Black Bear UK, the newly established theatrical distribution arm of indie studio Black Bear, has made a series of hires, solidifying its core distribution team who will work out of the UK.

Led by President John Friedberg and Managing Director Llewellyn Radley, the Black Bear UK hires include Eugene O’Connor, who joins as VP of Publicity; Nick Smith, who takes on the role of VP Digital; and Bosco Tench, who steps into the role of Marketing Director.

The company also confirmed today that Craig Gillespie’s latest pic Dumb Money, starring Paul Dano, Sebastian Stan, Shailene Woodley, Pete Davidson, and Seth Rogen, will be its first release. The pic will open wide on September 22.

Today’s trio of hires join existing senior UK distribution executives, including Vicky Hine, SVP Marketing, Scott Sargeant, VP Distribution, and Frank Ayaoge, VP Technical.

O’Connor joins from Premier PR, where he led the film team and worked on the publicity campaigns for titles including The Banshees of Inisherin, The Favourite, and BBC/Hulu’s Normal People. In addition to leading all aspects of UK publicity strategy, O’Connor will also work across PR for Black Bear’s international sales and distribution business.

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Smith most recently worked at Apple, where he managed the UK Video Business. Prior to that, he held senior roles at eOne and Momentum Pictures. Tench joins Black Bear from eOne, where he served as Senior Marketing Manager and worked on titles including Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and Dark Waters. Tench previously held positions at StudioCanal and the media agency, Zenith.

Black Bear UK has said they plan to distribute 10-15 wide-release theatrical films annually, including commercial, genre, and prestige titles. Recent titles set up at the company include Edward Berger’s Conclave, starring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci from Tessa Ross’ House Productions, and David Mackenzie’s Relay starring Riz Ahmed, Lily James, and Sam Worthington.

“We are very proud to have built a compelling slate of commercial and quality films in such a short space of time,” said Friedberg and Radley.

“With the addition of incredible executives like Eugene, Nick, and Bosco to the Black Bear UK team, we are well positioned to begin delivering a steady pipeline of exceptional films to our partners in exhibition, as well as to digital platforms, Pay TV partners and broadcasters. Our inaugural film, Dumb Money, is extremely entertaining, high quality, with a phenomenal team of creatives, and is the perfect title to kick off our theatrical distribution business.”