Like a phoenix arisen from the ashes, Alliance is back, and Victor is at the helm.

What was previously known as Motion Picture Distribution — the distribution division of now-defunct Alliance Atlantis Communications — is being renamed, with a tip of the hat to the good old days, as Alliance Films. And former helmer, distribution impresario Victor Loewy, has been appointed executive chairman.

‘We’re finally back,’ Loewy said on Monday. ‘We’ve been working at this for the last six months — unofficially anyway.’

Also heading up the new management team is Charles Layton, a former Miramax exec who takes the post of president of the Toronto-based company, while Xavier Marchand becomes president of international distribution.

Marchand was managing director of the company’s British and Spanish subsidiaries Momentum Pictures and Aurum Producctiones, respectively, until he was put on paid leave in January, reportedly due to a conflict with former management. Loewy said Marchand has continued working from home on the QT. ‘Since there was a big leadership vacuum in the company, he continued to do it anyway,’ he said.

Layton will be based in Toronto, and Marchand in London.

Alliance Films is the largest independent distributor in Canada, with output deals with New Line, Miramax, Focus Features and The Weinstein Company, along with Momentum in the U.K. and Aurum in Spain.

Loewy has been tied to the company since the early 1980s, when he and producer Robert Lantos founded Alliance Communications. He was named president and then chairman of MPD, which was formed when Alliance and Atlantis Communications merged in 1998.

Blunt-spoken Loewy has had his tangles with former management. He exited the company 14 months ago amid much mud-slinging after the board fired executives Patrice Théroux and Paul Laberge for matters related to the potential sale of the company, but because one or more of the company’s lucrative output deals appeared to be on the line, Loewy was rehired soon afterward as an independent consultant.

His appointment at Alliance has been widely anticipated by industryites.

AAC was sold to CanWest Global Communications and Goldman Sachs for $2.3 billion in a deal that closed in mid-August. Goldman Sachs brought in EdgeStone as the Canadian partner in taking control of the distribution business.

The new ownership structure has yet to pass muster with Canadian Heritage, which must be satisfied that the distributor is Canadian controlled. The relative equity position of the two companies has not been disclosed, but EdgeStone has the majority of seats on the board and voting control, said Loewy.

‘It’s not only important for Heritage,’ Loewy said. ‘I also think that Goldman Sachs was interested to have a local partner with more knowledge of the Canadian financial system and so on. The plan was always to have a Canadian partner. If you look worldwide at where they go, they go with a local partner. I think it’s more or less something routine for them.’

Loewy has ambitious plans for Alliance, which will remain headquartered in Toronto. There will be a ‘huge’ outpost in Montreal, he said, with a staff of about 50, and with its U.K. and Spanish offices, the staff is expected to total somewhere around 200 people.

Regarding layoffs that occurred in mid-August, shortly after the deal closed, Loewy said, ‘People who were let go will be replaced.’ He did not elaborate.

Alliance is on the hunt for more acquisitions in Germany or Scandinavia right now, but with an eye to other European countries later. ‘We’re actively looking at other companies,’ he said. ‘The growth for us is mainly in Europe. I think we’ve reached a level of maturity in this country.’

The company is also on the move at the film festival in Toronto, which is in mid-swing. Loewy is looking to ink output deals with U.S. production companies as well as bagging individual films for its Canadian and European interests to feed the beast. ‘We absolutely have the capital right now,’ he said.

The revamped company has its work cut out for it. Loewy is now in direct competition with his former colleagues, Lantos and Théroux.

Théroux recently took the helm of a new distribution division at Toronto-based Entertainment One, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange. The company acquired mid-sized distributor Seville Pictures of Montreal, and Théroux intends to expand into English Canada.

In recent weeks, Lantos announced the formation of Maximum Films, which already has an output deal with Magnolia and HDNet (alongside Seville) as well as Fortissimo. He also intends to establish a large and wide-ranging slate of films.

Asked how he feels about his new competitors, Loewy said, ‘On the outset it looks like fun. I don’t know where it’s going to be a year from now. But we are friends, and I think the market is large enough for competition.’