Toronto's unofficial film market heated up Saturday with ThinkFilm and TVA Films combining to acquire the North American rights to Helen Hunt's Then She Found Me for $2.5 million. The romantic comedy, Hunt's directorial debut starring herself and Colin Firth, came to ThinkFilm by way of a first-look deal with its producer, Killer Films.

Also Saturday, the Canada/Brazil-coproduced film Blindness landed a U.S. distribution deal with Miramax valued at around US$5 million. The $25-million drama, produced by Niv Fichman and based on an adapted screenplay by Don McKellar from the Jose Saramago novel, is currently before the camera in Ontario.

There was also late word Sunday that Equinoxe Films was about to unveil a multiple-picture deal in Toronto valued in the "seven figures," according to a source close to the negotiations.

That left the other market news in Toronto centered on the Americans in town. These included IFC acquiring the North American rights to Baltasar Kormakur's Jar City, The Weinstein Company grabbing the worldwide rights to John Crowley's Boy A and Samuel Goldwyn Films scooping the North American rights to Claude Lelouch's Roman de gare.

Canadian films generating buzz and possible U.S. sales in Toronto include Jeremy Podeswa's Fugitive Pieces, being shopped by Cinetic Media, and Roger Spottiswoode's Shake Hands with the Devil, repped in Toronto by ICM's Hal Sadoff.

Mongrel Media has picked up the Canadian rights to Deepa Mehta's next film, Heaven on Earth, which will start shooting Nov. 5 in India and Canada. The presale continues Mongrel's long association with Mehta, including her last film, Water, which brought in $2.2 million at the Canadian box office.