Initiated in summer 2025, the Derry Social Club, a showcase for genre-film projects hailing from Italy with the aim of supporting and promoting them around the world, will be among the protagonists of this year’s Marché du Film (12-20 May) at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Derry Social Club gathers over 100 Italian professionals and production companies with a common passion for horror, thriller, sci-fi, action, western and fantasy movies. A networking cocktail event reserved for qualified professionals is expected to take place on 15 May at the Fantastic Pavilion. Trailers and pitch decks will be made available during the event, along with a QR code-accessible digital dossier containing the profiles and activities of the club members.

The auteurs and producers behind the four projects selected for the Fantastic Round Robin - the international pitching forum organised by the Fantastic Pavilion - will be available to meet co-producers, sales agents and distributors.  

The selected projects are the creature feature Little Death, written and directed by Stefano Mutolo, and produced by Berta Film, Extreme Video and Infrared; the psychological horror The Shadow That Comes from the Sea by Vladimir Scavuzzo and Daniele Matteo Sebastian; the climate sci-fi flick Chronicles of Nature and the City by Aurora Ovan, produced by Fabiana Balsamo, of Incipit Film; and the supernatural horror One Way Ticket by Ambra Principato.

The dark fantasy Ting, written and directed by Maximilien Dejoie, and sponsored by Tallinn Black Nights, is the first Italian picture to be selected for Fantastic 7, a joint venture between the Marché du Film and the Sitges Film Festival aimed at promoting and supporting genre movies across the world (see the news).

The event will also be attended by the makers of the psychological horror Ferine, written and directed by Andrea Corsini, from a script penned with Massimo Vavassori, which is being produced by EDI Effetti Digitali Italiani together with Adler Entertainment, and which sees Carolyn Bracken cast in the leading role. The film was selected by a previous edition of the Frontières programme and will lock horns in the international competition of the Fantasia Film Festival.

Piperplay is in charge of the international sales, in collaboration with Berta Fear, the new branch of Berta Film specialised in the production and international sales of horror and genre movies. The brand will be presented by Stefano Mutolo in the Berta Film booth at the Fantastic Pavilion.