The best of international independent GENRE cinema!
We are looking for over the top and groundbreaking Horror, Sci-Fi, Action, Fantasy, and Trash movies!
Cine Underground takes place from 5th to 8th of November 2026, a 4-day festival in Busto Arsizio, north of Italy, with parallel monthly events to showcase the movies to a wider audience!
We like to involve the filmmakers during the screenings: you can give us a video message or even come and present your film!
We have cozy venues and a hardcore audience of true indie cinema lovers.

Our jury will award:

BEST PERFORMANCE
BEST SCREENPLAY
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
BEST DIRECTOR
BEST FEATURE
BEST SHORT
BEST SOUNDTRACK
BEST SFX
BEST VFX
BEST WTF

The AUDIENCE AWARD will be awarded by a panel composed of our loyal spectators after the screenings.

HORROR/SCI-FI/ACTION/TRASH/FANTASY RELATED MOVIES ONLY!
If you are not sure if your film fits our fest, drop us an e-mail!

By submitting, you agree that you own all copyrights and intellectual properties to your work and agree to hold harmless the festival from any and all claims, losses, liabilities or attorneys' fees that may be held in connection with the Film entry or the Festival's use thereof.

We reserve the right to use any part of your submission for promotional purposes.

All Film Festival entrants or submitters must by 18 years of age or older.
The filmmaker, entrant and submitter grants permission to the festival to screen the entry at the festival without paying a screening fee.

Feature films must be 60 mins and up.

Short films must be under 25 mins.

Medium Length movies are between 26 and 59 minutes.

No premiere status requred, but we will privilege movies without large distribution.

FILMS MUST HAVE ENGLISH OR ITALIAN SUBTITLES.
Every movie will be screened with italian subtitles, we just need SEPARATE ENGLISH .SRT FILES to be able to translate them.

Submitting does not guarantee selection, if we find out your submission does not match the criteria your movie will be disqualified. Submission fees are not refundable.

We do NOT pay screening fees.

SCREENING FORMATS ARE: h264 .mp4 or .mov files with a separate .srt file for subtitles. Screeners must be delivered within 2 weeks from the selection notification.
Video quality must be 4k or HD unless it's a precise artistic statement (we LOVE VHSrips).

EVENT DATES ARE JUST APPROXIMATIVE: We learned at our expense during 2020 that there's no certainty and it's difficult to program a live event. We can guarantee that the selected movies will be screened in front of a live audience, the exact event dates may vary.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • I absolutely love this festival! The organizers are incredibly hospitable and go above and beyond to take care of the filmmakers. This has been one of my "must submit" festivals for several years, but now it's at the top of my "must attend" list as well. Can't wait to come back!

    November 2025
  • Marta Capossela

    Amazing festival, thank you for selecting our short film “Misure”! The short film selection is extremely well curated, and you can truly feel the passion they put into it. A genuinely independent festival with a big heart. Lorenzo, Sara, and the entire team are simply the best!

    November 2025
  • Sébastien Pesle

    Couldn't unfortunately go to the festival.

    But let me tell you why it's an awesome one. Not only the programmation was absolutely original and good (and I don't say that only for our short of course). But they translate films into italian to have their own subtitles, they were very communicative and i could send them some merch to give to people. But even better they make a video of it and put it on social medias so we were able to follow everything and the ambient seem very sweet and fun. So yeah i couldn't go But unlike some festivals we couldn't go, they gave us lot of the vibe of it which is what i would love to experience for every festival i cannot go to. Cineunderground team aren't just big movie buffs and cinema lovers But also very good organizers and Nice human beings.

    I hope next year i will have a film to send them that could interest them so i can go this time in Italy and give them a big hug. Thanks guys.

    November 2025
  • Zeke Farrow

    I love Cineuncdrground. The programmers are passionate and smart. The films are unique and crazy. They’ve played me twice and it’s been a thrill. Definitely send them your work.

    November 2025
  • Michael Stasko

    Fantastic festival! It’s the real deal. Organizers truly care about indie films and indie filmmakers. They put everything into ensuring a great experience. Every screening was a full and engaged audience. Every film selection was so good too. We had 4 shorts play ahead of our feature and I really loved them all. CineUnderground is a must stop on your festival tour if you have something genre, underground, horror, different. Thanks for having “Vampire Zombies…from Space!” this year! Happy to have been honoured with best screenplay as a bonus!

    November 2025