Niche Pictures principal Lyn McCarthy has closed deals for Australian and New Zealand rights on two high-profile Cannes film - on the phone from the northern New South Wales coast resort Byron Bay, where she lives. They are director Ken Loach's Sweet Sixteen, which was in Competition at Cannes, and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's Intacto, the opening film in Critics Week,

Niche is releasing Loach's previous film The Navigators in Australia on August 15. Others in the line-up include the Argentinian caper film Nine Queens, Rose Troche's The Safety Of Objects, Japanese box-office sensation and Berlin winner Spirited Away and the Tibetan drama Samsara.