This grant provides two years of funding for the Sloan Student Grand Prize. This annual prize is awarded to the single best student screenplay produced by a student from one of the Foundation’s six film school partners (AFI, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, NYU, UCLA, and USC) and supports the development of that script into a finished film. The prize stimulates interest and excitement among the participating film schools and film students by awarding a “best-of-the-best” prize and by fast-tracking the winning project for development so it becomes a major career opportunity. The award package is $50,000 per year, of which $30,000 goes directly to the student filmmaker. The remaining $20,000 funds an industry mentor to guide the project, a committed science advisor, and other marketing (meetings, readings, events) and distribution efforts to maximize the screenplay’s chances of production.