Before her Oscar nomination, Karen Ryan learned how to tell stories at SU

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When Syracuse University alumna Karen Ryan was a student at SU, she was taught that film students have to avoid getting lost in the industry and stay connected to the world around them. Almost 20 years later, with her film nominated for an Oscar, Ryan still thinks about that advice.

“You need a story to tell if you’re gonna be a storyteller,” Ryan said. “Tell the stories that matter, tell the stories that are going to make people feel.”

Ryan graduated from SU in 2006 with a television, radio and film degree. Now, her animated film “Nimona” is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film. Ryan was a producer on the film, which is one of a few kids and family animated movies that feature primarily queer main characters and themes.

After graduating, Ryan moved to Los Angeles with about 20 members of her graduating class. Although she didn’t study animation at SU, she got a job at Disney Animation and spent 11 years working in the studio’s various departments.

ND Stevenson, who created “Nimona,” first started the story as a webcomic in 2011. It was then adapted into a graphic novel in 2015 before Fox’s Blue Sky Studios picked it up as an animated film. Ryan said the collaboration of the team working on “Nimona” “unlocked” the movie. With input from everyone on the crew, the story is personal, and the final product includes pieces of every person who worked on it, she said.

“(Animation) is the most collaborative form of filmmaking I’ve ever experienced … you can move people, you can reach them, you can make them laugh, make them cry in such a strong way,” Ryan said. “Every single person in animation changes the movie as they work on it because they have to put themselves in as artists, so everybody who’s touching it affects the film.”

In 2019, Fox and Disney merged. After Disney took over Blue Sky, it shut the studio down in 2021. Without the support of a studio, most projects would have collapsed, but Ryan and the rest of her team believed in “Nimona” and were determined to make it happen, she said.

With a set of reels they developed before Blue Sky shut down, Ryan and the rest of the remaining team showed the film around Hollywood. At one event, a producer at Annapurna Pictures saw “Nimona.” The company’s animation division, which is led by former Blue Sky executives Andrew Millstein and Robert Baird, provided the resources that the film needed. Once Netflix also got involved, the film was back on.

“As much pushback as we got for the content of the movie, that is the reason why we survived because at every turn, individuals who we talked to wanted this movie to be made,” Ryan said. “It got saved and now it made it to the world. And we’re Oscar-nominated, which is insane.”

Newhouse School of Public Communications professor Tula Goenka taught Ryan in the early 2000s, adding that she was one of her favorite students. In January 2006, Goenka brought a cohort of students, including Ryan, to Los Angeles for a week. She still has a picture from that trip in her office.

That same semester, Goenka was diagnosed with breast cancer. She still remembers Ryan bringing in brownies as a gift when she found out about the diagnosis.

“I still remember it so clearly. She’s such a wonderful person,” Goenka said. “I’m just so excited for all her successes.”

Goenka described Ryan as a helpful alumna, saying she often refers students interested in visual effects and animation to her. Ryan always “pays it forward,” she said.

“I think it’s really important for current students to hear from professionals in the industry,” Goenka said. “Hearing from somebody who was sitting in that chair in that same room 10 years ago, or 15 years ago really is much more special than talking to a stranger.”

When Michael Schoonmaker, the chair of the television, radio and film department, has a student who is struggling and needs support, he also calls on Ryan.

“Some (students) needed to get confidence in finding work and confidence in themselves,” Schoonmaker said. “Karen’s the perfect one to talk to about that.”

Schoonmaker described himself as the self-appointed president of the Karen Ryan fan club. He said she was everyone’s favorite student and that she took advantage of every opportunity SU offered.

Schoonmaker said Ryan produces content with her whole heart and that, as a student, she always made the journey of production as rewarding as the final product.

“She was unforgettable,” Schoonmaker said. “It’s really hard for me to imagine (that she graduated) almost 20 years ago. Seems like she’s still here because her effect is still here.”

Ryan was drawn to the production of “Nimona” because the story’s protagonist was the first strong female character she saw who wasn’t on a journey of self-discovery — she knew who she was.

As a storyteller, the goal is not only to entertain people but to make the world a kinder place, Ryan said. She wants to inspire more content like “Nimona” in the world.

“(The nomination is) a huge statement of support,” Ryan said. “Especially right now, this world is trying to silence some voices and take basic human rights away, and this movie is proof that people don’t want that and it shouldn’t be that way.”