We love film noir and neonoir films, and the genre’s influence is evident in the films that we make. Two of our films, Shades of Day and Notes from the New World, recently won gold and bronze awards, respectively, at the 2016 L.A. Neo Noir, Novel, Film, and Script Festival.

The more we write about film noir, and the more neo-noir films we make, the more we realize that there is a whole community enamored with this genre. And we’re not simply talking about people who review noir films, or list their favorite ones. There are essays covering everything from the history of the genre to its most memorable heroines; there are public domain films, free to watch for anyone, or sites completely dedicated to movie title screens. There is a wealth of information whose breadth is astounding.

We decided that we should start collecting those sites and sharing them with our film noir fans. This is a list of the best, funniest, most intriguing film noir websites out there. If we’re missing something, please write us a note and let us know!

FOUNDATIONS & FILM FESTIVALS

• Noir City [The most famous film noir festival in the world]
• The Film Noir Foundation [A good cause if there ever was one. This non-profit benefit corporation’s mission is to preserve the heritage and history of film noir, cooperating with film studios to restore and release old noir classics]

GENERAL INFO

• Wikipedia’s Film Noir Page [As good a primer on the genre as you will find]
• Encyclopaedia Britannica [Not as thorough as Wikipedia, but the famous encyclopedia’s introduction is top notch]
• Filmmaker IQ [Imagine if there was a MOOC on film noir. This is as close to that as it gets]
• UC Berkeley Noir Bibliography [A humongous blibliography for UC Berkely’s equally as awesome list of noir films]
• AMC Filmsite on Noir [A wonderful introduction to the genre by the AMC filmsite]
• TV Tropes [As the site’s title suggests, a great list of noir tropes and archetypes]
• Night and the City [An introduction to film noir]
• Brian’s Drive-In Theater [A list of famous film noir stars]
• DVD Beaver Film Noir Essentials Part 1 Part 2 [Gary Tooze’s DVD Beaver giving us a list of essential film noir releases, complete with reviews. If you’re a completist, they also have a complete list of all noir films released on DVD or Bluray. ]

REVIEWS AND ESSAYS

• Bright Lights Journal [The noir-related articles of the popular film journal]
• Film Monthly [The webzine’s film noir reviews]
• The Film Noir Archive [weekly musings about the world of film noir]
• Noir of the Week [Steve-O’s weekly exploration of film noir]
• Transatlantic Habit [Marc Svetov’s writings about film noir, including a book project on the European film émigrés during the heyday of film noir]
• Films Noir [Film noir news and reviews]
• Crime Thriller Cinema [Max Alvarez’s reviews and essays about the film noir genre]
• Does the Film Noir Mirror the Culture of Contemporary America? [A long, ten-part essay by Lise Hordnes]
• Beauty Lurking in the Shadows [Gary Tooze of DVD Beaver talks about his favorite film noir heroines]

TOP LISTS

• Paste Magazine’s Top 100 [Arguably the most amazingly thorough Best of list dealing with noir films]
• The Guardian’s Top 10 [Guardian and Observer critics get together and choose their favo(u!)rite noir films]
• BFI’s Great American Films Noir [Emphasis on American, so no Carol Reed]
• IMDB’s Most Popular Films Noir [IMDB and its people say Sunset Boulevard. What do you think?]
• Endless Night [Eddie Muller’s eclectic Top 25 films noir]
• Filmsnoir Top 25 [Also check their list of essential noir]
• American Film Noir’s Top 10 [Complete with soundbites from the films!]
• Foster on Films’s Top 10 [His Top 10 noir films, plus honorable mentions]
• Cinemacom’s Top 50 [Philip Archer talks about his favorites in film noir]
• List Challenges’ Top 100 [How many have you seen?]

FREE VIDEOS

• Archive.org [The Wayback Machine’s collection of free noir films to watch online]
• Open Culture [60 noir films, for free!]

DISCUSSION FORUMS, NEWSLETTERS AND MAILING LISTS

• Reddit -filmnoir [The film noir section where all redditors chat about their favorite films]
• All That Noir [The world’s only hard copy newsletter devoted to the shadowy world of film noir]
• The Blackboard [An old-school discussion forum about film noir]
• Rara-Avis [a mailing list devoted to the discussion of hardboiled and noir writing]

SOCIAL MEDIA AND PODCASTS

• Twitter #filmnoir [Everyone who’s talking about film noir on Twitter]
• Pinterest #filmnoir [And you wouldn’t want to miss those shadowy pins, would you?]
• Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir [Clute and Edwards discuss a different film noir on every episode]

IMAGES

• Giphy [A collection of film noir related GIFs]
• Movie Title Stills Collection [A fantastic collection of movie titles from famous noir films]

MERCHANDISE

• Film Noir Woodcuts [Guy Budziak’s woodcuts featuring classics of the noir genre]