Cinema United has created a senior leadership post focused on external affairs and filled it with an internal promotion, naming Amanda Martin senior vice president of external affairs. The exhibition trade association has also promoted Erin Von Hoetzendorff to vice president of membership and global affairs.
Both appointments take effect immediately. The moves divide two important parts of the organization’s work into clearer leadership responsibilities: relationships and advocacy across the wider entertainment business on one side, and member engagement with theater owners internationally on the other.
Cinema United represents more than 60,000 movie screens globally and describes itself as the world’s largest trade organization for exhibition. In this context, exhibition means the theatrical side of the movie business: theater owners and operators that present films to paying audiences. It is distinct from production, which makes movies, and distribution, which brings them to market.
That distinction matters because a trade association’s work is not the same as running a theater chain or releasing a film. Its role is to represent shared interests for its members, create channels between stakeholders and advocate on policy matters that affect the businesses it serves.
A newly created external-affairs portfolio
Martin moves into the newly established senior vice president of external affairs role after serving as Cinema United’s chief of staff for three years. She will remain a senior member of the organization’s leadership team.
Her new remit combines several outward-facing responsibilities. Cinema United said Martin will work to strengthen the group’s relationships across the entertainment ecosystem, lead educational programming at industry events and oversee state government affairs. She will also continue working with Cinema United president and CEO Michael O’Leary as a federal advocate before Congress and federal agencies.
External affairs is a broad organizational term, but the responsibilities described here make its practical meaning fairly clear. It covers how an organization communicates and builds working relationships beyond its own staff and membership, while also connecting those relationships to public-policy advocacy. For theater owners, that can mean having a more defined representative voice in conversations involving government and the larger entertainment industry.
The inclusion of educational programming is notable as well. Industry events can serve several functions at once: sharing information, connecting business partners and giving members a venue to discuss common challenges. Martin’s role places those programs alongside government affairs and industry relationships rather than treating them as separate projects.
“As exhibition continues to evolve, Cinema United is evolving with it,” O’Leary said, describing the promotions as a way to deepen advocacy for theater owners, strengthen entertainment-industry partnerships and ensure the constituencies served by the organization have a strong voice.
O’Leary framed Martin’s post as the role that strengthens connections across the industry and raises the organization’s advocacy for members. The stated emphasis is on representation rather than a newly announced policy campaign or a specific legislative initiative. No particular state or federal issue was identified with the appointment.
Global theater-owner engagement moves under Von Hoetzendorff
Von Hoetzendorff has been promoted to vice president of membership and global affairs. She joined Cinema United in 2018 and previously led membership services.
In the new role, she will lead the organization’s engagement with international theater owners. That builds on Cinema United’s stated mission to provide representation and support for exhibitors around the world.
The title brings membership and global affairs together, which is significant for an association representing screens in many markets. Membership work concerns how an organization serves, communicates with and represents its participating businesses. Global affairs, in this case, is specifically tied to deeper engagement with theater owners outside the domestic sphere.
There is no indication that the promotion changes who Cinema United represents or expands its screen count. Rather, it gives an executive who has already worked in membership services a broader mandate for international owner engagement. That continuity may be useful for members: Von Hoetzendorff’s prior work was already centered on the people and businesses the association exists to serve.
O’Leary characterized the two promotions as complementary. Martin’s portfolio is designed to reinforce links throughout the industry and improve advocacy, while Von Hoetzendorff’s is intended to strengthen the organization’s connection to theater owners around the world.
Why the division of responsibilities matters
The announcement is a personnel story, but it also outlines how Cinema United sees the needs of theatrical exhibition. One senior role is aimed at the systems around exhibitors: entertainment-sector partners, event education, state government affairs and federal advocacy. The other is aimed at the membership itself, particularly its international reach.
That is a useful division because the audiences for those tasks are not identical. Government affairs requires sustained contact with policymakers and agencies. Industry relationship-building means working across a broader entertainment ecosystem. Membership engagement requires direct attention to the theater owners whose interests the association represents. International engagement adds another layer, reflecting that the organization’s constituency extends across markets rather than stopping at one national boundary.
For individual theater owners, the immediate practical change is not a consumer-facing product or a new theater program. It is a clearer leadership structure inside the association that speaks for and supports exhibitors. Martin is set to take responsibility for much of the association’s public-facing advocacy and industry coordination, while Von Hoetzendorff takes responsibility for the global member connection.
In other words, these appointments concern the infrastructure of representation. That work is often less visible than a film release or a theater opening, but it helps determine how a trade group organizes its member priorities, convenes its industry and communicates with decision-makers.
What has been announced—and what has not
The confirmed elements are straightforward:
- Martin is now senior vice president of external affairs, a newly created position.
- Von Hoetzendorff is now vice president of membership and global affairs.
- Both promotions are effective immediately.
- Martin will oversee relationships, event education, state government affairs and ongoing federal advocacy work alongside O’Leary.
- Von Hoetzendorff will lead engagement with international theater owners.
The announcement does not outline a new lobbying agenda, name upcoming educational events, detail changes to membership benefits or announce a separate initiative for specific countries or territories. Those details should not be assumed from the expanded titles alone.
Still, the stated rationale is explicit: Cinema United wants to better meet the current and future needs of exhibition. The association is responding by making its advocacy and global membership responsibilities more distinct at the executive level.
For a broader look at how industry organizations and events are positioning community and shared interests across entertainment, see New York’s IRL Advantage Summit and its focus on fandom as a co-op experience.
Leadership continuity alongside a wider remit
Both promotions elevate executives with established experience inside Cinema United. Martin arrives from three years as chief of staff, and Von Hoetzendorff has been with the association since 2018. That internal continuity is important because the roles are not presented as a sharp departure from the organization’s existing mission. Instead, they formalize and broaden areas of work already connected to its members and partners.
Martin will continue federal advocacy work with O’Leary while adding oversight of state government affairs and educational programming. Von Hoetzendorff’s previous membership-services experience now feeds into a wider global-affairs responsibility. Each assignment expands an existing relationship with the organization rather than starting from an unrelated outside specialty.
Cinema United’s message is that effective representation requires both an outward view and a member-centered one. The external-affairs position concentrates the organization’s industry relationships and advocacy functions. The membership and global-affairs position gives international theater owners a dedicated executive lead. With more than 60,000 screens within its global representation, that division gives the association two distinct paths for addressing the needs of exhibitors: engagement with the broader ecosystem, and engagement with theater owners themselves.
