EXCLUSIVE: One year on from launching his Bologna-based independent sales agency Luminalia at International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in 2025, Tommaso Priante will be back at Rotterdam with a new title on his slate, Mozambican writer-director Ique langa’s Tiger competition contender O Profeta.
The feature, produced with the support of Doha Film Institute and Final Cut In Venice 2024, is billed as “a meditation on belief, guilt and spiritual transformation,” partially influenced by Paul Schrader’s Taxi Driver screenplay.
It is the story of a pastor in a small village in Mozambique struggling with his faith as his congregation dwindles and his sermons fall flat. The producer is Sousa Domingos.
“It’s black and white, shot on film,” said Priante of the feature, which he first came across at the Venice Production Bridge. He has also boarded langa’s next project, Chapa 100, which was recently presented at the Marrakech Atlas Workshops.
“The goal for 2026 is to concentrate on sub-Saharan Africa,” said Priante.
Year one
Priante has attended 22 festivals in 10 months, from Cannes and Venice to the Bishkek International Film Festival in Kyrgyzstan. Several Luminalia titles have cut through on the festival circuit, including feature doc Waking Hours from Federico Cammarata and Filippo Foscarini, which was in Venice Critics’ Week.
“This was a strong and important film for us,” Primate said of the hybrid documentary, about Afghan people smugglers operating on the border between Serbia and Hungary. It was made in collaboration with Rai Cinema and has well well-known filmmaker, Roberto Minervini, as co-producer.
In certain cases, Luminalia will release films itself. For example, with Waking Hours, the company is organising screenings throughout Italy early next year in collaboration with aid and human rights organisations Amnesty and Emergency.
Priante primarily runs Luminalia as a one-man band. He said he aims to handle four to six films a year and “mix titles that come from less represented regions or European films dealing with social justice or migration or marginalisation”.
The slate is primarily slanted toward drama, but the company is also beginning to pick up selected documentaries.
One film that has been selling briskly is Joonho Park’s South Korean drama 3670, which has played at multiple festivals, including Jeonju and San Francisco. Deals closed include with Hooray Films in Taiwan, which is looking for a theatrical release in 2026.
The company has also struck a slew of TV deals for Maksud Hossain’s Bangladeshi drama, Saba, including with Channel 4 in the UK and SBS in Australia.
“I am flexible. The whole business model is very easy to adapt,” said Priante. “What I am seeing is that producers and directors are really happy with this model so far. We can manage to understand their needs and find a way to make it work.”
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