In devastating news on the eve of Cannes, Bleecker Street founder and CEO and independent community stalwart Andrew Karpen has died of brain cancer. He was 59.
Karpen was diagnosed with glioblastoma in 2024 and died in hospital in Connecticut on Monday.
Longtime friend and Bleecker Street president Kent Sanderson said, “Our industry has lost a giant. Andrew taught us all so much, foremost of which is the value of kindness, honesty, and family above all else. His leadership and courage will inspire all of us at Bleecker Street for the rest of our lives.”
The popular East Coast native founded Bleecker Street in 2014 and guided the company through the disruption of the pandemic, Hollywood strikes, and the rise of streaming. He remained an enthusiastic and resourceful figure throughout, and was a regular face in Cannes and the festival circuit.
Born on April 18, 1966, Karpen attended Washington University in St. Louis and got his finance MBA from NYU Stern School Of Business.
He began his career at Miramax in New York and served at Oxygen Media as SVP finance & planning. Karpen joined Focus Features in 2002, rising to president in 2006 and then on to co-CEO. Among his many duties he assumed management responsibility for Focus Features International, the company’s former international sales and distribution arm.
Focus Features chairman Peter Kujawski said, ”Andrew’s passing is not only a loss for the filmmakers he spent his career championing, but for all of us who had the privilege of working with him and calling him a friend. His humanity, kindness and gentle spirit were an inspiration to anyone who spent time with him, and they are forever a part of Focus and our whole film community. We are all better off having had him in our lives.”
Alison Thompson worked with Karpen while she was co-president of Focus Features International. “It’s heartbreaking to see a truly good person leave us too early,” said Thompson. ”Andrew was a dear friend and colleague. He was whip smart, an inspirational leader and a loyal colleague who found time for everyone regardless of job titles. He wore his heart on his sleeve, loved a practical joke and was a family man in every sense of the word. The world needs more people like Andrew. I’m gonna miss him to bits.”
James Schamus, the Oscar-nominated Brokeback Mountain producer and co-writer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon who was Focus Features CEO when Karpen was promoted to co-CEO, shared a letter he sent to Karpen on the day of his diagnosis. An extract reads: ”Nothing on paper could give an algorithm the slightest idea of who you really are. The undergrad business degree, the MBA, the suburban Connecticut commute, the insane Giants fandom, the near-parodic ski-toting-and-mountain-biking tight-knit nuclear family, the metabolism of a twelve-year-old linebacker. That you would be, wholeheartedly, the thin but unbreakable thread that to this day holds together what is left, what is possible, of a truly independent American cinema business – who woulda thunk it? Well, everyone who’s gotten to know you, that’s who.”
Bleecker Street has released more than 75 films since launch, including recent titles like TIFF selections The Friend with Naomi Watts and Bill Murray, David Mackenzie’s Relay with Riz Ahmed, Hard Truths from Mike Leigh, as well as Guy Maddin’s Cannes 2024 entry Rumours, and Andrew Ahn’s Sundance premiere The Wedding Banquet.
The company continues to broaden its remit into horror with the likes of Out Of Darkness and the upcoming The Third Parent. Later this summer Bleecker will release Rob Reiner’s mockumentary sequel Spinal Tap II: The End Continues after it re-releases Reiner’s original 1984 cult classic This Is Spinal Tap. Over the years the release slate has encompassed titles like Leave No Trace, Captain Fantastic, Trumbo, Golda, The Assistant, and The Starling Girl.
Karpen is survived by his wife Pam, his sons Josh and Zack, his daughter Sloan, and Josh’s wife Kristen, who is expecting their first child.
The family would appreciate donations in Karpen’s name to the Lenox Hill Brain Tumor Center or Fairfield County Hospice House.
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