Rome-based sales company Coccinelle Film has closed U.S. deals on two new Italian LGBT titles, confirming the international appeal of what is becoming a small but significant local cinema sub-genre.
Strand Releasing has taken North American rights to “Mom+Mom,” about two southern Italian women who struggle to have a child together because of a local law that forbids gays and lesbians to adopt or have babies.
The U.K. rights for “Mom+Mom” have been picked up by LGBT specialty distributor TLA Releasing, while its sister company Optimale has picked up the pic for France.
Produced by prominent shingle Bibi Film – which recently made Netflix’s first Italian movie, gangster pic “The Ruthless” – “Mom+Mom” features Linda Caridi (“Antonia”) and Maria Roveran (“These Days”) as the couple who with great difficulty raise money to go to Barcelona for artificial insemination.
Breaking Glass Pictures, which is run by industry veterans Richard Wolff and Richard Ross, has picked up “Drive Me Home,” starring Marco D’Amore who is known for playing ruthless mobster Ciro Di Marzio in the “Gomorrah” TV series. In “Drive Me Home,” a road movie, he plays a gay truck driver.
Related
“Mom+Mom” and “Drive Me Home,” both from first-time directors, are part of a steady stream of Italian LGBT titles that are getting distribution in the U.S., including comedy “My Big Gay Italian Wedding,” which addresses the homophobia that still prevents same-sex marriage from being fully legal in Italy. Breaking Glass picked up “Wedding” last year from True Colours. The drama “Who Will Save the Roses,” about two elderly men who are partners and their warm rapport with the daughter of one of them, played by former Bond girl Caterina Murino, was sold by Coccinelle to specialty U.S. distributor Uncork’d Entertainment.
“In the past couple of years we’ve handled four or five Italian LGBT titles,” said Coccinelle founder Francesca Breccia. She said that “distributors are increasingly seeking LGBT titles set against an Italian backdrop,” adding that the company is in talks to handle world sales on several more.