A veteran of the independent film scene, Ryan Krivoshey founded Grasshopper Film in December 2015, a distribution company which has established itself as one of the most vital independent distributors working today.
Grasshopper’s slate of adventurous and award-winning releases include Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature Last Men in Aleppo directed by Feras Fayyad, Albert Serra’s Pacifiction, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Asako I & II, Bertrand Bonello’s Nocturama, Tsai Ming-Liang’s Days, Pedro Costa’s Vitalina Varela, Bi Gan’s Kaili Blues, Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s Leviathan, Michelangelo Frammartino’s Il Buco, Khalik Allah’s Black Mother, Pietro Marcello’s Lost and Beautiful and The Mouth of the Wolf, Brett Story’s The Hottest August, Robert Greene’s Bisbee ’17, Sky Hopinka’s Malni, and Hong Sang-soo’s Right Now, Wrong Then, among many others.
In addition to its theatrical releases, Grasshopper has a library of over 500 acclaimed films and documentaries, including multiple Academy Award nominees such as Ascension and The Eternal Memory, and Academy Award winner Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405, as well as the complete collection of films by the legendary filmmaking duo Jean-Marie Straub and Danielle Huillet.
Prior to founding Grasshopper, Krivoshey led the Cinema Guild as the Director of Distribution. During his 13 years at the company, Krivoshey built out a successful theatrical division, launched a home video label and was among the first to set up direct partnerships with all the major digital platforms, establishing the one-time educational distributor as an important and influential force in independent film.
Through the company’s releases, Krivoshey introduced audiences to new work from both emerging and renowned directors (at times representing their first form of distribution); filmmakers like Agnes Varda, Claire Denis, Christian Petzold, Jia Zhang-ke, Bela Tarr, Asghar Farhadi, Tsai Ming-liang, Matthew Barney, Michael Almereyda, Terence Nance, Jacques Rivette, Pedro Costa, Steve James, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Raul Ruiz, Jem Cohen, Manoel de Oliveira, Damien Chazelle, Kleber Mendonca Filho, Andrew Bujalski, Matias Pineiro, Alexander Sokurov, Lisandro Alonso, and Abbas Kiarostami.
Previously, Krivoshey worked at Icarus Films and Film Forum. His first job was at a now-defunct NYC video store, Kim’s Underground.