Fortissimo Film Sales has picked up sales duties on seven new pictures including Cannes competition hopeful In The Mood For Love, directed by Wong Kar Wai.

The Dutch-Hong Kong sales house opened its new slate for business at the European Film Market in Berlin this week, and plans to take the pictures to the American Film Market later this month. In The Mood For Love boasts top Hong Kong stars Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung (Leung Chiu Wai) and is produced by Eric Heumann's French outfit, Paradis Films.

Fortissimo's slate also includes The Goddess Of 1967 from Floating Life director Clara Law and romantic comedy Thomas In Love (Thomas Est Amoureux), directed by Pierre-Paul Renders.

The $3.5m Goddess was co-financed by the Australian Film Finance Corp and executive produced by Nippon Film Development and Fortissimo. An early pre-sale was struck with Benelux distributor Cinemien and the picture is also assured of Australian distribution through Palace Films. Thomas In Love, scripted by the writer of Venice hit Une Liaison Pornographique, Philippe Blasband, is produced by Brussels-based Entre Chien Et Loup and scheduled for completion in May.

Fortissimo has also picked up Les Diseurs De Verite, a tale of Algerian refugees in The Netherlands by Karim Traida, director of The Polish Bride. The picture is produced by Motel Films.

Meanwhile Fortissimo has picked up three pictures from the recent Rotterdam CineMart: Spicy Love Soup from director Zhang Yang, whose Shower debuted at Toronto last year, and two projects which are looking for finance - Alex van Warmerdam's black comedy Grimm, which is seeking a Spanish co-producer, and Jacky, to be directed by first-timers Fow Pyng Hu and Brat Ljatifi and produced by Motel.

Fortissimo has bought outstanding rights to Spicy Love Soup, Zhang's first film which was China's second biggest grosser of 1998, behind Titanic. The company has also committed to Zhang's next film Quitting.