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UNIC Women’s Cinema Leadership Programme: Why is mentoring important?


UNIC is launching its campaign “Why is mentoring important?”, shining the light on the importance of mentoring to ensure more diversity in the industry.

In 2017, UNIC launched its Women’s Cinema Leadership Programme, a mentoring scheme for up and coming female leaders in the exhibition sector. The programme was launched in response to the need for more support mechanisms for female cinema professionals and it became UNIC’s flagship initiative to promote gender balance and more diversity in the exhibition sector and at the same time inspiring similar programmes across the industry.  It has been an empowering journey so far and we are delighted to see our community of mentors and mentees grow year by year. 

We witnessed first-hand the transformative power that mentoring has on both: the mentors and mentees. Moreover, the sixth edition of the programme will be launched in June at CineEurope.

With that in mind, we decided to ask our wonderful community of mentors and mentees to share their experiences on why mentoring is important to them. The first video of the series is now available here.

Just as a reminder, the Women’s Cinema Leadership programme is a 12-month mentoring initiative rooted in the belief that gender-balanced leadership in cinema exhibition is an imperative for business growth, better governance and more equity in the industry. The fifth edition, launched in June 2021, is currently providing 11 talented female cinema professionals with the opportunity to receive one-to-one career advice, network and learn from outstanding women executives, recognised for their leadership and business success across the cinema landscape. More information about the programme is available here.


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