Equinoxe Films is withdrawing from the distribution business as a standalone enterprise.

The Montreal-based company’s principal backer, France Film, has decided to exit releasing, leaving Equinoxe no option but to lay off the majority of its main staff. Among those let go are acquisitions head Marie-Claude Poulin and marketing director Michele Laroche.

Poulin, who recently joined Pierre Even’s start-up production company Item 7, tells Playback Daily that the company terminated her contract in May. She says the films originally slated for release through Equinoxe have been refinanced and sold to other distributors.

‘Equinoxe is now just a service agency,’ she says. ‘They terminated everyone, but the booking people.’

President Michael Mosca says he is in conversations with France Film to buy Equinoxe on his own, and manage the existing Quebec sub-distribution deals it has in place with Disney, MGM and Lionsgate. He adds that he has every intention of returning to distribution as a standalone enterprise, but admits, ‘I’m a little less capitalized than when France Film was behind me.’

Asked what prompted France Film’s decision, Mosca replied, ‘They have other investments and they didn’t want to play the casino game of film distribution anymore. You have to be pretty confident in distribution.’

Mosca notes the company has enjoyed a ‘good run’ with films such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, The Passion of the Christ and Mambo Italiano.

The change in circumstance calls into question the future of Equinoxe Productions, the production arm headed by Mosca and producer Lyse Lafontaine. Mosca declined to comment. Lafontaine, who is a coproducer on Robert Lantos’ production of Barney’s Version, was unavailable.