The German office of Columbia TriStar Film has launched Columbia Pictures Art Selection - a classics-style division for the theatrical release of arthouse titles.

The first releases will be Ed Harris's biopic Pollock on June 6, Marleen Gorris' Nabokov adaptation The Luzhin Defence (Sept 5) and Fred Schepsi's Last Orders (Oct 31).

Commenting on the creation of CPAS, Columbia TriStar's general manager Juergen Schau pointed out that an "arthouse team" had been "consistently dedicated to this genre within the company in recent years. However, with the establishment of the brand Columbia Pictures Art Selection this should now also become visible from outside.

"We will thereby be giving the films of this series a separate identity recognisable for exhibitors and press as arthouse film within our large distribution slate and - last but not least - complementing the range of quality of the Columbia TriStar slate with an element important to us. For we believe that quality will bear fruit."