Movio's Sarah Lewthwaite looks back on her career and talks being a CEO in the cinema industry.

CT: Please introduce yourself and your background. Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, I started working in my local cinema when I was at university. Never at that time could I have imagined that my part-time job popping popcorn would lead to a 25-year career in the cinema industry. While I studied to be a journalist, about the time I was graduating a marketing role opened in the home office of Cineplex [Canada’s largest cinema chain]. My cinema manager encouraged me to apply and, despite me having zero marketing experience, Cineplex took a chance on me.

I then spent the next 17 years growing with the company, building the marketing team, and helping to launch several new brands, products and business units as Cineplex rapidly expanded its footprint across Canada. And I learned so much about marketing, business, and the dynamics of the cinema industry along the way. I also learned a lot about myself and, after 17 years as the Vice President of Marketing, I resigned and made a bold decision to move to Europe, with the idea to open a tearoom.

CT: Tell us more about the move to Europe and the tearoom? So, the tearoom actually never made it past the concept stage. I did put the prep work in, such as studying to become a tea sommelier (yes, there is such a thing) and learning café management on an organic farm in Cork.

But then out of the blue I got an email from Movio’s founder and then-CEO, Will Palmer, who was looking to open an office in London. They were based in Auckland and LA at the time, and wanted to start growing their footprint across EMEA. Hearing I was living in Ireland he thought I might be the perfect fit given I also used to be a Movio customer at Cineplex and knew the benefits of the product quite well from first-hand experience. It was another instance of being in the right place at the right time for me as, during that same period, I was starting to doubt my ability to really make the tearoom concept work.

I think I needed a dream like this to help give me the gumption to quit my job and start a new life abroad, but I then realized it was never really about tea. It was about starting afresh and doing something for myself. I decided that the opportunity with Movio might actually be an interesting way to put my experience from Cineplex to good use in a new and different way. So, after my one-year lease in Ireland was up, I made the move to London.

CT: Tell us a bit about your career path with Movio. It was all quite serendipitous. I also learned a good lesson in that it’s so important to treat your suppliers well. Given I was originally a Movio client, the opportunity to work for them would never had come about if we hadn’t worked well together! I initially started in a sales capacity, helping Movio expand across EMEA while simultaneously adding value to our clients in a consultantlike role, helping several cinemas design or improve their customer data strategy based on my own experience in that space. I grew the Movio team and client portfolio in EMEA and ultimately became the Managing Director for the region.

The opportunity then came about to help Movio unify our approach to client services and sales globally so I took on the Chief Client Officer role back in 2020. And then our CEO resigned in late 2021 and I began to step into a broader company leadership role.

CT: And you’re now Movio’s CEO, congratulations! What does your day-to-day look like? Thank you so much, I am incredibly honoured to have stepped into this role. Since we are a New Zealand-based company, but I live in London, my days are quite varied as I work across multiple time zones. It was important to me, and to Movio, for me to stay based in the UK, keeping close to our clients and the film and cinema industry; but it has forced me to also learn to work quite flexibly as a result.

Mondays and Wednesdays I usually start my business day in the early afternoon and work through until about 11pm, ensuring I have good overlap with my LA and Aucklandbased teams. Those days are spent on a lot of Zoom calls, but I also try to carve out time to focus on bigger projects or board reports, given I’m at home with fewer distractions. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I head into our London office to have some face-to-face time with the Movio and broader Vista Group staff, and often use those days to try to catch

Sarah Lewthwaite, CEO, Movio

“If you believe in your voice, it becomes incredibly satisfying proving others wrong.”

Sarah Lewthwaite presenting for Movio

up with clients in person.

I think the pandemic taught us all how to work more effectively remotely, but I believe nothing replaces in-person collaboration and communication. I also missed the social aspect of being in the office, it’s been nice for our team’s culture to have everyone back in a couple of days a week.

CT: What’s the highlight of your career so far? It’s probably this recent appointment to the CEO role because it’s something I never realised would be possible for me. Until very recently I was operating under the misconception that CEOs needed to hold certain traits and qualities that I didn’t necessarily see in myself. My appointment signals to me, and hopefully to my team, that you can be your authentic self and achieve business success. And while my career highlight has been this appointment, I hope the next time we speak my highlight is, by then, the impact I’ve been able to make for my team, for Movio and for our clients via my leadership.

CT:What’s your favourite thing about working in the industry? I think it’s the sense of community we have; both in terms of the community of us who work in film and cinema, but also the community of moviegoers we serve. While we are not saving lives in the cinema industry, we are definitely brightening them.

I think film and cinema is an important part of the cultural fabric of our society and all you have to do is take a child to their first big screen experience to be reminded of that. I’ve made a point of doing that with each of my young nieces and always leave the cinema with such confidence about the future of our industry. That’s what I love about this industry and our ability to bring together people of all ages, demographics, backgrounds, who may not have anything else in common, but for two hours, share something together - be it laughter, shrieks, or tears.

