American newcomer Jordan Melamed's Manic has been picked up by Denmark's Trust Film Sales, which is now presenting the film at Toronto.

The tough drama starring Don Cheadle (Swordfish) and Joseph Gordon-Lewitt, deals with a young man trying to cope in a juvenile mental institution, where he encounters a group of adolescents struggling with a variety of illnesses. Cheadle plays a reformed drug addict turned psychiatrist. Melamed, who graduated from AFI, shot the film on DV. Manic is produced by Peter Broderick for Next Wave Productions. It made its world premire at Sundance earlier this year, and will be released by IFC in North America.

A similar low-budget DV project, Richard Linklater's Venice-buzzed Tape and the rest of the InDigEnt (Independent Digital Entertainment) digital video collective's first package of films was sold to Japan's Media Suite, which already picked up Ethan Hawke's Chelsea Walls during Cannes. NonStop Entertainment also took all five films for theatrical release in Scandinavia.

Despite holding back on sales of the Norwegian crowd-pleaser Elling for its screening in Toronto, Trust Film Sales closed Benelux and Switzerland to Upstream and Ascot-Elite respectively. Elling is also pending offers from Germany and the UK. Following the very successful world premiere on Sunday of Ole Christian Madsen's Kira's Reason in Toronto, Trust is also in negotiations about this latest Danish dogme-title.