This grant funds an awards program by Film Independent (FIND), producer of the Independent Spirit Awards, that aims to help produce and distribute feature films with scientific or technological themes, or those that feature scientists, engineers, technologists, inventors, or mathematicians as major characters. FIND makes several grants each year to achieve these aims: one producer a year is selected to develop a science-themed script in FIND’s Producing Lab with a $30,000 Producer’s grant and a reception and promotion around this project (the Lab accepts ten producers per year); one producer or producing team is selected per year for the Sloan Fast Track Fellowship with a $20,000 cash grant and invitation to the Fast Track film financing market (up to ten projects per year are selected); one outstanding episodic television writer is selected each year for a $20,000 grant to develop a science-themed series in FIND’s Episodic Lab; and one exceptional science-themed film is awarded a distribution grant of $50,000 to incentivize buyers to acquire an eligible film for distribution. In addition, FIND will host both an annual Sloan Salon with a science theme and 100 attendees and an annual Fellows Party with about 500 attendees to celebrate the growing film pipeline and link the Foundation to the wider filmmaking community.

This grant provides ongoing support to the Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) to oversee the administration of the Sloan Grand Jury Prize and Sloan Student Discovery Award, two annual awards celebrating outstanding feature film screenplays that integrate scientific or technological themes or characters. The Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize selects an outstanding screenplay from the Foundation’s six film school partners (American Film Institute; UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television; Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama; Columbia University School of the Arts; NYU Tisch School of the Arts; and USC School of Cinematic Arts), while the Sloan Student Discovery Award selects the best screenplay from another six film schools at top public universities (Brooklyn College Feirstein School of Cinema; SUNY Purchase School of Film and Media Studies; Florida State University; University of Texas Austin; Temple University; and the University of Michigan). Both prizes support the careers of diverse, emerging filmmakers interested in science and technology as they transition out of graduate school and into the film industry. In addition to a $20,000 cash prize, the winners will each receive industry exposure, feedback, and year-round science and film industry mentorship. Grant funds will allow MoMI to continue hosting the awards for two more years.

This grant provides ongoing funding to the Sloan Film Program at Columbia University, which supports young screenwriters and directors in creating new work with science and technology themes and characters. Under the stewardship of Trey Ellis, grant funds will allow Columbia to maintain two production awards for short films and provide expanded access to a mentorship program offering a stipend and research opportunities to a shortlist of three screenwriters. Grant funds will also allow the film school to expand an annual seminar into a major event at Columbia’s Lenfest Center for the Arts on the Manhattanville campus, which will include scientists and other researchers in addition to would-be applicants to the Sloan Film Program.

This grant provides ongoing support to the Sloan Film Program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (NYU), which will develop science screenplays and produce short science or technology-themed films and games over the next three years. Under the stewardship of Michael Burke, grant funds will allow NYU to maintain three screenwriting awards, one production award, and one gaming award each year, while providing every project with a science advisor.