Finocchiaro (The Lions of Sicily, The Sicilian Storyteller), the musician and president of the film score composers’ association, Pivio (Diabolik, co-scored with Aldo De Scalzi), and the writer and director Paolo Strippoli (The Holy Boy).

“We are delighted to have at Noir,” declare Marina Fabbri and Giorgio Gosetti, “two great friends of its recent past like the winner of the latest SIAE Music Award for original film score, Roberto Pischiutta, aka Pivio, and Donatella Finocchiaro, a key figure in our homage to the author Andrea Camilleri on the centenary of his birth, and an actress lauded at the Rome Film Fest for her role in Pirandello – il gigante innamorato by Costanza Quatriglio. We also greet a young cinephile like Giulia Maenza and a leading light of emerging Italian film, along with a talent who has won his stripes, Paolo Strippoli, winner of the 2022 Caligari Award at Noir for Flowing. Lastly, we find that the life and work of Santiago Amigorena epitomizes that synergy between cinema and literature that is Noir’s hallmark, exemplified in Amigorena by his critically acclaimed films like A Few Days in September and his wildly popular novels (The Ghetto Within, Prix Goncourt – Le choix de l’Italie).”