UK arthouse distributor New Wave Films has snapped up British rights to two new titles.

The London-based company, set up in early 2008, has bought Alain Resnais’ film Wild Grass (Les Herbes Folles) (pictured), which premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and subsequently opened the New York Film Festival. The deal was made with Alain Vannier’s Orly Films.

Wild Grass recently opened in France where it has notched up over 350,000 admissions in three weeks. The film stars Resnais regulars Sabine Azéma and André Dussollier as well as Mathieu Amalric, Anne Consigny and Emmanuelle Devos.

New Wave has also taken rights to Kicks by Lindy Heymann, which premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival in June. It is the third of three films produced by Northwest Vision and Media under its Digital Departures initiative with Liverpool Culture Company, BBC Films and the UK Film Council. The Liverpool-set film is the feature debut for both director Lindy Heymann and writer Leigh Campbell, and stars upcoming actresses Kerrie Hayes and Nichola Burley.

“We are very pleased to renew a relationship with Alain Vannier that stretches back a long way, and to be releasing a film by Alain Resnais,” commented New Wave’s Robert Beeson of New Wave.

He added that Kicks will will be the fourth UK debut feature that New Wave Films has released since 2008. “We’re privileged to be able to work with new film-makers from the UK such as Joanna Hogg and now Lindy Heymann and Leigh Campbell.”

Both films are due to be released this spring.

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