Italy's Rai Trade has struck two multi-picture distribution deals with Brazil and Australia and has closed a score of sales on its new titles, including cult director Maurizio Nichetti's latest comedy Honolulu Baby.

Under the output deal, the Rome-based sales agent sold eight films to Brazil's Top Tape and 10 films to Australia's Palace, two territories which it sees as "ideal to develop a real market for Italian films." The package includes titles such as the Isabella Rossellini-starrer The Sky is Falling, Wilma Labate's Domenica and Honolulu Baby, as well as films that are currently in post-production and development.

Palace's deal with Rai Trade also confirms the Australian outfit's deepening drive into the Italian market, as it boosts its slate of Italian films to 13 titles, a month after signing a co-distribution and production deal with Rome state distributor Istituto Luce. Under that deal, Palace, which is expected to announce within a few months the creation of a joint distribution and production outfit with Istituto Luce, had already taken Australian rights to The Sky is Falling, The Hundred Steps, and Bread and Tulips.

In separate AFM deals, Rai Trade also sold Nichetti's Mr Bean-style comedy to Greece's Proptiki and Croatia's UDC, and is now in talks with the US, Germany, Austria, Spain and Canada for the film. Japan's Alcine Terran picked up The Sky is Falling and Kamras Film Group bought rights for Finland. A deal on the World War II drama is also expected to be closed imminently with the US, Germany and France. Domenica, Wilma Labate's Naples-set film about the relationship between an orphaned little girl and a police inspector, was sold to France's Steward after recently going to Germany's Peppermint. And the Swe Zhe Group secured theatrical rights for Indonesia and Singapore on Rosa e Cornelia, a popular historical drama directed by Giorgio Treves.