Ryan Little

Ryan Little
Born	(1971-03-28) March 28, 1971 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Occupation	Film director, producer, cinematographer
Years active	1999–present
Spouse(s)	Lynnita Little

Ryan Little (born March 28, 1971) is a film director, cinematographer and producer. He has earned plenty of recognition for his work, having received over twenty awards. He is well known for his 2003 film Saints and Soldiers. His work has a broad range of genres including war films and children’s subjects. Little was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and graduated from Brigham Young University in 1999. His senior film, The Last Good War, won the Jimmy Stewart Crystal Heart Memorial Award, which allowed him to enter onto the national stage. Currently living in the Alpine, Utah area with his wife and two sons, Little`s personal goal is to be the “nicest director in Hollywood”. He has produced six films, directed eleven and scribed one.

Early life

Born in Vancouver in 1971, Little always had an aspiration for making film. Growing up, his father made 8mm films and was always eager to show them off to young Ryan. With this, a passion for film began and Little knew that when he grew up he wanted to make film; not necessarily professionally, even just for fun.

It took Little three tries to get into the Brigham Young University and two more applications for an acceptance into the film program. Little is a devout Mormon. While at BYU, he made over twenty short films.

Professional career

The idea for his first professional and most famous film Saints and Soldiers sprouted from a connection with a religion professor at Brigham Young, Dennis A. Wright. Wright was the coauthor of a book Saints at War, and he shared some stories with Little that he wished could have been in the book but had to be left out. Little was able to contact the Veterans that Wright told him about and with their help, the story for Saints and Soldiers began taking shape. The film, which takes place during World War II, is about three soldiers who escape during the Malmedy Massacre.

One key element found in most of Little’s work is the portraying of religious people as not completely perfect and secular people as not completely evil. For example, in Saints and Soldiers some German characters were depicted as good people even though they were Nazis.

Some of Little’s other work includes the ABC Family Channel original comedy Everything You Want, Forever Strong (a film about the Highland rugby team), Age of the Dragons, and the TNT pilot Blank Slate. Little has amassed twenty awards for his work in film.

Little’s Saints and Soldiers was filmed around the Sundance ski resort. When he was finished filming, Little entered in seventeen film festivals with the hope that he would be accepted by at least a few of them. All seventeen festivals accepted him and he began attending them religiously for the next year. Saints and Soldiers won a top award at every festival, and with that Little’s career took off. He still enjoys and attends many film festivals to this day.

Personal life

Little is married to Lynnita Little and has two sons.

Awards and nominations

• Won, 2006, Heartland Film Festival's Crystal Heart Award for independent filmmakers, for Outlaw Trail: The Treasure of Butch Cassidy
• Won, 2003, Viewer's Choice Award for Best Feature Film (Saints and Soldiers)
• Won, 2003, Feature Film Winner for Saints and Soldiers (shared with Adam Abel)
• Won, 2004, Best Feature for Saints and Soldiers
• Won, 2003, Audience Award for Saints and Soldiers
• Won, 2003, Audience Award for Best Feature (Saints and Soldiers)
• Won, 2003, Audience Award for Saints and Soldiers
• Won, 2003, Best Narrative Feature for Saints and Soldiers
• Won, 2003, Audience Award for Favorite Feature – Drama (Saints and Soldiers)
• Won, 2003, Audience Award for Feature Film (Saints and Soldiers)
• Nominated, 2005, Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature (Saints and Soldiers; shared with Adam Abel)
• Nominated, 2005, Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography (Saints and Soldiers)
• Won, 1999, Jimmy Stewart Crystal Heart Memorial Award for The Last Good War
• Won, 2003, Grand Prize for Dramatic Feature for Saints and Soldiers (shared with Adam Abel)
• Won, 2003, Crystal Heart Award for Saints and Soldiers (shared with Adam Abel)
• Won, 2003, Jury Award for Best of the Fest (Saints and Soldiers)
• Won, 2003, Jury Award for Best Picture (Saints and Soldiers)
• Won, 2003, Audience Award for Saints and Soldiers
• Won, 2003, Audience Award for Best Feature Film (Saints and Soldiers)
• Won, 1999, Student Emmy for Best Dramatic Film (The Last Good War)

Credits

Directing

• War Pigs (2015)
• Saints and Soldiers: The Void (2014)
• Saints and Soldiers: Airborne Creed (2012)
• Age of the Dragons (2011)
• Forever Strong (2008)
• House of Fears (2007)
• Outlaw Trail: The Treasure of Butch Cassidy (2006)
• Everything You Want (2005) (TV)
• Saints and Soldiers (2003)
• Freedom on the Water (2002)
• The Last Good War (1999)

Producing

• Saints and Soldiers: The Void (2014)
• Saints and Soldiers: Airborne Creed (2012)
• Forever Strong (2008) (producer)
• House of Fears (2007) (executive producer)
• Outlaw Trail: The Treasure of Butch Cassidy (2006) (producer)
• Saints and Soldiers (2003) (producer)
• The Wrong Brother (2000) (producer)
• The Last Good War (1999) (producer)

Cinematography

• Saints and Soldiers: The Void (2014)
• Saints and Soldiers: Airborne Creed (2012)
• Blank Slate (2008) (TV)
• Believe (2007)
• The Home Teachers (2004)
• Saints and Soldiers (2003)
• The RM (2003)
• Freedom on the Water (2002)
• The Singles Ward (2002)

External links

1. Ryan Little at the Internet Movie Database
2. "Ryan Little." Famous Mormons RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2015. <[1]>.
3. Eash, Candy. "Ryan Little." Morman Artist. N.p., Feb. 2014. Web. 24 Nov. 2015. <[2]>.
4. Aldrich, Emily Hanks. "Nothing Little About Filmmaker's Ambitions - BYU Magazine Dev Site." BYU Magazine. N.p., 2007. Web. 24 Nov. 2015. <[3]>.
5. movies.yahoo.com
6. movies.nytimes.com