New York-based Cowboy Pictures has acquired North American rights to Toy Love, the comedy from hot New Zealand director Harry Sinclair, which had its market premiere at Cannes. John Vanco of Cowboy negotiated the deal with Kathleen Drumm of the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) at Cannes and plans to open it domestically in spring 2003.

The film stars newcomer Dean O'Gorman and Kate Elliott in a screwball comedy about young attractive people looking for love and passion.

"It's fantastic to be working with Cowboy Pictures on Harry's new movie," said the NZFC's Drumm in a statement. "They've really picked up on his idiosyncratic sense of humour and we believe they're the perfect distributor to handle the film."

Cowboy's current releases include Shohei Imamura's Warm Water Under A Red Bridge and the Academy Award-nominated documentary Promises.