Mediawan Rights has unveiled the first trailer for Simone Scafidi’s documentary Dario Argento Panico ahead of the film’s world premiere in Venice Classics on Saturday (September 2).

The film zooms in on titular Italian filmmaker Dario Argento as he finishes writing the script for his last feature in a hotel as a film crew shoots a movie about him.

Produced by UK-based Paguro Film, the documentary has already been sold to horror streamer Shudder for the US, UK, Canada, Latin America, Spain, Portugal and Australia and to distributor Non-Stop for Scandinavia. It will be released in Italy via Plaion.

The film is an immersive deep dive into the creative process and life of Argento. It features exclusive interviews with the legendary filmmaker and insight from other acclaimed directors like Gaspar Noé, Guillermo del Toro and Nicolas Winding Refn about his impact on the horror genre and generations of other directors.   

“It’s rather excusive in that we often talk about someone in the past and these filmmakers are talking about how he influenced them for their works that are quite recent,” Arianna Castoldi, head of documentary sales for all formats for Mediawan rights, told Screen.

Argento will attend the film’s Venice Classics premiere alongside Scafidi on Saturday.

Dario Argento Panico  is Scafidi’s eighth feature and follow-up to 2019’s Fulci For Fake about Italian director Lucio Fulci, also a Venice Classics title, 2015 fiction feature Eva Braun inspired by Italian parliament sex scandals, and 2013 sports doc Zanetti Story that he co-wrote and co-directed.

Mediawan’s documentary division is also continuing sales in Venice on Godard Cinema about the iconic French-Swiss director that premiered at Venice Classics in 2022 and Oliver Stone’s doc Nuclear Now that premiered out of competition at the Lido last year.

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