Alliance Films is in the running to purchase TF1 International, the French TV network’s film sales division.

Les Echos, the French financial newspaper, on Tuesday reported that the distributor and rival Entertainment One are among five suitors, including French telecom giant Orange, that have approached the Gallic network’s film sales arm with an eye to a buyout.

Victor Loewy, CEO of Montreal-based Alliance, tells Playback Daily that the buyout talks with TF1 were protracted, having begun earlier this summer, and that a deal is not imminent.

Executives at E1 were not available for comment.

Loewy, who was set to host a party Tuesday night at the Montreal World Film Festival, has delayed until Sept. 2 a series of separate corporate announcements.

These include a new output deal with U.S. movie producer giant Relativity Media, initially negotiated at Cannes, and a renewal of Alliance’s output deal with New Line Cinema to the end of 2009.

The supply of New Line product was put in jeopardy by a decision earlier this year by Warner Bros. to pull the mini-studio in-house, and to release its product in Canada through Warner Bros. Canada.

But the major studio will keep funneling its product to Alliance through next year as part of a new deal with its longtime Canadian partner.

Both Alliance and E1 in recent years have acquired European distribution arms amid current industry consolidation as they eye expansion outside of the Canadian market.