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Bleecker Street has announced that Kent Sanderson has been elevated to CEO from his former role as President, succeeding beloved Bleecker Street founder Andrew Karpen, who passed away in April from glioblastoma. In addition, Tyler DiNapoli has been named President and CMO. Both Sanderson and DiNapoli have been with the company since its inception in 2014 and have been instrumental in shaping the company’s slate and strategy. Key promotions also include Rachel Allen, who has been upped from SVP, Publicity to EVP, Publicity.
Karpen founded Bleecker Street in 2014 with the backing of Manoj Bhargava, founder of Innovations Ventures. A pivotal force in the company since its founding, Sanderson was elevated to President in late 2023 and previously served as Bleecker’s Head of Acquisitions and Ancillary Distribution. In this role, he led the acquisition of celebrated films including Debra Granik’s “Leave No Trace,” Steven Soderbergh’s “Logan Lucky,” Gavin Hood’s “Eye in the Sky,” James Hawes’ “One Life” and dozens of other acclaimed titles, while also overseeing output and licensing deals with Amazon Prime Video, Showtime, Hulu, HBO, Netflix, Starz and many others.
“It is my honor to lead Bleecker Street into its second decade. Andrew set a powerful example in which the filmmaker always comes first, the theatrical window is paramount, and great filmmaking is celebrated and championed,” said Sanderson. “All of us at Bleecker are committed to honoring and carrying that vision forward, and while the company will continue to evolve and grow, his legacy will always remain an inherent part of our DNA.”
DiNapoli previously led media and research for Bleecker Street and now, in his new role as President and CMO, he will oversee marketing across the entire slate of titles and a wide range of genres, as well as steward Bleecker’s primary office in New York City, with Sanderson operating in Los Angeles. DiNapoli previously helped manage campaigns including Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom,” Joe Wright’s “Atonement,” Henry Selick’s “Coraline” and others. He will continue to work closely with Myles Bender, President of Marketing, Creative Advertising, who has also been with Bleecker since its start and will continue to oversee Bleecker’s creative marketing across its diverse slate of titles and its evolving brand in the marketplace.
Allen joined Bleecker Street in 2023 and leads publicity, festival and awards strategy for the company across its diverse slate. Recent successful campaigns under her leadership include the Academy Award-nominated “Golda” and the highly-awarded and critically acclaimed release of Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths.” In her new role, Allen will continue to lead campaigns for Bleecker’s upcoming slate, including the wide theatrical release of “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues” on Sept. 12, as well as a fall run for Max Walker-Silverman’s Sundance hit “Rebuilding” starring Josh O’Connor, set for release this fall. Prior to joining Bleecker Street, she served in a senior publicity role at Cinetic Marketing where she led national publicity campaigns for award-winning films and prestige television series, including Oscar and Emmy campaigns.
In addition to these key promotions, Bleecker Street’s senior management team also includes President of Distribution Kyle Davies, former head of theatrical distribution of Paramount Pictures, who also held senior roles at Relativity Media, and DreamWorks; President of Marketing, Creative Advertising Myles Bender, who has been a prominent voice in the creative community for decades with roles at Focus Features, USA Films, and others; and CFO Irwin Reiter, who held senior finance roles at The Weinstein Company and Miramax before joining Bleecker Street.
Bleecker Street recently acquired “Bone Lake,” set to release in October, and Oscar-winner Guy Nattiv’s “Harmonia,” slated for release in 2026. The company recently released the Fall 2024 festival hit “The Friend,” starring Naomi Watts, Bill Murray, Ann Dowd, Constance Wu and Bing the Great Dane, as well as Andrew Ahn’s crowd-pleasing rom-com “The Wedding Banquet” starring Lily Gladstone, Bowen Yang and Yuh-jung Youn, which had its world premiere in 2025 Sundance. Upcoming releases include the thriller “Relay” starring Riz Ahmed, Lily James and Sam Worthington, which will have its US premiere at Tribeca and will be released on August 22nd; and Rob Reiner’s “”Spinal Tap II: The End Continues” in September, which will be preceded by a nationwide remastered re-release of the original classic “This Is Spinal Tap” earlier in the summer.
English (US) ·