Having recently earned kudos by boarding Bloody Sunday and The Last Great Wilderness at production stage, the UK's Winchester Entertainment-owned distributor: Feature Film Company is stepping up activities.

FFC, which operates as the specialised arm of Winchester's UK distribution division, has appointed Laurence Gornall as managing director and struck a first-look deal with production company Sterling Pictures.

Headed by Michael Riley, Sterling is shooting Storm Entertainment's $3m human trafficking thriller Outlanders this summer and is readying Executioner In Love, from Jasmin Dizdar, director of Beautiful People.

Outlanders has a cast including Bruno Ganz and Douglas Henshall, while Executioner is a black comedy about a Texan State Executioner's mid-life crisis.

London-based Sterling is also assembling a slate of mainstream titles including supernatural family comedy Mostly Ghostly.

Since being acquired by Winchester in 2001, 11 year-old FFC has released the controversial Baise Moi, Berlin co-winner Bloody Sunday, and co-produced The Last Great Wilderness, the directing debut of hot UK filmmaker David Mackenzie.

Gornall takes on the new role while also retaining his position as head of marketing at Winchester Film Distribution.