The Film Noir Foundation funded 35mm restoration of Too Late for Tears premiered opening weekend, playing on a double bill with the only American film noir directed by a woman, Ida Lupino's The Hitch-Hiker. The FNF also recognized the first participant in its Nancy Mysel Legacy Project that night. The project was created last year by the family of the late film preservationist who'd managed the FNF's inaugural film restorations. The honoree, Ariel Schudson, who has earned a MFA in Moving Image Archive Studies from UCLA, will work with the Foundation on its next restoration project.

The name Akira Kurosawa doesn't immediately bring to mind film noir. However, Kurosawa often vividly chronicled contemporary urban life in his films. His two forays into noir played at the festival. In his 1948 film Drunken Angel (Yoidore tenshi) an alcoholic doctor and a tubercular gangster forge a cautious friendship, which is soon threatened by the resurfacing of the mobster's boss. In 1949's Stray Dog (Nora inu), a veteran cop guides a young policeman through the underbelly of post-war Tokyo in search of the younger man's stolen gun. Kurosawa regulars Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura co-starred in both.

The NOIR CITY Bus Tour made a triumphant comeback this year. 24 passengers enjoyed a three-hour excursion through some of San Francisco's most cinematic sites (what's left of them!) with their guides Miguel Pendas and Eddie Muller. Attendees watched film clips from classic noir films such as The Maltese Falcon, The Lineup, The Sniper, Thieves' Highway, Dark Passage, House on Telegraph Hill, Vertigo and many more—while visiting locations where the films were actually shot!

Two Argentinean films that had never previously screened in the U.S. played at NOIR CITY. The stunning 1952 Argentine anthology film Never Open That Door (No abras nunca esa puerta) was adapted from short stories by American pulp noir master Cornell Woolrich. The Black Vampire (El vampiro negro) made in Buenos Aires in 1953, is a remake of Fritz Lang's intense classic M. The latter made its American cinema debut in a brand new subtitled 35mm print funded by the Film Noir Foundation, produced under the supervision of the man responsible for rediscovery of the complete Metropolis, Fernando Martin Peña.

The ten day festival closed with a salute to Hollywood's take on the Far East, a triple bill of the rarely screened Singapore (1947) and two Joseph Von Sternberg films Macao (1952) and The Shanghai Gesture (1942). A closing night party followed on the Castro Theatre's mezzanine. Revelers enjoyed free drinks and a chance to mingle with their fellow NOIR CITY attendees. If you couldn't make our flagship NOIR CITY San Francisco festival, don't despair, we also have satellite festivals in Seattle, Austin, Hollywood, Chicago, Washington D.C. and Portland (OR).