Film Forum Celebrates Hitchcock & Herrmann With Weeklong 4K Festival This December

Film Forum is set to honor one of cinema’s most influential creative partnerships with Hitchcock and Herrmann, a weeklong festival running December 12–18. The series highlights the long-standing collaboration between director Alfred Hitchcock and composer Bernard Herrmann, whose combined work shaped the language of modern suspense filmmaking.

The festival will showcase new 4K restorations of North by Northwest, Psycho, Vertigo, The Birds, The Trouble with Harry, and The Man Who Knew Too Much, while The Wrong Man will screen in 35mm. Together, these films trace the evolution of Hitchcock’s cinematic technique alongside Herrmann’s distinctive musical approach, which often elevated tension through unconventional orchestration and bold thematic choices.

Timed with the event is the release of Steven C. Smith’s new book Hitchcock & Herrmann: The Friendship & Film Scores That Changed Cinema (Oxford University Press). Smith, who writes extensively about the pair’s dynamic creative relationship, notes that their collaboration was grounded in shared emotional terrain—fear, anxiety, desire—even as their personal backgrounds differed sharply.

Smith will introduce select screenings, including North by Northwest, The Wrong Man, Psycho, and opening night’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, which features Herrmann appearing on-screen conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. On December 14, Smith will also present an illustrated talk, “Hitchcock & Herrmann: The Sound of Murder,” followed by a book signing.

Additional programming includes a December 16 introduction to The Wrong Man by Smith and Jason Isralowitz, author of Nothing to Fear: Alfred Hitchcock and The Wrong Men. After the screening, Isralowitz will join Film Forum Repertory Artistic Director Bruce Goldstein for a discussion about the true story behind the film and the broader history of wrongful convictions in New York.

For fans of classic suspense cinema, this festival offers a rare opportunity to revisit iconic works in newly restored formats while gaining deeper insight into the partnership that helped define them.