German media group Kinowelt has reportedly acquired the video and DVD rights to 240 films from France's StudioCanal.

The deal is understood to cover European rights outside French-speaking countries. In the UK the pictures are expected to go through Momentum Pictures, Kinowelt's joint venture with Canada's Alliance Atlantis. Kinowelt is expected to handle the movies itself in German-speaking countries.

Momentum already has UK rights on a slate of high-profile English-language titles from StudioCanal. Titles under the arrangement include Kathryn Bigelow's The Weight Of Water, John Waters' Cecil B Demented and George A Romero's Bruiser.

Along with a newly-formed alliance in Spain with Lolafilms and talks for a distribution pact in France with Bac Films, Kinowelt has recently been expanding into Eastern Europe. This week the publicly-listed operation established a Russian distribution outfit, Gemini Kinomir, in partnership with Bodo Scriba's Moscow-based distributor Gemini International.