CT: What are you most looking forward to, industry-wise, in the remainder of 2022 ? (At the time of writing) I am most looking forward to CineAsia in Bangkok since I’ve never attended this conference before and am really looking forward to meeting our Asian clients and partners in person. We are also using this conference as our platform for launching EQ, Movio’s new and improved product for cinema marketers, so it’s going to be an exciting event!

And from a film perspective, I am really looking forward to watching the new Whitney Houston biopic, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”. I’m a child of the 80s… need I say more!

CT: What’s your proudest achievement to date, and why? My proudest achievement was back in 2013 when I was brave enough to take a step back from my career at Cineplex and make a fresh start in Europe. So many people thought I was crazy at the time and did not understand why I would walk away from a vice president position at a fantastic company, to move to the other side of the world where I knew no one. But I believed in myself and knew that I would figure things out. I am really proud I took that leap.

CT: What advice would you give to women looking to progress their careers or break into this, or a similarly male-dominated, industry? I would encourage them to find allies who can support them on their journey and who they can lean on to help navigate difficult periods. I also believe such allies do not necessarily need to be other women. There are amazing male leaders in our industry who are equally advocating for greater diversity in our sector and who can provide wonderful advice and mentorship.

The other advice I would give is to encourage younger women to not let setbacks get to them. There have been many times when I’ve felt knocked back or treated differently because of my gender, but I didn’t let that deter me, nor define me. If you believe in your voice, it becomes incredibly satisfying proving others wrong.

CT:Where do you see yourself, professionally, in 5-10 years time? It’s probably irresponsible for me to say, but I don’t really have a 5 or 10-year plan. I think, if in 5 or 10 years I can still feel like I am personally and professionally learning and growing and also that I am making a positive impact, I will be happy.

The Next Generation

Richard Mitchell, President, Cinema Technology Community (CTC)

AGAINST the backdrop of limited content, equipment shortages, a global economic downturn and Covid lockdowns in certain territories, cinema is truly on its way back.

And in charting a path towards a full recovery, one element the industry as a whole cannot afford to overlook is the bedrock of its foundations: our people. As we rebuild, we need to work across the entire cinema ecosystem to attract the next generation of talented people towards the sector, and to better showcase the variety of jobs available. We need to provide comprehensive learning programmes that enable new entrants to the industry to become educated and more productive.

At CTC, training, and learning as a whole, has always formed the bedrock of our support for the industry. In fact, prior to the pandemic, our regular training courses were one of our key outputs. Whilst we’re ready to start delivering these again next year - and also to take these overseas to support our global membership - we’re also cognisant of the wider skills shortage that exists, particularly in the exhibition space where there are many new recruits. We’re starting to actively engage with exhibitors and local trade bodies around the world to identify how we can best support the educational needs of these new recruits. And we’d encourage you to reach out to us with your ideas as to how we shape the education programmes of tomorrow. 2022 has been a strong year for CTC. In October, as well as taking over ownership of this very publication, CTC welcomed Kristina Warner (Iconic Events and D-Box) and Ulf Qvicklund (QSC) to our team, while promoting Grainne Clarke to Vice President. Their contributions are already being felt in our planning for 2023 and their fields of expertise will enable CTC to deliver stronger global outputs. On the deliverables front, we produced the white paper regarding HFR to support the sector in understanding playback capabilities of projection equipment, prior to “Avatar: The Way of Water”. And back in April, we delivered One Community Day in person, and online to more than 400 people, creating a hybrid learning experience for our global members. Meanwhile, the podcast team (Mike Bradbury, Toni Purvis and Kevin Markwick) and special guests, continue to educate and amuse the industry both in recorded format and in person, most recently at the Norwegian Cinema Conference (Film & Kino). And we’re about to launch into a new season of Tech Talks – our ondemand video seminar series. 2023 promises to be an exciting year, and CTC will be tireless in its work to support the industry on its path to a full recovery. Wishing you, your colleagues and families a happy, healthy and successful 2023.

CTC EXECUTIVE TEAM

Richard Mitchell (President), Graham Lodge (Vice President), Grainne Clarke (Vice President), Mike Bradbury, Sandie Caffelle, John Dowsland, Peter Knight, Sarah Lewthwaite, Adam MacDonald, Saul Mahoney, Andre Mort, Markus Overath, Alessandra Pavan Bernacchi, David Pope, Toni Purvis, Simon Tandy, Patrick von Sychowski, Paul Willmott

More Info

www.cinematechnology.com

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CTC ADVISORY COUNCIL

Tom Bert (Barco), Mark Christiansen (Paramount Pictures), Brian Claypool (Christie Digital), Theresa English (TK Architects), Ruth Hinton (Vue International), Mark de Quervain (Showtime Analytics), Ulf Qvicklund (QSC) Jan Rasmussen (Nordisk Film), Dominic Simmons (BFI), Sriram Sistla (Harkness Screens), Alice Tentori (Digima), Julia Vinokurova (RealD) Kristina Warner (Iconic Events))