Tommaso Priante has just launched Luminalia, a brand-new, Bologna-based sales agent kicking off its market tour with International Film Festival Rotterdam, whose IFFR Pro industry programme unspools from 31 January-5 February. The outfit will subsequently head to the Berlinale’s European Film Market, where Priante plans to include six or seven films in its line-up.

Luminalia has already boarded several titles, including An Errand (Philippines) by first-time feature director Dominic Bekaert, led by well-known Filipino screen star and model Sid Lucero. The movie will screen in IFFR’s Bright Future sidebar, dedicated to unique full-length debuts. Set in Manila, the 83-minute feature is adapted from a short story by Filipino writer Angelo Lacuesta and takes a fictionalised, existential deep dive into the class divides that plague the country’s social environment.

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Other titles on the outfit’s slate include Dastan Zhapar Ryskeldi’s thriller Deal at the Border (Kyrgyzstan), which played at Cottbus and Busan, and follows two drug runners who are determined to rescue a young girl on the run from human traffickers. A third Luminalia title is Maksud Hossain's debut feature, Saba (Bangladesh), which world-premiered at Toronto and went on to play at Red Sea, Busan and, most recently, Göteborg. The Dhaka-set drama tracks the titular young woman, who is a caregiver for her paralysed mother, and explores the emotional turns that begin to unfold as her mum’s health deteriorates.

Priante has stated that one of the goals of Luminalia is to stimulate a broader conception around distribution that seeks to expand beyond festivals and theatrical releases into other types of exhibition venues. He further shared that he wants to “open up the distribution model and try to make it more collaborative”, with the aim of including more stakeholders in the decision-making processes.

Luminalia’s founder comes primarily from an acquisitions background, having worked previously for Paris- and Berlin-based Coproduction Office and the now-defunct Leipzig-based outfit Deckert Distribution GmbH. Priante can also count among his experiences work stints with the Venice Production Bridge, TorinoFilmLab, MIA Market and Rotterdam’s Pro Hub, in addition to several programming gigs for film festivals worldwide.