Italian sales company was founded last November by Cosimo Santoro and has already built up a catalogue of more than 25 titles.

New Italian sales outfit The Open Reel is attending the EFM for the first time.

The company, founded last November by Cosimo Santoro (formerly programmer at the Torino GLBT Film Festival), is handling feature films, shorts and documentaries and has already built up a catalogue of more than 25 titles.

Among its newest pick-ups are Mexican title I Am The Happiness Of This World by former Teddy winner Julián Hernández and (also from Mexico) Disrupt [pictured] by Roberto Fiesco.

Also being presented to buyers is Giovanni Coda’s Naked Rose, an experimental film inspired by the life of Pierre Seel, a gay Holocaust survivior and by his groundbreaking autobiography Moi, Pierre Seel, déporté homosexuel (I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual), which was written with the assistance of journalist and activist Jean Le Bitoux (himself an important LGBT activist.)

While The Open Reel will represent many lesbian and gay titles, Santoro says that the company will not have an exclusively “queer” line up. For example, one of Open Reel’s EFM titles, My Destiny by Sardinian auteur Peter Marcias, is a drama about immigration, belonging and family identity.

Open Reel’s emphasis is on films from Italy, Portugal and Spain. However, Santoro said its footprint will also stretch beyond the Mediterranean.

“We aim to promote independent filmmakers on an international level” Santoro commented.