UK distributor MomentumPictures and its Spanish sister company Aurum Producciones have acquired threefilms for release in 2006: Lasse Hallstrom's The Hoax for the UK and Spain, Mark Neveldine and BrianTaylor's Crank for Spain, andGavin Hood's Tsotsi for the UK.Momentum's vice president of acquisition Lara Thompson spearheaded all threedeals.

The Hoax, currently in post-production, follows a bogusbiographer of Howard Hughes and stars Richard Gere, Hope Davis and Julie Delpy.That two-territory deal was negotiated with David Glasser at Syndicate and theYari Film Group.

Action film Crank stars Jason Statham as a man going to extrememeasures to save himself from a medical condition. That deal was negotiatedwith Lakeshore Entertainment.

The third acquisition, Tsotsi, is the South Africa-set drama that captured theaudience awards at the Toronto and Edinburgh festivals. Tsotsi is also the South African candidate for theforeign-language Oscar. The deal was negotiated with Robbie Little of TheLittle Film Company.

Xavier Marchand, managingdirector of Momentum and Aurum, said: "We have acquired some exciting andinteresting projects and feel they will make a great addition to our alreadysolid 2006 slate in both countries."