Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) has revisited two former domestic acquisitions - Renaissance Films' The Luzhin Defence and Winchester Films' Last Orders to pick up additional territories. On the former, it has bought Germany and Australia/New Zealand and on the latter it has bought Germany.

The moves not only signify the increasing need for studio-affiliated companies to pick up international territories to fuel foreign pay-TV output deals but also shows how the studios are starting to pick up the slack in Germany now that the Neuermarkt bubble has burst.

SPC bought North American rights to The Luzhin Defence at Cannes 2000 and released it earlier this year. The fact that the film has now grossed over $1m is one of the triggers for Sony Pictures' pay-TV deals in Germany and Australia, where it will be released by local Columbia TriStar offices theatrically.

SPC bought Last Orders in September in a multi-territory deal with Winchester for North America, Scandinavia, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand.

The deals are just two which signify an increasing tendency to multi-territory acquisitions on the part of the major studio buyers.