Fledgling Australian distributor Accent Film Entertainment has struck a deal with Films Transit International for Australian rights to Jonathan Karsh's My Flesh And Blood.

The film about a woman and her 11 adopted children, all of whom have various disabilities and special needs, won an audience award last year at Sundance and was one of 12 films shortlisted in the documentary category for a 2004 Academy Award.

Accent emerged in December and is a joint venture between general manger George Papadopoulos, marketing and acquisitions manager Dean O'Flaherty, and DVD production and mastering house IML Digital Media.

Accent opened its first two films in cinemas this month. Both director Gaspar Noe's controversial Irreversible, and director Matthew Barney's art epic The Cremaster Cycle, made up of five feature-length films, are showing some of the highest screen averages in the country. Admittedly, however, they are on extremely limited release. Next up is Jose de Janeiro's documentary Bus 174.

Providing that print numbers and costs are kept very low, and that new releases can be certain of good reviews and have a point of differentiation from what else is on offer, Papadopoulos believes documentary can work well in the arthouse environment. So too can drama with a female skew.

A big part of Accent's business is DVD distribution of small, foreign and classic films. Fourteen have been acquired since the doors opened including Wong Kar Wai's Fallen Angels, Fritz Lang's M and Robert Bresson's Pickpocket.