Julieta Bowyer, who spent two decades at Spafax, most recently serving as VP Content Acquisitions and Distribution of their inflight distribution business Penny Black Media, has founded her own independent inflight and maritime entertainment distribution company, Global Pulse Entertainment.
Bowyer said her new venture was born from the desire to continue learning: “I thought, well, I know how to run a business, but I don’t know how to run a company. So I decided to learn something new while still doing something that I really love.”
Her focus? It’s in the company name. “There’s going to be a lot of global productions, world cinema, which is my area of expertise,” she explained. “This is a slate with a finger on the global pulse, both in terms of what people are making globally, but also what people are watching globally. It’s content that has global appeal. It doesn’t matter if a film is from France, it will appeal to people from outside.
“For me, it’s really important as a distributor to give airlines a good marketing toolkit.”
“So, it’s films that have had exposure on the world stage from the get-go, that have been selected at festivals and been written about in the press globally, which means that passengers outside of the country where the film is made might have read about it. I feel like that is so relevant to the inflight environment,” Bowyer continued.
To coincide with the company launch, Global Pulse Entertainment released its available title for May 2026. The film, Golpes, is a Spanish thriller following Migueli and his criminal gang as they are hunted down by Migueli’s brother, police officer Sabino. Directed by screenwriter Rafael Cobos, it has received over 20 nominations and secured four wins already. Bowyer holds the global inflight rights for Golpes, excluding Spain.
“It’s set in the 80s. It’s very stylish to look at and it’s got the best original soundtrack composed by a famous composer and producer called Bronquio,” she stated. “It’s very fun and very fast-paced, and it has performed very well at the Box Office. It’s been in theaters for several weeks and is still in the top 10.”
In addition, Bowyer has signed the contract on her June title. Released in theaters this week, À pied d’œuvre (At Work) is based on a bestselling autobiographical novel by Franck Courtès and was developed together by the author and film director Valérie Donzelli. It won Best Screenplay at last summer’s Venice International Film Festival.
The film is about Frank attempting to transition from being a successful freelance photographer to a full-time writer, and becoming a handyman to support himself while he follows his dreams. “It just feels very real, that kind of that gig economy, zero-hour contract situation, but it has a really hopeful ending. It’s a really heart-warming film.”
Bowyer also holds maritime rights for the June title. “I think with maritime, it’ll be a question of creating a need, because I understand they predominantly go for studio content. I’ll be saying, ‘Do you want something a bit more classy, a bit more unusual?’ I don’t have the words ‘inflight’ or ‘distribution’ in the name of the company because I want to start with this slate and see where it takes me.”
For now, Bowyer hopes that her industry expertise will sow the seeds for success. “For me, it’s really important as a distributor to give airlines a good marketing toolkit, because I know that for a lot of independent productions, even in English, people are not often across them. Airlines need to have the USP really spelt out, and that’s what they will find in all my marketing literature, across the website and everything. There will always be an explainer as to why each film is important in its own way.”
“This is a slate with a finger on the global pulse.”
She is planning to meet with international sales agents at upcoming film markets in Berlin, Málaga, Cannes and Venice, and is looking forward to revealing more exciting new titles for inflight distribution in due course.
On what she is most excited about, Bowyer responded that it is seeing Global Pulse Entertainment’s ident playing before its films across the skies. The ident was created by graphic artist and music producer Jem Panufnik alongside his creative partner, filmmaker and animator Mischa Ying. “Needless to say, I’m very happy I didn’t go down the AI route!” she quipped.
