Abel Ferrara, Stefano Nazzi, Elisa De Marco, Massimo Carlotto, Marco Maisano, Antonio Iovane and Luca Iaccarino are among the first guests announced for the 2024 edition of MystFest.
A week of stories, podcasts, music and cinema dedicated to detective, noir and true crime.

Abel Ferrara will open the 2024 edition of MystFest, the mystery and thriller festival scheduled from 24th to 29th June. The American director and screenwriter returns to Cattolica after having been there in 1991 in competition with King of New York and with a retrospective of his most important works.
On Monday 24th June Ferrara will be the protagonist of a one-off evening event dedicated to his career in which it will also be possible to attend the screening of King of New York and Tommaso, the film presented in 2021 at the Locarno Festival, where he won the Pardo for best director. The extraordinariness of the presence of the great master of cinema is also given by the masterclass that he will hold on the afternoon of Tuesday 25th June, reserved for a limited number of participants.
This edition’s cinematic itinerary will also include a tribute to Roger Corman, who passed away on 9th May and was president of the MystFest jury in 1995, and the screening of the 4K restored version of the first animated thriller in history, Perfect Blue, Satoshi Kon’s 1997 debut masterpiece.

The spotlight on the world of podcasts in 2023 will find an even broader stage this year thanks to the partnership with OnePodcast: the evening of Friday 28th June will feature four of the most popular and beloved podcasters such as Carlo Lucarelli, Elisa De Marco, Marco Maisano and Antonio Iovane. Four different styles to tell detective stories, investigations, true crime, stories that involve millions of fans and a constantly growing number of loyal listeners.
Among the events in the main arena of MystFest is the great return of Stefano Nazzi (Thursday 27th June) for a reading from Canti di guerra, the new novel published at the beginning of May in which the author of Indagini recounts Milan in the1970s.
Also returning are the Gialli sotto l’ombrellone, meetings with authors on the beach, the Caffè in giallo in the city’s historic homes, exhibitions, and music, with the live soundtrack of The Mystic, a 1925 silent film directed by Tod Browning, performed by Roberta Sammarelli and Collettivo Soundtracks 2024 (Wednesday 26th June).
Massimo Carlotto, Cristina Rava, Valentina Mira together with Rossella Scarponi are just some of the writers present at the festival, for a programme that from morning to late evening will dye every place in the city with yellow.

The final evening of the MystFest, Saturday 29th June, will feature the award ceremony for the winner of the competition in collaboration with Il Giallo Mondadori 51st Premio Gran Giallo Città di Cattolica. The jury is made up of Gabriella Genisi, Barbara Perna, Piergiorgio Nicolazzini, Barbara Baraldi, Massimo Carlotto, Carlo Lucarelli, Valerio Massimo Manfredi, Ilaria Tuti, as well as Franco Forte, director of Il Giallo Mondadori and Simonetta Salvetti, festival director.
On the same evening, thanks to the collaboration with UlisseFest, Lonely Planet’s travel festival, food critic and journalist Luca Iaccarino will be a guest for an immersion in contemporary cuisine and detective stories with his new novel “Qualcuno sta uccidendo i più grandi cuochi d’Italia”.

The 2024 MystFest image is signed by Tanino Liberatore with graphic realisation by Alessandro Baronciani. Thus continues the journey through the author graphics that have interpreted MystFest over the years, from Massimo Dolcini to Panebarco, from Tullio Pericoli to Cemak up to the latest editions curated by Alessandro Baronciani, Franco Brambilla and Vittorio Giardino.
Liberatore’s work is naturally intertwined with the exhibition dedicated to Andrea Pazienza -“The Young Paz” hosted at the Galleria Santa Croce until the end of MystFest, enhancing the deep bond between the two artists.

MystFest has the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and the support of the Emilia-Romagna Region.

All information on the “Gran Giallo Città di Cattolica” prize and the complete programme to download can be found on the official Mystfest website https://mystfest.com