Fortissimo Films hasclosed a three-picture deal with Taiwanese distributor Infinity Media.

The deal covers LeeSang-Il's Hula Girls, Alex vanWarmerdam's Waiter and Pierre-PaulRenders' Mr Average.

Infinity's RitaCheung negotiated the deal with Fortissimo's Michael J Werner. Werner said: 'Weare thrilled that Hula Girls and ourother two titles were so well received by the Taiwanese festival audiencesthis year. Infinity aggressively pursued us and showed us thatthe scene in Taiwan for independent and arthouse cinemais coming back to life.'

Cheung added: 'Wehave worked well with Fortissimo before. We could not resist the charm and thecrowd pleasing nature of Hula Girls,which we think will score a strong success when we release it here earlynext year.'

Hula Girls, the Japanese submission for the foreign-languageOscar race, has already sold to Celestial Pictures in Hong Kong, Mediatres inSpain, Filmes Lusomundo in Portugal, Rialto Entertainment for Australia and NewZealand, Ster Kinekor for South Africa, Mongkol for Thailand, Seven Arts forBrazil and Udine/Ripleys for Italy.