French sales outfit Wide House (the doc arm of Wide Management) has struck an alliance with US outfit First Run Features.

Under the terms of the deal, New York-based First Run will have a first look at US rights for both docs and fictional films from Wide.

“We have decided to keep working very actively together,” Wide House’s Anais Clanet said of the new partnership. The deal was negotiated by Clanet and First Run’s Seymour Wishman and announced this weekend during IDFA.

First Run has recently acquired several titles from Wide, among them Voice of the Andes, about the Inca Trail in Latin America, Lionel Boisseau’s Guy Martin - Portrait Of A Great Chef (a profile of one of France’s most famous chefs), ande Rod Freeman’s Wrong Side Of The Bus (a doc about bad faith and redemption in South Africa).

The relationship between Wide and First Run is on a two-way basis. It is also envisaged that the US distributor will identify certain titles for Wide to sell. (This has already happened with Anne Bass doc Dancing Across Borders.)

Here at IDFA, Wide is handling sales on Walter Stokman’s Scena del Crimine, a doc exploring the continuing influence of the Camorra on the citizens of Naples. Wide snapped up international sales rights to the film just in advance of its premiere in the Venice Festival last September.

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