Bleecker Street has promoted president Kent Sanderson to be its new CEO, taking the reins from Bleecker Street founder Andrew Karpen, who passed away in April from glioblastoma.
The indie distributor has also promoted Tyler DiNapoli as its new President and Chief Marketing Officer and Rachel Allen to EVP of Publicity. Both Karpen and DiNapoli have been with Bleecker Street from the very beginning when Karpen founded the company back in 2014.
“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,” Sanderson said in a statement. “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.”
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Sanderson had previously served as head of acquisitions and ancillary distribution and was elevated to president in late 2023. He’s acquired films such as Debra Granik’s “Leave No Trace,” Steven Soderbergh’s “Logan Lucky,” Gavin Hood’s “Eye in the Sky,” James Hawes’ “One Life,” and many more, and he also oversaw output and licensing deals with Amazon Prime Video, Showtime, Hulu, HBO, Netflix, Starz, and others over the years.
DiNapoli previously led media and research for Bleecker Street and will now oversee marketing across the entire slate of titles. DiNapoli will be based in New York, and Sanderson will be in Los Angeles.
DiNapoli has helped manage campaigns for films like “Moonrise Kingdom,” “Atonement,” “Coraline,” and more. 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.
Allen joined Bleecker Street in 2023 and leads publicity, festival, and awards strategy for the company. She worked on the awards campaigns for “Golda” and “Hard Truths” and is now at work on Bleecker’s upcoming slate, which includes “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” “Rebuilding” starring Josh O’Connor, and more. She previously held a senior publicity role at Cinetic Marketing.
Bleecker Street recently acquired “Bone Lake,” set to release in October, and Guy Nattiv’s “Harmonia,” slated for release in 2026. The company recently released “The Friend” starring Naomi Watts and Andrew Ahn’s “The Wedding Banquet.” It will also soon release “Relay” with Riz Ahmed following its U.S. premiere at Tribeca, and it plans to re-release the original “This Is Spinal Tap” this summer.
