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 during a 3 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
  • CineUnderground screened my movie "The Secret of Cuck Island" at a pre-show event because it was deemed a bit too spicy for the main festival. Nonetheless, Lorenzo and team were extremely hospitable, even picking me up from the airport at 7am the day before the screening. While the crowd was fairly quiet during the movie and subsequent Q&A, they bought a lot of merch, so I'd say it went well. The venue (Circolo Gagarin) is a very cool bar/multipurpose space that would be at home in Bushwick, and the town of Busto Arsizio is the kind of rustic European village you dream about moving to instead of shooting yourself at your day job. 10/10 would recommend - make a trip of it and visit Milan too (be sure to eat at Old Wild West if you are feeling homesick). Pro-tip - Neosair is a surprisingly nice yet affordable airline if you're coming from New York, they serve wine and espresso with your meals at no extra charge. Who does that? Pure class. Anyway strong recommend CineUnderground, especially if you make and/or enjoy wild horror-comedies

    October 2023
    Logo
    Response from festival:

    Thank you Rives! Hope to see you again in our future editions!

  • Scott Grenke

    Excellent festival. Wonderful communication. Inspired selection of material. The love is evident in every aspect of this festival.

    October 2022
  • Great communication and looked like a blast. Was updated throughout. Good people running the show. Hope to go in person in the future!

    October 2022
  • Michael Lombardo

    I had the absolute pleasure of attending the 2022 edition of the fest representing the documentary, The Brilliant Terror. We flew from the US and were greeted warmly at the airport by Lorenzo and Sara, the festival directors and that set the tone for the rest of our stay. They were so incredibly nice to us and helped us navigate this foreign to us place. The festival itself was an intimate and low key affair which is is my favorite type of show. Great movies, some really interesting presentations by various guests including one about film scoring, a poster design talk, a presentation on an art book about classic horror films, and an awesome lecture on post apocalyptic cinema. Everyone at the festival was incredibly nice and we had so many great conversations about film with the other filmmakers and audience members. I got to network with some incredibly talented people and I’m looking forward to working with several of the artists and musicians who gave presentations at the fest! If you like intimate, punk rock style events, Cine Underground is for you. It was one of the most memorable festival experiences I’ve ever had and the people who run it are just absolutely lovely people. I would highly recommend submitting and attending!

    October 2022
  • Josh Reed

    Cine Underground is a fantastic, warm, welcoming and overall hospitable festival, with a great lineup of films. Highly recommended!

    October 2022