A veteran of the independent film scene, Ryan Krivoshey founded Grasshopper Film in December 2015, a distribution company which has quickly established itself as one of the most vital independent distributors working today.
Grasshopper’s eclectic slate of acclaimed and adventurous releases include 2018 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature Last Men in Aleppo, directed by Feras Fayyad, and 2018 Academy Award winner for Best Documentary Short Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405, as well as Robert Greene’s Bisbee ’17 and Sundance prize-winner Kate Plays Christine, two-time Academy Award winner Asghar Farhadi’s Fireworks Wednesday, Khalik Allah’s Black Mother, Hong Sang-soo’s Right Now, Wrong Then, Bertrand Bonello’s Nocturama and Bi Gan’s Kaili Blues, among many others.
In addition to its theatrical releases, Grasshopper has a library of over 300 films and documentaries, featuring award-winning titles from around the world, and including 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, Bela Tarr, Damien Chazelle, Andrew Bujalski, Tsai Ming-liang, Terence Nance, Jem Cohen, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Jacques Rivette, Raul Ruiz, Manoel de Oliveira, Matias Pineiro, Kleber Mendonca Filho, Alexander Sokurov, Pedro Costa, Lisandro Alonso,, Steve James, Matt Porterfield, Jia Zhang-ke and Abbas Kiarostami; and released groundbreaking documentaries such as The Interrupters, Marwencol, Sweetgrass, Leviathan, The Order of Myths and Manakamana.
Previously, Krivoshey worked at Icarus Films and Film Forum. His first job was at a now-defunct NYC video store, Kim’s Underground.