Festival has been suspended due to economic reasons.
In 1988, a group of Manresa natives directly connected to the film industry (critics, writers and scriptwriters, exhibitors, directors, publicists...) decided to propose the organization of an International Film Festival to the City government also in order to promote different territorial aspects (culture, traditions, gastronomy, tourism offer...) from this cultural arena by taking advantage of the international projection of a competition of this nature.
After the first two editions as a festival for all genres with a diverse range of topics and authors, we came to the understanding that this approach only made sense when it comes to major international festivals known as the A Series such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin and San Sebastián. So, after the first two years of eclectic programming, it seemed appropriate to us to specialize in what is known as film noir; in other words, detective film, thrillers and criminal dramas in the broadest sense.
There is no question that the detective or criminal genre is one of the most popular of all times even before the great success of fantasy and terror films as boosted by special effects and fans who are for the most part, young people.
Welcome to one of the most important genre festivals of Europe. Despite its specialization in film noir or detective film, this competition opens up its screens to other specialties that also have extensive following among fans of the film noir genre.
We present a fantasy film section that has offered an interesting programme from the beginning with the collaboration of the International Film Festival of Catalonia in Sitges and the Fantasy and Terror Film Week of Donostia. The Newsreel Screening section presents independent films that the selection committee believes are interesting even though, because of their topics, they do not fit into other festival sections.
The retrospective exhibits are dedicated to the Awards of Honour at each edition, whereas a promotional platform is provided for young directors with the short film competition. There is also an interesting popular programme with free admission at the Placidoscope space where specific cycles are planned so audiences may view the most interesting eras in film noir and fantasy film.