Among the rare times where they pick up a film before completion, Sony Pictures Classics have lassoed the North American, Latin American and Eastern European rights to Jacques Audiard's Rust & Bone (Un goût de rouille et d’os), hence continuing their partnership with the French filmmaker after having distributed his last pic, A Prophet.

Winner of the 1982 Palme d'Or by proxy for Yol (he was imprisoned during production and gave detailed directions to Şerif Gören, the 'official' director, on how to make the film), Güney is the most influential Turkish filmmaker in the country's history, and, frankly, still probably the greatest of them all (Ceylan may well surpass him, though, especially if he makes any more films on the plane as Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, but that's a debate for another time and place).

Screen Daily have learned that filmmaker Angelina Nikonova (pictured on the right) will once again team up with Olga Dykhovichnaya (the star and co-writer of her Venice Days and TIFF showcased debut feature film Twilight Portrait) on a film item that carries a whole other DNA. Welcome Home will most likely be followed by a third project by the pair -- they are looking for Japanese co-producers to board "a Russian-Japanese story set in the early 20th century Japan."

Akin to his 2006 relationship drama (Flannel Pajamas) in terms of sheer brutal honesty, it comes as no surprise that Jeff Lipsky's new distrib shingle Adopt Films has picked up Quebecois helmer Anne Émond’s feature debut

"Stimulated" by their most recent pick-up in TIFF audience award's Where Do We Go Now?, Sony Pictures Classics are supposedly, as we had suggested prior to its world premiere, interested in another crowd-pleaser in Tanya Wexler's Hysteria.

Although it was announced just yesterday, we know that GKIDS, the animation distributor folks who brought us Michel Ocelot’s Azur & Asmar, Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues and Tomm Moore’s The Secret of Kells, were dancing the bolero around Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s Chico & Rita when it was presented at TIFF last year.

Maintaining their longstanding policy of locking up as many possible Foreign Oscar nomination contenders as feasibly possible, Sony Pictures Classics are adding Where Do We Go Now?, Lebanon's official entry at the Oscars to their slate.

Life as a filmmaker might have became a hell of a lot easier for Denis Côté especially when the French-Canadian auteur broke into a more "user-friendly" cinema with his Locarno winning Curling (Best Director). With more "flexibility", his 6th film titled Vic et Flo ont vu un ours (English translation Vic and Flo Saw a Bear) is set to go into production for next summer (means we shouldn't be seeing the final product until 2013) and he'll get to employ some bigger name talent.

Critically panned in Cannes. Shut out from North American premieres in Toronto and Telluride, it appeared as if Paolo Sorrentino's This Must Be the Place wouldn't find a festival tent let alone a distrib home in the U.S. but an unlikely candidate in the Weinstein Co. have grabbed the rights.

Texas-based Asian genre film specialists Well Go USA have made a two-picture pick-up deal with Fortissimo Films for Takashi Shimizu’s last pair of films - both Marco Mueller's Lido selected items. Via their output deal with Variance films, look for the Venice Film Festival 2011 selected Tormented to be shown in theaters while 2010's The Shock Labyrinth will probably go the direct to VOD route.

Mark Urman's discount and highly selective distributor Paladin have netted what could easily be a bonafide hit in Boy. Despite mixed reviews, Taika Waititi's sophomore film (it didn't make our must see cut when it premiered in Park City) could be a healthy alternative if considered for year-end showings.

Always a good sign when your sophomore project gets picked up at the midway point of production, as is the case for Ol Parker's London-shot Now Is Good. Bought by Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions, this could possibly follow other pick-ups to be packaged as a Sony Pictures Classics project later down the line. The tear-jerker drama is comprised of Dakota Fanning in the lead, with supporting perfs from Jeremy Irvine, Paddy Considine, Olivia Williams and Kaya Scodelario, who we look forward in seeing in Andrea Arnold's upcoming adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

Beginning July 28 and running until the end of August, Toronto's TIFF Bell Lightbox are complimenting their Fellini bonanza with a concurrent programme that spotlights perhaps the purest, most stripped down movement in film history: Italian Neorealism. For Fellini, La Dolce Vita signalled a gravitation toward his thematic and stylistic tendencies for excess and the fantastic; with later films like 8½ and Juliet of the Spirits dominating the canon, it is easy to overlook the more timid first decade of his career. The juxtaposition of Fellini's Double Bills with this showcase for Neorealismo serves not only as a logical contextualization for Fellini, but also it offers a chance to see rare prints of monumental Italian classics, many shipped straight over from Italy.

Finally. Perhaps the crowd pleaser of the 2011 Cannes edition has finally found a home - with the provider of retro art-house cinema. Janus Films who make about one theatrical pick-up every 24 months have secured the North American rights to a film that might have gone home empty handed (it was however bestowed with the FIPRESCI Prize), but essentially slayed the majority of the international press with its slow burn, simplistic charm. Aki Kaurismaki’s Le Havre will be set up for a release in the autumn and will surely premiere at major upcoming North American fests such as Telluride, TIFF and Chicago.

It's double announcement day for Nanni Moretti’s Habemus Papam. This morning it was among the first batch of North American premiere titles announced for this year's TIFF and in the afternoon, the church bells chimed once again, as Sundance Selects announced their pick-up of the comedy with a pinch of drama.

While watching these films offers its own experiential whirligig of psychoanalytic readings and cultural anthropology, the exhibition - which consists largely of photographs, movie clips, and advertising memorabilia - gives them the sort of depth that one could only really have had by actually living through the pop culture melee that spawned them.

Some auteurs grace cinephiles with their gifts only about has frequently as there are national elections (or if you're Terrence Malick, with the election of each new pope), and then there are guys like Hong Sang-soo, whose personal agenda seems to be: appear in as many major film festivals as possible until they cease to exist. Having just debuted one of his very best features, The Day He Arrives, in Cannes' Un Certain Regard section last May, he's now back to work on a new feature - though who's to say that he doesn't already have another new one in the can?

Reminiscent of Corneliu Porumboiu's Police, Adjectiv for its marathon run time (film is easily over the two-hour mark, but doesn't feel like it) and wry sense of humor in what essentially tackles the underlining politics in procedural police work, Ceylan's Grand Prix winner (tied with the Dardennes' Kid With a Bike) has found a home with The Cinema Guild folks and though no immediate plans were made for a 2011 release, expect the ideal locations of TIFF and NYFF to provide settings for the North American and U.S premieres.

Alex De La Iglesia recently commented on his chosen screen pair for the still-in-production La Chispa de La Vida, “I know it's an unbelievable starring couple: the top Latin representative in the Spanish-speaking star system and a Spaniard comedian. I know they do not match up, but because of this they're going to be the perfect couple.

After last week's pick-up of Bela Tarr's Berlin Film Festival winner, The Cinema Guild are pacting with another well-established auteur in Hong Sangsoo. His The Day He Arrives (which looks nothing like the popular trailer) will receive a probable 2011 calendar release.