EXCLUSIVE: Ryan Heller has been promoted to Govt Vice President, Movie & Documentary at Matter Studios, the award-winning studio from First Look Media.
In his new position, he’ll proceed to guide the function movie group, whereas including feature-length documentaries to his purview, formalizing an space by which he had already been working. He’ll oversee the doc enviornment with Vice President, Nonfiction, Christine Connor, persevering with to report back to CEO Michael Bloom.
A key participant within the launch and important successes of Matter Studios, who has since 2018 constructed and managed its function movie slate via growth, financing, manufacturing and distribution, Heller most not too long ago served as Senior Vice President of Movie and Acquisitions.
He has lengthy been a champion for brand spanking new directorial voices, lately shepherding such breakout initiatives because the psychological horror Nanny and the acclaimed buddy comedy, The Climb. The previous title from rising star director Nikyatu Jusu was picked up for distribution by Blumhouse and Amazon final March after turning into the primary horror to say Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize. The latter, helmed by Michael Angelo Covino, has confirmed to be one of the vital universally beloved indies in latest reminiscence, securing distribution by Sony Photos Classics after successful the Un Sure Regard prize in its Cannes premiere.
Heller oversaw all three options from Matter Studios which are set to premiere on the upcoming Sundance Movie Competition. The primary from Brandon Cronenberg is the sci-fi horror Infinity Pool, starring Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth, which was produced in partnership with Neon and can bow within the Midnight Part. The opposite two are the Dramatic Competitors titles Shortcomings and Theater Camp, which mark the directorial debuts of Randall Park and the duo of Molly Gordon & Nick Lieberman, respectively.
Different notable initiatives Heller has overseen for Matter Studios embrace Pablo Larraín’s Academy Award-nominated Princess Diana drama Spencer, distributed with Neon, Kevin Macdonald’s Golden Globe-winning authorized thriller The Mauritanian for STXfilms, and the PGA Award and Emmy-winning HBO docuseries 100 Foot Wave, which can quickly return for a second season. Notable documentary initiatives on which he’s served as an exec producer embrace Ry Russo-Younger’s Nuclear Household for HBO; Lucy Walker’s California wildfire exposé Deliver Your Personal Brigade for Paramount+; and Lizzie Gottlieb’s movie Flip Each Web page – The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb in regards to the same-name literary titans.
“Ryan has been integral within the fast progress of Matter Studios over the latest years,” stated First Look Media’s Bloom. “He’s the uncommon movie government whose artistic imaginative and prescient matches his sharp enterprise acumen, and he’ll play a key position as we speed up our movie and documentary companies and proceed to champion the artistic voices and distinctive, critically-acclaimed initiatives for which we’ve got grow to be identified.”
The Matter Studios-produced Nanny, starring Anna Diop, opened in choose theaters on November 23 earlier than debuting on Prime Video on December 16. Up subsequent for the corporate is the Tribeca-premiering comedy God’s Time from first-time filmmaker Daniel Antebi, which can be launched by IFC Movies on February 24.
Different notable narrative titles from Matter embrace Adam Leon’s Italian Research, starring Academy Award nominee Vanessa Kirby, for Magnolia Photos; the uplifting Euros Lyn-directed horse-racing pic Dream Home starring Toni Collette and Damian Lewis, co-released with Bleecker Avenue; and IFC Movies’ meta genre-bender The Nowhere Inn, written by and starring Carrie Brownstein and St. Vincent.
Extra documentary titles from the corporate embrace Stanley Nelson and Traci A. Curry’s Academy-Award nominated Attica for Showtime; Douglas Tirola’s Leonard Bernstein portrait Bernstein’s Wall; the GLAAD Media Award winner Mucho Mucho Amor for Netflix; the ACLU-focused The Struggle, co-released with Magnolia Photos; and the Unbiased Spirit Award-nominated docuseries Love Fraud for Showtime.
