Lions Gate Films has boughtall North American rights from Sogepaq to Mondays In The Sun, Spain's entry for the 2002 Foreign Language FilmOscar. The social drama was recently released to critical and commercialsuccess in Spain and won four awards at this year's San SebastianInternational Film Festival. Javier Bardem stars as one of a group ofco-workers who attempt to rebuild their lives after they lose their jobs at thelocal dockyard. The picture has earned Bardem a Best Actor nomination at the2002 European Film Awards.

"Mondays In The Sun is a brilliant, hard-hitting drama with theperformance of a lifetime from Javier Bardem," Tom Ortenberg, president ofLions Gate Films Releasing, said in a statement. "We are very proud to beassociated with this masterpiece by Leon de Aranoa. Ortenberg added thatthe deal underlined the strong relationship with Sogepaq, from which Lions Gateacquired Juan Carlos Fresnadillos thriller Intacto, which is due to be released next month.

"This is an importantfilm both for me personally and for its universal subject matter, Bardemsaid in a statement. °I am very excited that the film is going to acompany that has shown great enthusiasm for independent and daring film-makingvoices from all over the world."

Lions Gates releaseslate includes James Foleys thriller Confidence, starring Dustin Hoffman, Andy Garcia and RachelWeisz; Max, an account of AdolfHitlers early life as a struggling painter in 1920s Germany starringJohn Cusack, Leelee Sobieski and Noah Taylor; the thriller Godsend, featuring Robert De Niro, Greg Kinnear and RebeccaRomjin-Stamos; and Shattered Glass,the biopic of fraudulent journalist Stephen Glass starring Hayden Christensen.