Canadian film mogul Robert Lantos has created two companies to promote and distribute feature films.

Maximum Films International and Maximum Film Distribution will reunite Lantos with two former Alliance Communications executives, Charlotte Mickie and Anthony Cianciotta. The two will work as managing directors of the new companies.

Maximum Films International will acquire, promote and sell independent films from around the world. Its roster so far includes Jeremy Podeswa’s Fugitive Pieces, which is the opening night film at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Other films on the slate include My Winnipeg by Guy Maddin, Santosh Sivan’s Before the Rains and the recently completed Real Time starring Randy Quaid and Jay Baruchel. The latest from director Atom Agoyan, Adoration, will also be distributed by Maximum. Starring Scott Speedman and Rachel Blanchard, it starts production in Toronto in mid-September.

Maximum Film Distribution will acquire Canadian rights to films and distribute them in both English and French. It has already signed up Fugitive Pieces and Adoration as well as the Cannes favourite Jelly Fish and Kenneth Branagh’s The Magic Flute, among others.

The company has also secured an agreement with IFC Films for the Canadian rights to its features. Upcoming releases include Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park.

Lantos and his company Serendipity Films have produced a number of acclaimed films in recent years, including Where the Truth Lies, Being Julia, Men With Brooms and Sunshine. In addition to Fugitive Pieces, Lantos has David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises at this year’s Toronto film festival.