A nine-title Claude Chabrol retrospective, Italian film noir under the spotlight via a batch of ten features, a tribute to US director Andrew Davis, Valeria Golino as guest of honour, and chats with Léa Drucker and Julie Gayet: there’s a real plethora of events in store for the fourth edition of the Reims Polar crime-film festival (9-14 April). In total, 53 features and one series hailing from 20 countries are on the menu, including nine films in the main competition, which will be judged by a jury chaired by Danièle Thompson (flanked by Noémie Lvovsky, Arnaud des Pallières, Nicolas Pariser, Laetitia Dosch, Camille Chamoux and Caryl Férey).

Standing out among the titles locking horns for the Grand Prize are Birthday Girl by Denmark’s Michael Noer, Borgo [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by France’s Stéphane Demoustier, the German production Shock by Daniel Rakete Siegel and Denis Moschitto, and the Israeli-French co-production Highway 65 by Maya Dreifuss. They are joined by Steppenwolf by Kazakh helmer Adilkhan Yerzhanov, the South Korean flick Hopeless by Kim Chang-hoon, China’s Only the River Flows by Wei Shujun and two US features: Blood for Dust by Rod Blackhurst and The Last Stop in Yuma County by Francis Galluppi.

The competitive Sang Neuf (lit. “New Blood”) section will pit six titles against each other, including the Berlin competitor Sons [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Stephan Komandarev
scheda film] by Bulgaria’s Stephan Komandarev (which emerged triumphant at Karlovy Vary last year), Salem [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Selman Nacar
scheda film] by Turkey’s Selman Nacar (popular in Venice’s Orizzonti), The Wall [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Philippe Van Leeuw
scheda film] by Belgium’s Philippe Van Leeuw and the Canadian feature The G by Karl R Hearne.

Also of note, out of competition, are Diabolik – Who Are You? by Italian brothers Antonio and Marco Manetti, Boundless by Denmark’s Ole Christian Madsen, the US-French co-production Laroy by Shane Atkinson (which will open the festival), Chasing Johnny by France’s Baptiste Debraux and Green Tide by his fellow countryman Pierre Jolivet (the winner of the 2024 Claude Chabrol Award). This rich programme is rounded off by the UK series The Long Shadow (written by George Kay and directed by Lewis Arnold) and the restored films from the Second souffle (lit. “Second Wind”) section, including Twilight (1990) by Hungary’s György Fehér and the French-Dutch production The Vanishing (1988) by George Sluizer.