This grant supports an annual $150,000 First Feature Production Award at New York University Tisch School of the Arts (NYU) to provide students the opportunity to produce and release their first full-length feature film that dramatizes scientific and technological themes or characters. Students submit one-page pitches for science films annually. A dozen quarter finalists are selected to write step-by-step breakdowns of their films, and from this group, six semi-finalists are chosen to meet with scientists and film faculty to improve the science content, narrative, and design of their films, before submitting revised treatments. In the finalist stage, three students are selected and awarded $5,000 each to develop their treatments into full-scale feature screenplays. Finally, one winner is selected and receives a $150,000 production award to produce their first feature film.

This grant supports Film Independent (FIND) to host the 2025 Sloan Film Summit, a convening of all Alfred P. Sloan Foundation film and media-related grantees held every three years, from film schools to film festivals and from film development and film distribution partners to theater, gaming, and social media partners. At the summit, FIND will highlight 25 years of the Sloan Foundation’s film program, looking back at where the program started and what has changed in the science and film landscape, as well as the media and broader culture. In addition to anticipated attendance by 200 members of the Sloan film community—including all the winning screenwriters, filmmakers, episodic writers, gamers, and animators from the past three years—FIND will invite members of the general public to participate in several public-facing events, adding an estimated 1000 attendees.  Funded activities include introductions and updates from Sloan award recipients; case studies of successful collaborations between filmmakers and scientists; networking opportunities that connect filmmakers with scientists, agents, casting directors, distributors, film festivals, production companies, entrepreneurs, and executives; live reading of excerpts from Sloan-winning screenplays; panels that will feature scientists expounding on underappreciated scientific stories and discoveries, and keynote addresses.

This grant is for three years of continued support for the American Film Institute (AFI) to continue awarding screenwriting, production, development, and scholarship awards for science and technology films and episodic television, and to hold science and technology seminars. The screenwriting award is offered to exceptional feature-length or episodic television scripts that accurately depict scientific stories or themes. The production award provides funds to produce a short film that centers science and technology themes or characters. The tuition award is for a prospective student with a science background who is transitioning to a film career. The development award provides financial support and mentorship for graduating Fellows developing science-based projects for the commercial film market, with the intent of pitching, optioning, and/or selling a scripted feature or series. AFI will also continue to host annual Sloan Seminars featuring screenings of films followed by discussions with accomplished filmmakers and scientists about the science and technology themes in the films.

Each year SFFILM awards two feature film prizes to recognize excellence in science-themed filmmaking: the $20K Sloan Science in Cinema Prize which is awarded in December in advance of the Academy Awards; and a second, Science on Screen award, given out at its April film festival, which includes screenings and panels with scientists.  SFFILM also supports two screenwriters a year with a fellowship that includes a cash award, residency and mentorship by filmmakers and scientists. SFFILM also compiles an annual list of the ten best discoveries in science and gives a prize to two filmmakers to develop one discovery into a screenplay.

Launched by the National Academy of Sciences in 2008 with Sloan support, the Science and Entertainment Exchange (the Exchange), is an ongoing project to increase the quality of scientific content in American film and television through providing directors, producers, and other Hollywood executives with access to high quality consulting by real working scientists and researchers. Providing more than 250 consultations a year, the Exchange works to ensure accuracy when science is used in film and television, seeds new ideas within Hollywood by exposing creative and industry professionals to new scientific content, and acts as a well of professional advice across a wide range of scientific topics. This grant provides support for the Exchange for a period of three years and includes funds to continue the Exchange’s core work of providing science consultations, funds to expand and diversify the Exchange’s roster of science consultants, and funds for a series of in-person and online events showcasing women and Black, Indigenous and Latine scientists and engineers. 

The Coolidge Corner Theatre is an independent cinema in Brookline, Massachusetts specializing in international, documentary, animated, and independent film selections. Since 2008, the Coolidge has been the Foundation’s partner for Sloan Science on Screen, a nationwide program to support independent cinemas — spread across 44 states and Washington DC — that invite scientific experts to screenings of popular or cult classic films to discuss with audiences the scientific or technological themes or issues the film raises. The series offers an unexpected and informative entree into the relationship between science and film, showing that any film can lend itself to intelligent analysis, as well as fun, when viewed through a scientific or technological lens. Sloan support will allow Coolidge to make grants to 70 participating theatres, bringing the total number of independent cinema houses that have participated in Science on Screen to more than 110.