Rietuma was selected by a commission of experts from the Ministry of Culture as well as film professionals including producers Andrejs Ekis, Uldis Cekulis and Janis Kalejs.

Rietuma graduated from VGIK in Moscow and University of Latvia with a Doctorate of Arts, along with training at the New York University Tisch School of Arts in New York. With more than 20 years of experience in film criticism, mostly for the newspaper Diena, Rietuma is the founder of the FIPRESCI Latvian section and is a member of the Latvian Film board at the Ministry of Culture, and she is one of the founders of the educational institution Film School (Kinoskola).

She said that one of her goals as the Latvian Film Centre's new director is development of film education, possibly introducing cinema as a teaching subject or a theme in local schools. She also stressed the importance of dialogue and understanding among local film industry professionals in order to develop and enrich Latvian cinema.