Dario Argento Unveils Thriller Trilogy in Cannes While Honored at the Marché Du Film’s Fantastic Pavilion

Italian filmmaker Dario Argento presented his new thriller trilogy at the Marché du Film‘s Fantastic Pavilion in Cannes, where he was also honored with the genre hub’s Keys to the Pavilion award.

The famed maestro of giallo cinema, who is attending the festival for the Cannes Classics screening of Giuseppe Patroni Griffi’s 1968 drama “Love Circle,” which he co-penned, presented the three new projects with director Gabriele Altobelli and producer Giovanni Di Gianfrancesco of Rome-based Mattia’s Film.

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The event screened the first footage of “Flesh of My Flesh” (“Carne della mia Carne”), which Altobelli is currently shooting near Rome. It tells the story of three mothers investigating the disappearance of a teenage girl, described as “a realistic and unsparing portrait of evil in its most unsettling form: everyday, unsuspected, the evil next door” and a “deliberate departure from Argento’s signature atmospheric horror” that “marks a new register for the maestro’s storytelling.”

The second screenplay, “The Girl with Crystal Eyes” (“La bambina dagli occhi di cristallo”), follows the encounter between a charming businessman and a mysterious woman whose passion drags him into a spiral of tragic murders. Production is set to begin in autumn 2026, with Argento overseeing artistic supervision of the project.

The third film, “The Black Velvet Mask” (“La maschera di velluto nero”), scheduled for production in 2027, explores the minds of three young women from different social backgrounds and origins, united by the same nightmare: a man in a black velvet mask assaults them and throws them from a balcony. The victims manage to unmask him — but when they wake, they cannot remember his face.

The trilogy will will be produced across several European countries in Italian, English and Spanish.

Born from the collaboration between Argento and producer Di Gianfrancesco, the three-film slate is produced by Argento and Mattia’s Film with Neo Art handling international sales.

Accepting the Keys to the Pavilion award, which recognizes people whose body of work has shaped the global trajectory of genre cinema, Argento addressed the international genre community: “I greet the wonderful fantastic audience that often follows me wherever I go. Thank you to the organization of the Fantastic Pavilion for this beautiful award, this key. I am very proud to receive it.”

Considered the architect of giallo cinema and one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of horror, the Italian maestro has directed such films as “Suspiria,” “Deep Red,” “Tenebrae” and “Opera.” He also co-wrote Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in the West.”

“Hosting Dario Argento at the Fantastic Pavilion and handing him the Keys is an honor that few moments in our short history can match,” said Pablo Guisa Koestinger, executive director of the Fantastic Pavilion. “Beyond the recognition itself, what matters to us is that the maestro is still active, still producing, still translating his ideas onto the big screen. Being the platform that announces this to the world and to the fantastic community is exactly what the Pavilion was built to do.”

During its 2026 edition the hub has also presented Keys to the Pavilion to French filmmaker Xavier Gens and to Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, who is in Cannes with “Her Private Hell” in the festival’s official selection. Past recipients of the award include composer Simon Boswell and directors David Cronenberg, Eli Roth, Álex de la Iglesia and J.A. Bayona.