Hopscotch has picked up all Australian and New Zealand rights to 2004 Academy Award documentary nominee My Architect from the Film Sales Company, hoping that again loading the slate with non-fiction will prolong last year's winning streak.

The film is already showing in the US and is directed by Nathaniel Kahn, the illegitimate son of the film's subject, the late architect Louis I Kahn, who died bankrupt and alone in New York 30 years ago.

Hopscotch co-owner Troy Lum says the company grossed A$12m in 2003, with the documentaries Bowling For Columbine (A$5m) and Travelling Birds/Winged Migration (A$2.5m) among the big contributors. This puts the 18-month-old company ahead of all those Australian distributors without Hollywood affiliations.

"We never planned to be documentary kings but they are the films we have been passionate about. Our philosophy has always been to buy unique films and whether they are English or non-English language drama, or documentary, doesn't matter," says Lum, who leaves for Berlin tomorrow.

Lum plans to release My Architect in November this year. Director Kevin Macdonald's Touching The Void, which was picked up from Pathe International after Toronto and is the first documentary to be nominated for a best film BAFTA, is likely to be released in June. Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911 will probably launch in September or October in line with the worldwide release.