Adil Zerouali takes over as Director of Film Sales for Europe at Christie

Christie's EMEA film business is divided into two regions: Europe and Francophone North Africa, led by Adil Zerouali, and the rest of Africa and the Middle East, now overseen by Richard Nye.

The movie business Christie for the EMEA area has just received a big boost thanks to a series of internal changes reflected in the appointment of new executives.

Adil Zerouali, previously Regional Director for Eastern Europe, will take on the role of Director of Film Sales for Europe, while Richard Nye, Director of Film Sales, will move to Christie's South Africa office as Regional Director for Africa.

As a result of these changes, Christie's EMEA film business is divided into two regions: on the one hand Europe and North Africa (francophone), led by Adil; on the other, the rest of Africa and the Middle East whose supervision is now entrusted to Richard. Adil will continue to manage the office from Hungary that directs Christie's activity in the Eastern European markets, together with the rest of Christie's teams dedicated to the film sector in France, German-speaking Europe, Italy, Spain and the Nordic countries.
But in addition, the team is reinforced with the arrival of Phil Lord, who leaves our South African office, where he was Territorial Director for Africa, to return to the United Kingdom and take charge of EMEA Cinema Lamp Sales.

Simon Smith, vice president of EMEA, has assured that "the appointments further strengthen, if possible, our film offering throughout the EMEA area. I am not exaggerating when I say that we have highly experienced film experts throughout the territory, who have been able to lead the leap from the film production and exhibition industry to digital technology and who provide experience in the sector that is impossible to match."

Without a doubt, Christie's EMEA executive team has played a key role in the recent history of cinema.

Simon has nothing but praise for Richard Nye: "He has transformed Christie's EMEA film division and taken us to the top, with major deployments involving VPF contracts or new and diverse clients. Personally, and on behalf of Christie, Richard rose to the challenge of keeping up with an extraordinarily complex time, with the race to shift from analogue to digital accelerating considerably."

Simon greets the new role entrusted to Adil with the same enthusiasm: "I am delighted to announce the promotion of Adil Zerouali to Director of Film Sales for Europe. This is an exciting journey for Adil which, for those who do not know, began back in 1999, providing technical assistance to 35mm films."

With cinema already immersed in the transition to digital, Adil changed Christie Luxembourg for Paris. There he became part of a dynamic team together with Pascal Gervais that worked with excellent results in consolidating Christie's presence in the French market, as a previous step to the creation of an office in Eastern Europe and the training of his team in the Hungarian office that has been so successful, not only with cinema, but with all the other products of our brand.

“It is an honor for me to pick up the baton,” responded Adil, who went on to state that “today film technology has progressed and we aspire to continue adopting new technological advances after having achieved achievements such as new laser brightness levels or, of course, the ribbon driver sound quality that we have introduced with Vive Audio.”

Referring to Phil Lord's new role, Simon assures that "it demonstrates our great commitment to the lamp business in EMEA. Phil brings the great experience acquired in South Africa in that aspect, an experience that, without a doubt, will help him boost Christie's sales and opportunities in this product range throughout the EMEA area for which he is now responsible."

Phil defines his time in Africa as exceptional, and adds: "I have made many friends, I will maintain ties and I am fully willing to strengthen our position in this business niche, that of lamps."

For his part, Chris Connett, who joined Christie last year after sixteen years at Dolby, has made great progress in establishing Vive Audio as the new standard for cinema sound.