A B O U T
As a producer and executive producer, he has helped realize many groundbreaking films in the last twenty years, most made under $3 million. Notable collaborators include Kelly Reichardt and Todd Solondz. 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, and have played all of the top festivals worldwide. 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). Other films as a producer include CHOKE (Clark Gregg, Chuck Palahniuk), THE COMEDY (Rick Alverson), FREE IN DEED (Jake Mahaffy, winner of the Orizzonti Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival ’16), FAY GRIMM (Hal Hartley), and Bela Tarr’s final film, THE TURIN HORSE.
His films have won multiple Spirit and Gotham nominations and awards and have played all of the top festivals worldwide. Mike’s two current films are Donal Foreman’s “The Cry of Granuaile” and Madeleine Hunt Ehrlich’s “The Ballad of Suzanne Cesaire”. The “Ballad of Suzanne Cesaire” feature premiered at Rotterdam in Competition 2024 and went on to play and win festivals worldwide including Toronto and NY Film festival, and won National Films Critics Society best experimental feature of 2024. The film was distributed in theaters and was acquired by the Criterion Chanel. Mike’s articles about the history and state of Indie film appear in Filmmaker magazine and other publications. Mike is a proud Screen Actors Guild member and as Producer, a voting member of the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences. Mike is also a E.U citizen of Ireland.
GREYSHACK FILMS is a development and production company committed to creative, thought-provoking, energetic new cinema designed within a low-budget model. Company president Mike S. Ryan is a veteran member of the independent film community, and NYC native, who started out in the industry’s 1990′s heyday as a Location Manager for such producers as Christine Vachon, James Schamus, and Ted Hope. Ryan managed such iconic indie films as Ang Lee’s THE ICE STORM, Todd Haynes’ FAR FROM HEAVEN, and Todd Solondz’s STORYTELLING, as well as such big budget studio films as MEET JOE BLACK, AS GOOD AS IT GETS, and Ang Lee’s RIDE WITH THE DEVIL.