Germany's Kinowelt Medien is in talks with French distributor BAC Films about joining Kinowelt's proposed international distribution network.

Kinowelt, which could feed its partners with films from its recently struck deal with US producer Gale Anne Hurd, is also in talks with potential partners in Italy and Spain, where Lolafilms is a likely candidate. Kinowelt already has a partnership with Canada's Alliance Atlantis in the UK along with its own distribution and partnerships and joint-ventures for Germany and Eastern Europe.

Kinowelt and BAC have been discussing a partnership for several months, although no deal has been signed. The talks revolve around BAC Films rather than BAC Distribution, the joint-venture BAC recently launched with Canal Plus.

The partnership with BAC could take the form of either exchanging product or an output arrangement. Additionally, Kinowelt could take a share in BAC Films. Similarly, the partnership with Lola could mean exchanging product, an output pact or taking a share in the company.

Kinowelt is also considering selling product from Hurd through a sales operation.

Kinowelt chief Rainer Koelmel said: 'I would prefer output relationships and possibly joint ventures because we have more control. We always said that if we go the way of creating a multi-national operation we would go as far as we can in controlling the exploitation of those rights.'