Former Kinowelt world sales chief Stelios Ziannis is in Berlin with his new sales company Aktis Film International.

The Leipzig-based outfit's first acquisition is Rudolf Thome's black tragicomedy Pink which will have its world premiere in the festival's Berlinale Special sidebar.

Starring Hannah Herzsprung, Florian Panzner (Valkyrie), Guntram Brattia (The Visible And The Invisible) and Cornelius Schwalm (Kleine Kreise), Pink focuses on a successful young poetess who has to decide between three men and picks the wrong one to marry on two occasions.

Ziannis also has a back catalogue on offer, including Wolf Gremm's Fabian and Kamikaze 89, starring Rainer Werner Fassbinder, as well as Roberto Rossellini's La Paura with Ingrid Bergman.

Aktis Film International will concentrate on world sales and acquisitions,TV sales for German-speaking territories, the co-production of new German and international films, and film classics. The company also plans to be present at such markets as MIP-TV, Cannes Marche, MIP-COM in addition to the EFM.

Prior to setting up Aktis Film International, Ziannis had worked for 10 years at Filmverlag der Autoren from 1989 to 1999 and then for Kinowelt International until the end of 2008.