Winstar TV & Video, the entertainment arm of Winstar Communications, has been bought out by a group of private investors and re-named Wellspring Media. The buyout includes the theatrical division, Winstar Cinema, as well as the TV, home video, production and direct distribution units.

Winstar TV & Video president Al Cattabiani will now serve as president and CEO of Wellspring and all of the existing key personnel will remain in place. Winstar Cinema's inaugural release under its new identity will be Tsai Ming-liang's What Time Is It There' which is set to roll out in January.

Throughout 2002, other releases will include Olivier Assayas' Les Destinees Sentimentales starring Emanuelle Beart and Isabelle Huppert, Paul Cox's Nijinsky, Mama Africa with Queen Latifah and Anne-Sophie Birot's Girls Can't Swim with Isild Le Besco.

Wellspring executives Krysanne Katsoolis, Julie Goodman and Marie Therese Guirgis will be at Sundance on behalf of the company. Two Wellspring productions have been selected for the festival - documentary Devil's Playground (in American Spectrum) and short film Bintou.

Winstar Cinema gained a reputation as a successful distributor of foreign language films such as Yi Yi, Under The Sand, L'Humanite, The Circle and Pola X.