Imagine Entertainment hires Beth Bednarski as CFO

EXCLUSIVE: Beth Bednarski has been promoted to Chief Financial Officer of Imagine Entertainment, Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s award-winning global entertainment company. The news follows the mutual departures of Imagine Entertainment presidents Tony Hernandez and Lilly Burns (of Jax Media), which we first reported.

Bednarski has been with Imagine for more than six years, most recently as executive vice president of finance and operations. Prior to joining the company, she was Vice President of Finance at Shine America after beginning her career at Deloitte.

In her new role, Bednarski will oversee finance, accounting, human resources, operations and IT, and work with senior management on business development and strategic initiatives.

“I have had the opportunity to work with Beth for over a decade now and I know her to be extremely strategic and operational,” said Steve Shikiya, COO of Imagine Entertainment. “She has become an integral part of Imagine’s leadership team, especially as the company has aggressively expanded into new content ventures in recent years.”

Imagine Entertainment was founded in 1986 and is led by CEOs Grazer and Howard. Under its umbrella are Imagine Features, Imagine Television Studios, Imagine Documentaries, Imagine Kids+Family, Imagine Brands and Imagine Audio, as well as award-winning Jax Media and Alex Gibney’s puzzle productions. Imagine’s productions have received 47 Oscar nominations and 228 Emmys nominations, among numerous other awards over the years. Previous productions include the Oscar-winning Best Picture A beautiful spiritas well as the Grammy winner for best picture The Beatles: Eight days a week – the touring years.

Recent film productions include those that have been critically acclaimed Thirteen lives directed by Howard for Prime Video, the hit Netflix musical tap, tap… boom! Directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sacha Jenkins’ Louis Armstrong’s Black & BluesRory Kennedy Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari and award-winning documentaries such as the Emmy winner Lucy and Desi directed by Amy Poehler and We feed people.

Television productions include the emerging Brilliant: MLK/X (Disney+), Wu-Tang: An American Saga (Hulu), swear (Appeal), Under the banner of heaven (FX); and Emily in Paris (Netflix) by Jax Media. Other documentary productions include the crime scene Anthology Series — The disappearance at the Cecil Hotel, The Times Square Killer and Texas Killing Fields – all of which also made the top 5 worldwide on Netflix Julia, paper & glue, rebuild paradise and puzzles tiger (HBO) to name a few.

Other projects lined up for Imagine on the film side include The hat bubbles, by Kristen Gore and Damian Kulash; the one directed by Reginald Hudlin Candy Cane Walk with Eddie Murphy; and the animation function, The Boomhorn family.