Benelux distributor Cineart/Cinelibre has picked up three titles in official selection in Berlin: Francois Ozon's competition entry Ricky from Le Pacte, Simone Bitton's Forum documentary Rachel from UMedia and Philippe Lioret's Panorama title Welcome sold by Films Distribution.

Cineart/Cinelibre has also been busy pre-buying. It has now snapped up Ken Loach's Looking For Eric sold by Wild Bunch, Fatih Akin's Soul Kitchen from The Match Factory and Radu Mihaileanu's Le Concert from Wild Bunch.

The Benelux buyer has also taken Dutch rights for Pedro Almodovar's new film Broken Embraces from Pathe. Another pre-buy is Rodrigo Garcia's Mother and Child sold by Westend Films starring Naomi Watts and Samuel L. Jackson.

These acquisitions come as the Belgian company steps up its activities in the Netherlands. It's a year now since the company set up Dutch offices. Cineart is currently enjoying roaring business with Danny Boyle's Oscar front-runner Slumdog Millionaire and with Laurent Cantet's The Class.

'It's a year since we opened Cineart in the Netherlands and we have released something like 20 films. The results are great and we are very happy with the situation,' Du Bois commented of Cineart's venture into Holland.

The company recently extended its video label Twin Pics into the Netherlands.