Digital film services company Arts Alliance Media has expanded by opening a new office in Paris, which will be the headquarters of the company's digital cinema operations in Southern Europe.

The new office will cover France, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Gwendal Auffret will head the new office. He had been CEO of Eclair Digital Cinema. He will manage the digital cinema installation and operations team based in Paris, as well as negotiating with Southern Europe's distributors and exhibitors.

The company expects to expand further in Southern Europe, especially if the virtual print fee models are adopted.

Howard Kiedaisch, CEO of Arts Alliance Media, said: 'It's great to be able to announce this big step forward in AAM's pan-European digital cinema rollout, and we're thrilled that we have someone as experienced in European digital cinema as Gwendal to run our new operation.'