A deal for North American rights to French film Les Choristes is imminent.

Sales house Pathe International enjoyed high levels of interest in Berlin where the Market title was one of the few to unite buyers.

Pathe is believed to have received a firm offer from Miramax. Executives were confident of a second studio-level bid, having left Berlin early to screen Les Choristes again for an unnamed company in Paris on Thursday.

Sources close to Pathe said they expected to close the deal by the end of the week.

The film by Christophe Barratier is a crowd-pleasing period drama about a schoolteacher at a tough boarding school who transforms his pupils lives through music.