'Hitchcock,' Redford's 'The Company You Keep' Among Italy Noir Fest Highlights

ROME – Italy’s Courmayeur Noir Festival announced its lineup Wednesday, opening with the European premiere of Sacha Gervasi’s Alfred Hitchcock biographical drama Hitchcock, closing with Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep, and with a strong 10-film in-competition lineup in between.

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The Dec. 10-16 event -- which takes place in the ski resort of Courmayeur, high in the Italian Alps in the shadow of Mont Blanc -- has become a touchstone for noir film and literature fans over its 22-year-history.

Among the festival’s highlights will be the Ramond Chandler Award for literary achievement, which will go to writer Don Winslow, with Alejando Brugues’ Juan de los Muertos (Juan of The Dead) and Cose Cattive (Bad Things) from Italy’s Simone Gandolfo joining Hitchcock and The Company You Keep out of competition.

The Company You Keep will be part of a special day dedicated to American cinema on Dec. 16, also featuring a surprise Roman Polanski short and screening of Underground, the 1976 documentary about the Weather Underground movement directed by Emile de Antonio, Haskell Wexler, and Mary Lampson.

Among the highlights of the competition selection vying for the festival’s Black Lion honor are Tulpa, from up-and-coming Italian horror master Federico Zampaglione, Sightseers from U.K. director Ben Whearley, and Grupo 7 from Spain’s Alberto Rodriguez.

The Courmayeur Noir in Festival’s full main competition lineup:

Temoins from Lucas Belvaux (France, 2012)

La traversée from Jerome Corniau (France, 2012)

L’innocenza di Clara  (Clara’s Innocence) from Toni D’Angelo (Italy, 2012)

Los Salvajes (The Savages) from Alejandro Fadel (Argentina, 2012)

Hypnotisören (The Hypnotist) from Lasse Hallström (Sweden, 2012)

Breve storia di lunghi tradimenti (The Lithium Conspiracy) from Davide Marengo (Italy, 2012)

Grupo 7 from Alberto Rodríguez (Spain, 2012)

Berberian Sound Studio from Peter Strickland (U.K., Germany, Australia, 2012)

Sightseers from Ben Wheatley (U.K., 2012)

Tulpa from Federico Zampaglione (Italy, 2012)