The International Union of Cinemas (UNIC), the European cinema trade grouping, today launched the fifth edition of its Women’s Cinema Leadership Programme, a 12-month mentoring programme for women in cinema exhibition.
Following the success of the previous four editions, this year’s programme will provide 11 talented female cinema professionals with an exclusive opportunity to receive one-to-one career advice and networking opportunities, and to learn from an outstanding group of women executives from across the cinema landscape, each recognised for their leadership and business success.
The programme remains UNIC’s flagship initiative to help address the current gender imbalance at senior levels of the industry and works to encourage and empower female professionals in order for the industry to realise its full potential. Its 2021/22 edition welcomes the following key female leaders and rising female professionals from the cinema exhibition landscape, representing 19 countries and 22 companies:
Mentors
- Greta Bisetto-Donelan, Global Director of Content Distribution, GENERATION MEDIA
- Nuria Bronfman, Executive Director, Movie Theatre Association of Canada
- Seneit Debese, Founder & CEO, Greta & Starks
- Kassandra Dommisse-Reebergen, Country Manager Operations, Kinepolis The Netherlands
- Daniela Elstner, Executive Director, UniFrance Film International
- Yit-Ching Lee, Vice President EMEA, Paramount Pictures
- Hannele Marjavaara, Cinema Manager, Kino Tapiola, Espoo, Finland
- Funmilayo Marian Onuma, Country Manager, Silverbird Cinemas, Ghana
- Zvjezdana Pavić, Director of Finance and Accounting, Blitz-CineStar
- Bettina Schmidt, Head of Operations Cinema, blue Entertainment, Switzerland
- Inés Trementino, Operations Director, Cinépolis Argentina
Mentees
- Nevena Brašanac, Booking & Exhibition Manager, CINEPLEXX INTERNATIONAL, Serbia
- Nisha Denton, Head of Screen Content, CinemaxX, Germany
- Patricia Edeline F. Antunes, COO and Booking Manager, Sociedad Cinematográfica de Centros Comerciales, SA, Spain
- Elisabetta Hoch, General Manager, UCI Cinemas Bicocca Milan, Italy
- Natalia Mackiewicz, Cinema Programmer, Kinokawiarnia Stacja Falenica, Poland
- Chloe Monteiro, Account Manager, EMEA, Movio
- Boglárka Nagy, General Delegate, International Confederation of Arthouse Cinemas (CICAE)
- Charlotte F. Neumann, Senior Film Booking Manager, ODEON Kino Norway
- Ogbonna Nkemakolam Chizoma, Business & Operations Manager, Filmhouse Cinema, Nigeria
- Becky Tobin, Regional Manager, Curzon, UK
- Julia Vinokurova, Operations Management Consultant EMEAR, RealD
Welcoming this latest edition of the programme, UNIC CEO Laura Houlgatte commented:
“It’s incredibly rewarding to see how our inspiring community has grown – we’ve come a long way since 2017, when the programme was first launched! We owe the success of the scheme to our wonderful mentors and mentees, who have been our champions since the very beginning.
We know that more initiatives are needed to achieve more diversity and inclusivity in the industry – and we hope that we are doing our part.
This year, we received a record number of applications and the selection process was a challenge! We are thrilled to welcome a fantastic group of mentors and mentees for the fifth edition – the biggest to date. We are honoured that the programme is expanding into new territories and bringing more diverse profiles to our community.
We also want to thank the graduating cohort for their dedication, ambition and hard work in what has been a very challenging year. We can’t wait to see everyone again – in person and not on Zoom!
I would like to wish an empowering journey to the new cohort!”
