Estudio Mexico Films, parentcompany of Mexican production powerhouseAltavista Films (Amores Perros) and Latin American distributor NuVision, is planning to launchdistribution operations in the US for Spanish language films. According toEstudio Mexico head Federico Gonzalez Compean, they are actively seeking outco-investors in the new venture which will require seed capital of $6m.

Estudio Mexico will providefilms from Latin America and Spain, including those produced by Altavista, anda portion of the capital. The new yet unnamed distributor will aim to releasefour films a year. "If each title earned just 60% of what Amores Perrosmade in the US, we willsucceed," said Gonzalez Compean. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's directorialdebut made $5.2m in the domestic market through Lions Gate Films,and more than$20m worldwide. It recently added the British Academy Award for best foreignlanguage film to its string of awards.

Among the potentialinvestors in the proposed venture is Spain's Prisa which has a New York-basedproduction and sales company Plural and Venezuelan media company, Venevision.

The three year-old companyhas had an impressive track record to date. Five of seven films produced by Altavista were local box officehits. NuVision, which has an annual budget of $15m has made its mark among USproducers and sales companies, snagging Latin American rights to high profiletitles such as The Blair Witch Project and most recently, The Mothman Prophecies.

The new venture will go up against distributor ArenasEntertainment which launched about three months ago with the same objectives.In November last year, Arenas Group, which is an advertising, PR and talentmanagement firm focused on the US Latino market, teamed up with UniversalPictures to launch Arenas Entertainment as a label to acquire, produce,finance, market and distribute films for Hispanic audiences worldwide.