In what may signal the end of its plans to start up a US distribution company, Mexico-city based regional distributor NuVision has sold a package of titles produced by its sister company Altavista to Venevision International, a Spanish language distributor based in Miami.

For the moment, Venevision has limited its acquisitions to past titles but may acquire additional films in the future. The other Altavista titles are Por La Libre, Sin Dejar Huella, Atletico San Pancho, La Ley De Herodes and Segundo Aire. Altavista's most prestigious title, Amores Perros, was released by Lion's Gate in the U.S.

The move comes as three major companies are looking to build strong businesses in US Hispanic market: Arenas Entertainment, Venevision International and the new still unnamed joint venture forged by Spain's Plural Entertainment, Mexico's Televisa Cine and Miami-based Latin World Entertainment.

Venevision released the first of its pick ups, Todo El Poder, on 18 screens in Los Angeles in the last weekend of February. According to NuVision director Monica Lozano, the current strategy is provisional. "We will review our plans for the US and make a final decision in the near future on whether to continue to go with third parties or launch our own distribution outlet."

Last year, Federico Gonzalez Compean, head of parent company Estudio Mexico Films, told Screen International that they were actively seeking out co- investors for a new US distribution venture which would require seed capital of $6m. The names of Venevision and Plural were bandied about as potential partners. Plural has since joined forces with Televisa and Latin World.

Since last year, Venevision International has released a handful of Latin American and Spanish titles in select cities. These include Spanish films El Arte De Morir, Cha Cha Cha and Nadie Conoce A Nadie, Colombian satire Bolivar Soy Yo and Peruvian hit Pantaleon Y Los Visitadores.