This grant supports the continued operation of the Sloan Science and Film website, scienceandfilm.org. Hosted and operated by the American Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI), America's leading film museum, the site showcases student films produced by the Foundation's film school partners and provides a synopsis of all film projects under development with the Foundation's six film school and four film festival partners, promoting the Sloan Film program while serving as a key resource for program participants. The MoMI website remains an essential component of the Sloan Film program and the nearest thing to one-stop shopping for those seeking to learn about the program in all its aspects. The site has approximately 50 award-winning Sloan films available in their entirety for live streaming, making it an up-to-date showcase and a constantly evolving cinematheque for science film shorts. In addition, the site has an interactive directory that lists and describes every winning student screenplay and film, and includes every film project under development with our four main partners: Sundance, Hamptons, Tribeca and Film Independent. The MoMI Sloan Science and Film website remains a unique, state-of-the art feature that very few non-profit programs, or even for-profit film companies, can boast.

This is a three-year renewal grant from the American Film Institute (AFI), one of the nation's leading film schools, to continue awarding tuition stipends, screenwriting and production awards for Science and Technology (S&T) films and to hold an annual S&T seminar. The film school program, supported for over a decade now, has been successful as measured by both quantity and quality of work. Beyond that, it is the cornerstone of our broader film program because it has created a growing body of work-and an emerging cadre of talented filmmakers-all focusing on S&T films. AFI has a unique status as a national film conservatory and their finished Sloan films, such as Skylab and The Monster and the Peanut, traditionally have the best production values and the most sophisticated "look" of all Sloan films. AFI has been very sensitive to the economic situation and this request is substantially lower than their previous request. The Foundation has supported this work at the American Film Institute since 1996 with total grants of $1,301,275.

The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) requests two more years of support for the TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund and Retrospective Screening and Discussion Series. Our early partnership with Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro at the Tribeca Film Festival-of which we were founding sponsors-has yielded several high profile projects that helped establish our film credibility. Tribeca has shrewdly begun pulling together the most promising Sloan projects from other programs, as well as developing its own, to give us the strongest suite of film projects we've ever had. One example is Face Value-the Hedy Lamar story which originated at Tribeca, then went to the Hamptons and came back for a second Tribeca grant last year. It was at our Tribeca selection committee meeting that committee member Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler) read Face Value and recommended his wife, Academy Award-winning actress Rachel Weisz, for the role of Hedy. By attracting people of Aronosky's caliber onto our committees-Marc Abraham (Children of Men, Flash of Genius), Sarah Green (Frieda, Girlfight), John Hart (Proof, Revolutionary Road), Caroline Baron (Capote)-Tribeca has catapulted Sloan into a front row industry seat. Face Value is slated to shoot in January 2010. $280,000 of this request would go directly to filmmakers, one reason for this program's effectiveness. Tribeca is an extremely strong performer, the lynch?pin of our screenplay development efforts, and is a well-regarded, high profile component of the Sloan Film Program. In addition to supporting the Tribeca Film Institute with its screenwriting development program, the Foundation has supported every Tribeca Film Festival since its inception in 2002, with total grants of $2,548,200.

This is one of a trio of three-year renewal grants from the nation's leading film schools to continue awarding screenwriting and production awards for science and technology films and to hold an annual science and technology seminar. Many producers are now combing through all the Sloan student winners for new scripts. Our 2008 Sloan Summit, which showcased the work of student winners, attracted executives from the major studios and independent film companies. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), which had some earlier issues due to personnel changes, has made great strides during the past three years. In the last cycle, UCLA turned in the best performance of any Sloan film school, including two outstanding scripts (The Magic Pill; The Ten Commandments of Leo Szilard). Several Sloan films UCLA submitted to festivals across the country have won awards and one production (Death Strip) took home a Student Emmy. UCLA is now next in line should we support another first feature production grant. While UCLA has increased its film production grants to offset rising production costs and added a modest stipend for more science advisors, it has compensated for these increases with other cuts so there is no net budget increase from 2006.

This is one of a trio of three-year renewal grants from the nation's leading film schools to continue awarding screenwriting and production awards for science and technology films and to hold an annual science and technology seminar. Many producers are now combing through all the Sloan student winners for new scripts. Our 2008 Sloan Summit, which showcased the work of student winners, attracted executives from the major studios and independent film companies. University of Southern California (USC) is the oldest film school in the country and consistently competes with New York University for the ranking of number one film school in the nation. It boasts the biggest program among our six schools and is also the only one that gives out a Sloan animation prize. USC has very strong ties with the industry and active alumni involved with the school include George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis. USC graduates have done well in securing industry jobs and enjoy the benefits of a very strong network. USC has been very sensitive to the economic situation and this request is $5,000 lower than the previous request in 2006.

This is one of a trio of three-year renewal grants from the nation's leading film schools to continue awarding screenwriting and production awards for science and technology films and to hold an annual science and technology seminar. Many producers are now combing through all the Sloan student winners for new scripts. Our 2008 Sloan Summit, which showcased the work of student winners, attracted executives from the major studios and independent film companies. New York University Tisch School of the Arts, arguably our strongest overall performer, has continued to develop and refine its program. This year they propose several changes, including the addition of a "script doctor"-Professor Ezra Sacks, an established screenwriter-to advise and assist students in the development and writing of their screenplays. These changes and improvements have all been offset by cuts in other parts of the budget so the only net increase from 2006 is a small one for film production-from $20,000 to $25,000 a film or an increase of $10,000 a year for three years-because production costs have increased significantly. From the start, NYU Tisch has demonstrated a high degree of commitment and belief in this program. Tisch, usually tied with University of Southern California for number one in the national film school rankings, has devoted more faculty, administration and resources and given out more awards than any other Sloan film school. Trustee Campbell excused herself from the meeting when this grant was discussed.

Film Independent is one of the largest and most prominent film organizations dedicated to independent films in the United States. FI sponsors screenings, special events, film education and talent development for its 6,000 filmmaker members, who include established Oscar-winning actors and directors. Film Independent performed very well with the one previous two-year grant they received, yielding two outstanding projects: Basmati Blues, a romantic comedy with Bollywood elements about a female geneticist from the U.S. who goes to India to help farmers with genetically modified rice; and The Man Who Knew Infinity, a tale about the great Indian mathematician Ramanujan. FI requests a renewal for two years of continued support for the Producer's Lab grant, an intense seven-week program that focuses on ten scripts each year, and would also like to establish a $25,000 named fellowship for a second science-themed project. This fellowship would include a $10,000 production grant, underwriting for participation in Fast Track, an intensive film financing market that takes place at the Los Angeles Film Festival, and year-round support and resources from FI, including mentorship from science advisors. The thrust of both these programs, as with projects like Hedy Lamarr, is to try and push more of these science and technology film projects into production and distribution.