Celluloid Junkie Announces Committee Members for Top Women in Global Cinema 2025

Three headshots side by side, from left to right: Laure Galtier, Michelle Villegas, Mariam El Bacha
LOS ANGELES & LONDON ( May 12, 2025 ) -

Having recently launched this year’s Top Women in Global Cinema initiative, the Celluloid Junkie (CJ) team are excited to announce the selection committee for 2025. CJ’s Executive Editor, Sperling Reich, and Managing Editor, Helen Budge, are pleased to once again be joined by the International Union of Cinemas’ (UNIC) Events & Project Manager, Laure Galtier, who has made valuable contributions to the list in previous years. And this year sees two new committee members joining the panel: VP of Customer Success for The Boxoffice Company, Michelle Villegas, and cinema veteran and legend, Mariam El Bacha. Villegas, based in Mexico City, Mexico, and El Bacha, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, will bring a fresh global perspective to the selection process.

Brussels-based Galtier has been in post with UNIC since 2022 and is responsible for organising key industry events like CineEurope and the UNIC Cinema Days. Villegas has a decade of experience in client strategy and digital innovation where she leads initiatives across website and app development, product management, and entertainment tech integrations. And El Bacha – known throughout the cinema exhibition industry for her effective leadership style and humble nature – has formally worked for a variety of exhibition companies in leadership positions all over the world, most recently as Territorial General Manager for Vue International (based in Denmark) and prior to that, CEO of Pakistani cinema company, Cinepax.

This year’s nomination and selection process for Top Women in Global Cinema is the first to include a set of three criteria that candidates must be able to demonstrate. Introduced purely due to the volume and calibre of nominations received in the previous couple of years, the purpose of the criteria is to make it easier for those nominating, while also providing guidance to the selection committee to ensure a truly global, worthy list is produced. The criteria are:

  • Candidate should have been in the cinema exhibition industry for a minimum of two years.
  • Candidate should hold at least a management level position.
  • Candidate should be able to demonstrate extracurricular activities / achievements / recognition / initiatives. These don’t necessarily have to be directly related to the exhibition industry.

    • If you wish to nominate anyone, please send nominations via this form. Nominees should demonstrate how they have made a positive difference in their business beyond their daily work, and contributed to the broader exhibition industry. Along with any career highlights and background information, please be sure to update any nomination with new, relevant accomplishments from the last 12-18 months.

    The deadline for submissions is May 26th and the list will be published on June 10th, just prior to CineEurope in Barcelona, Spain (16-19th June).

    About Celluloid Junkie
    Celluloid Junkie is the leading online resource dedicated to the global film and cinema business. Join a growing community of film and cinema industry professionals from around the world who rely on CJ to provide the latest news, insights, analysis, interviews, and research on the motion picture industry. Having started as a blog site in 2007, CJ has built a global online presence and readership and in 2024 was read in 74 countries around the world. For more information visit the website here.