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Netflix and Annapurna Animation’s Oscar-nominated film Nimona is a compelling story of passion, resilience, and the search for community on and off screen.
When the brave knight Barrister Baldheart (Riz Ahmed) is framed for assassinating the Queen, he is forced to take on the role of a deranged, shape-shifting teenager named Nimona (Chloe Grace) in hopes of clearing his name and bringing peace to the kingdom. – Form a team with Moretz).
Nimona and Barrister’s quest mirrors the long journey of film producers who overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles not only to get their films to the big screen, but also to the Academy Awards.
No one is more involved than producers Karen Ryan and Julie Zachary, who have been involved with the project for nearly a decade. Originally conceived at Blue Sky Studios in 2016, this animated feature first hit his bump in speed with Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2018.
“We were working on it at Blue Sky, and it was incredible. It was going really well. The whole studio rallied behind this. Then Fox was acquired by Disney.” recalls Ryan. “Cinema can be pushed and pushed by new people coming in. My role was just to protect the movie and protect the theme. We wanted to make this movie feel personal. , I was trying not to get lost in the transition.”
The Nimona team faced backlash from Disney over the film’s queer representation, including Boldheart’s kiss with her boyfriend Ambrosius Goldenloin (Eugene Lee Yang). And that wasn’t their only obstacle.
“We were in the middle of the coronavirus. Disney was hemorrhaging. We knew the parks weren’t making money. The hotels weren’t making money, the cruise lines were making money, the movie theaters weren’t making money. Everyone was wasting a lot of money,” Zachary said, adding that when Disney ultimately shut down the studio in early 2021, they didn’t pay attention.
Ryan recalls a Zoom call with 400 people. Inside, the staff watched their hard work with the certainty that it would never be shown to the public. “It brought tears to our eyes. We cried and laughed because this movie meant so much.” But that emotional zoom ultimately ignited the fire that saved the movie. I got it.
“At that moment, we were like, ‘We’re not going to take no for an answer.’ We’re not going to let this die.” That’s when I did it,” Ryan says.
Leveraging their extensive industry networks and deft negotiating skills, Ryan and Zachary orchestrated the revival of the project, ultimately securing a deal with Annapurna Animation in 2022.
The transition from Blue Sky to an independent studio came with its own share of growing pains, Zachary says. “None of us had ever done it outside of a big studio. We had the support of Annapurna, who was great and answered all of our questions. But… I learned a lot on the job: How do you book an orchestra? How do you arrange a post? What does the delivery schedule look like?”
Of course, a tenacious team overcame the odds, and the film eventually premiered on Netflix in June 2023. “It’s this crazy story about what tried to oppress us and how people didn’t try to make it disappear,” Ryan says with a smile.
Ryan and Zachary couldn’t believe it when they learned their team had been nominated for an Oscar. They said they were proud that the nomination shows the industry’s acceptance of the film’s queer themes in children’s and family entertainment.
“There are now entire films being made to try to make people feel represented, especially queer kids who don’t see themselves represented on screen,” Ryan says. “This movie is doing that. That Oscar nomination means: ‘You’re supported. See you. We want more of this. And we’re celebrating that.’ .”
“It was very important for us to reflect the world we lived in,” Zachary says. “You can’t paint it with any stroke other than, ‘This is normal.’ This is the world you live in. We’re not going to overstate it because that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
They hope to expand on the theme of acceptance in future projects, whether it’s something more “Nimona”-esque or something new. “Our main focus is on creating more stories that are representative of people who need to be seen,” Ryan says. “We want to strive to produce more films to make the world a better and kinder place.”
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