In the latest North American deal to come out of Toronto, Magnolia Pictures has picked up Luca Guadagnino’s much fancied I Am Love (Io Sono L’Amore), starring Tilda Swinton.

The film played at Toronto following its world premiere in Venice and stars Swinton as a Russian emigre in Milan who falls into a passionate affair with her son’s friend.

Swinton and Guadagnino previously collaborated on the 1999 crime documentary The Protagonists. I Am Love also stars Flavio Parenti, Gabriele Ferzetti, Pippo Delbono and Edoardo Gabbriellini.

Magnolia president Eamonn Bowles said I Am Love was “a completely unified, cinematic masterwork, and mere superlatives don’t do justice to the infinite marvels of Tilda Swinton.”

Magnolia’s senior vice-president Tom Quinn brokered the deal with Jeff Berg of ICM.

The deal is part of a number cloased by The Works International, which is handling international sales. The UK-based sales company has sold the film to the UK (Metrodome Distribution); Australia and New Zealand (Rialto Distribution); Spain (Alta Classics) and France (Ad Vitam Distribution). Further sales are close to being concluded for Benelux, Switzerland and Hong Kong.

Carl Clifton, managing director of The Works International, said: “It’s always great to be handling one of the major buzz titles in a festival and to have buyers beating your door down.”

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