NEW YORK, NY.- New York-based distributor Rialto Pictures will release Carol Reed’s Film Noir masterpiece The Third Man in a major 4K restoration – the first ever for the 1949 mega-classic.

The new restoration has its world premiere this month in the “Cannes Classics” section of the Cannes Film Festival, with U.S. openings at New York’s Film Forum on June 26 (2-week run) and L.A.’s Nuart on July 3. Engagements in San Francisco, Washington, DC, Seattle, Philadelphia and other major markets will follow.

A rare collaboration of legendary producers Alexander Korda and David O. Selznick, The Third Man was Reed’s second teaming with novelist/screenwriter Graham Greene. An instant critical and commercial sensation, it won the Palme D’Or at Cannes, the British Film Academy’s Best British Film award, and an Academy Award for Robert Krasker’s expressionist, now iconic b&w cInematography, and was also Oscar-nominated for Best Director.Anton Karas’ haunting “Third Man Theme,” performed by the composer on a zither, was a worldwide hit.

The Third Man remains the only movie on both the American Film Institute and British Film Institute Top 100 lists of, respectively, the greatest American and British films of all time (the Brits named it their Number One), as well as being as well as being named The Greatest Foreign Film of All Time… by the Japanese.

The award-winning team at Deluxe Restoration carried out the new 4K digital restoration of The Third Man on behalf of Studiocanal. Following rigorous comparison of different available elements, the 4K scan was done from a fine grain master positive struck from the original negative. Release prints were used as a reference for the grading.

This year’s Cannes Classics also features a new 4K restoration of Akira Kurosawa’s RAN, to be released by Rialto later this year.