Kent Sanderson has been elevated to Chief Executive Officer of Bleecker Street from his former role as President, succeeding Bleecker Street founder Andrew Karpen who passed away in April from glioblastoma.
Additionally, Tyler DiNapoli has been named president and Chief Marketing Officer. Both Sanderson and DiNapoli have been with the company since its inception in 2014 and, according to an official release, “have been instrumental in shaping the company’s slate and strategy.”
Meanwhile, Rachel Allen has been upped from SVP to EVP of Publicity.
“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 Tuesday 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.”
Karpen founded Bleekcer Street in 2014 with the backing of Manoj Bhargava, founder of Innovations Venture. Sanderson was elevated to president in 2023 and previously served as the company’s head of acquisitions and ancillary distribution — including Debra Granik’s “Leave No Trace,” Steven Soderbergh’s “Logan Lucky” and Gavin Hood’s “Eye in the Sky.” He also oversaw output and licensing deals with Amazon Prime Video, Showtime, Hulu, HBO, Netflix, Starz and many others.
DiNapoli previously led media and research for Bleecker Street and now, in his new role as president/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. He previously helped manage campaigns for Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom” and Joe Wright’s “Atonement.”
Allen joined Bleecker Street in 2023 and leads publicity, festival and awards strategy for the company.
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 and Bill Murray and Andrew Ahn’s “The Wedding Banquet” starring Lily Gladstone, Bowen Yang and Yuh-jung Youn, which had its world premiere at 2025 Sundance. Upcoming releases include the thriller “Relay” starring Riz Ahmed, Lily James and Sam Worthington, as well as 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.
