Australian distributor Palace Films has acquired all local rights to the low-budget recently-completed Australian slice-of-life comedy Silent Partner. Director-producer Alkinos Tsilimidos is in negotiations with an unnamed international sales agent interested in taking international rights.

Daniel Keene adapted the script from his own play about a pair of 40-something down-on-their-luck men offered a dream-come-true opportunity to train and race a greyhound. In the lead roles are David Field and Syd Brisbane. Field was most recently seen on the big screen in Chopper and is associate producer on the project.

Palace general manager Tait Brady is hoping to use a long campaign and a platform release to generate enough word of mouth to give Silent Partner sleeper hit status when it is released later in the year.

The Australian Film Commission, SBS Independent and the Premium Movie Partnership contributed A$400,000 to post-production after the self-financed shoot had wrapped under the Rescued Films production banner.

Everynight...Everynight, the previous film by Tsilimidos, was officially selected for Venice and won best first film at Montreal in 1994.