Former Sithengi Film & TVMarket CEO Michael Auret and German producer Christoph Thoke have launched Roughdiamond films as a South African-based internationalfinancing and production outfit.

With headquarters in Cape Town,Roughdiamond will be financing and line producingEnglish-language films in the range of $5m-$30m.

While all the South African financing and production will becoordinated by Auret, Roughdiamond'sinternational marketing and acquisition will be looked after by Thoke.

"We are looking for commercial English language genrefilms and will benefit from Michael's privileged access to the decision-makersin South Africa,"Thoke commented.