Former Renaissance executive Iain Canning has joinedBecker Films International (BFI) as head of worldwide acquisitions, and willalso act as a consultant on acquiring Australian rights for sister companyDendy Films. He will continue to be based in London.

In a statementreleased on Friday, Canning said he looked forward to working with BFIpresident Reiko Bradley and Dendy joint general managers Richard Payten andAndrew Mackie to identify and acquire top independent films.

Canning was headof acquisitions at the now defunct Renaissance where he helped develop the UKfilm Shooting Dogsand the Australian/UK co-production Pobby And Dingan. His other acquisitions for Renaissanceincluded Creeeeps!, Pretty Persuasion, Junebug, Macbeth (director Todd Louiso's version), LivingAnd Breathing, The Baxter, Only Human, and Australian film Candy. He has also been involved in The Mother and We Don't Live Here Anymore, and with the directors Neil LaBute,Terry Gilliam, John Maybury and Lasse Hallstrom.

"We jumped on thisfortuitous opportunity of working with him to continue to build what we hopewill soon be one of the stronger international sales and production outfits,"said Reiko Bradley, who set up the BFI joint venture with the Becker Group twoyears ago. "Iain is obviously an excellent assessor of quality film with animpressive acquisitions background and is highly regarded by the filmmakingcommunity in the US, Europe and here in Australia."

BFI's slateincludes director Mary McGuckian's urban satire Rag Tale, which is set in the tabloid newspaperworld, the psychological thriller Like Minds, director Brett Leonard's psychologicalthriller Feed, andthe Hollywood/Bollywood film Marigold.

Dendy currentlyhas Tarnation, The Assassination Of Richard Nixon and local picture Oyster Farmer in cinemas. Upcoming releases includeAustralian film Look Both Ways, the documentaries Inside Deep Throat and Enron: The Smartest Guys In TheRoom, and the NewZealand picture World's Fastest Indian, Goodnight And Good Luck, The Aristocrats,Snow Cake, Hidden and Water.