Europa Cinema, the pan-European association of arthouse cinemas, announced major management changes on Tuesday, with founder Claude-Eric Poiroux stepping down as managing director after 30 years. He will be succeeded by current COO Fatima Djoumer, who has been appointed as the new CEO.
Poiroux has been awarded the title of Honorary President of Europa Cinema in honor of his work in creating and developing the exhibition network, which now has more than 3,000 screens in 744 cities across the continent.
“In establishing this network and developing it, thanks to the continuous financial support of Creative Europe Media since the very beginning, we have empowered exhibitors in their programming choices for European films and in their dynamic and innovative strategies to build and engage audiences. renew,” Claude – said Eric Poiroux. “This network is more than ever essential for the growth and visibility of European cinema.”
“The entire network will always be indebted to Claude-Eric whose vision has enabled us to build such an extensive and diverse network,” Europa Cinemas said in a statement. “The core belief of Europa Cinemas is that cinemas are essential to the future of film. Our network is constantly finding innovative ways to strengthen its role in the film ecosystem and build an audience. Europa Cinemas has a very active membership committed to diversity, inclusion and innovation and we will continue to focus on turning their passion into practical action.”
Together with Djoumer, Europa Cinemas chose a new steering committee for the association, re-electing Nico Simon from Luxembourg as president for another year, appointing Metka Dariš (Slovenia) and Mathias Holtz (Sweden) as vice-presidents, Benoît Thimister (Belgium ) as treasurer and Maria-Magdalena Gierat (Poland) as secretary.
The Europa Cinemas network, an association of independent art house theatres, operates in 744 cities in 38 countries across Europe. Last year, theaters across the network sold more than 83 million tickets.
