Mike S. Ryan is a veteran member of the independent film community who started out in the industry’s 1990′s heydey with films like Ang Lee’s THE ICE STORM and Todd Haynes’ FAR FROM HEAVEN.

 

​As a producer, he has been responsible for a remarkable group of films in the last ten years, most made under $3 million. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit “Producer of the Year” Award, and was one of Variety’s 2007 “10 Producers to Watch.” His films have garnered nominations and prizes from the Academy Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, Gotham Awards and many more. JUNEBUG, starring Amy Adams, made its international premiere at Cannes in 2005 and went on to be one of the lowest-budgeted feature films ever nominated for an Oscar (Best Supporting Actress, 2005). Most recently he produced Jake Mahaffy's FREE IN DEED which won best film at the Venice Film Festival, A.D. Calvo's THE MISSING GIRL, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and GRAIN, a Turkish/German coproduction. Other credits include Todd Solondz’s PALINDROMES and LIFE DURING WARTIME; Kelly Reichardt’s OLD JOY (winner, Rotterdam International Film Festival 2006) and her MEEK'S CUTOFF starring Michelle Williams; Ira Sach’s 40 SHADES OF BLUE (winner, Sundance Film Festival 06); Hal Hartley’s FAY GRIM, starring Parker Posey and Jeff Goldblum; LAKE CITY, starring Sissy Spacek (premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2008), Ilya Chaiken’s LIBERTY KID (Winner of HBO's Latino Film Festival in 2007 and in competition at the Los Angeles Film Festival), Bela Tarr’s final film, TURIN HORSE, winner at Berlin and in competition at the Toronto, Telluride and New York Film Festivals, ABOUT SUNNY (Toronto '11), nominated for a Spirit Award for Best Actress, THE COMEDY, a drama starring comedian Tim Heidecker (Sundance and Rotterdam 2012), BETWEEN US, starring Julia Stiles and Taye Diggs, and LAST WEEKEND, starring Patricia Clarkson and Zachary Booth (premiered at San Francisco Film Festival in 2014). Last year, Mike shot three films, including Semih Kaplanoglu's GRAIN, a Turkish/German coproduction and Jake Mahaffy's FREE IN DEED. Mike is a New York City native and NYU Tisch School of the Arts graduate. He has taught workshops and given lectures at universities and festivals including Columbia, Yale, NYU, Bard, the Atlantic Film Festival, VIFF, Indie Memphis, the San Francisco Film Society, and most recently he mentored as a Producer Leader at the Venice Biennale College and participated as a producer/mentor at EAVE PLUS in Luxembourg. He has seen an enormous number of films and writes criticism for the online site Hammer to Nail, which he cofounded with Ted Hope, and as a regular contributor to Filmmaker Magazine.