Park City, UT Sundance Institute today announced the Science-in Film-Prizes that support the development and exhibition of new independent film projects that explore science and technology themes or that depict scientists, engineers and mathematicians in engaging and innovative ways. The winning projects and grantees are as follows: The Stanford Prison Experiment by director Kyle Patrick Alvarez,winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize; Jonathan Minard and Scott Rashap (Archive), winners of the Sundance Institute / Sloan Fellowship; and Jon Noble (Tyfus), Cutter Hodierne and John Hibey (Otzi), winners of the Sundance Institute / Sloan Commissioning Grants, presented through Sundance Institute's Feature Film Program.These activities, as well as a panel at the Festival, are part of the Sundance Institute Science-in-Film Initiative, which is made possible by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, said, Independent film can illustrate the importance and unique application of math, science and technology in our world. The Sundance Institute Science-in-Film Initiative, with critical support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is a great way to encourage production of thoughtful work surrounding these imperative topics which make a lasting impact on audiences.
Doron Weber, Vice President, Programs at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation said, We are thrilled to recognize Kyle Patrick Alvarez's powerful film The Stanford Prison Experiment as the 2015 winner of the Sloan Feature Film Prize at Sundance in our 13th year of this truly pioneering program. With The Imitation Game, Theory of Everything and Interstellar wowing audiences and winning accolades this year and with Gravity, Her and Dallas Buyers Club similarly successful last year it is clear that science and technology themes and characters are entering the cinematic mainstream. Sloan's own nationwide development pipeline has now produced 14 feature films, including Experimenter which premiered this year at Sundance Film Festival and the eight-times Oscar-nominated The Imitation Game. This year we are excited to support Sundance Institute in adding three new film projects Archive, Otzi and Tyfus to this terrific collaboration and we hope to see all three at the Sundance Film Festival and in our local theaters soon.
Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize
The Stanford Prison Experiment, directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez, has been awarded the 2015 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize and will receive a $20,000 cash award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation at this year's Sundance Film Festival. The Prize is selected by a jury of film and science professionals and presented to outstanding feature films focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character.
The Stanford Prison Experiment: Based on the actual events that took place in 1971, when Stanford professor Dr. Philip Zimbardo created what became one of the most shocking and famous social experiments of all time. Cast: Billy Crudup, Ezra Miller, Michael Angarano, Tye Sheridan, Johnny Simmons, Olivia Thirlby.
The jury presented the award to the film for its unflinching portrayal of an ambitious though flawed social science experiment in the psychology of imprisonment, and for its wrenching depiction of the human capacity for evil.
Previous Alfred P. Sloan Prize Winners include: Mike Cahill, I Origins (2014); Andrew Bujalski, Computer Chess (2013); Jake Schreier and Christopher Ford, Robot & Frank (2012); Musa Syeed, Valley of Saints (2012); Mike Cahill and Brit Marling, Another Earth (2011); Diane Bell, Obselidia (2010); Max Mayer, Adam (2009); Alex Rivera, Sleep Dealer (2008); Shi-Zheng Chen, Dark Matter (2007); Andrucha Waddington and Elena Soarez, House of Sand (2006); Werner Herzog, Grizzly Man (2005); Shane Carruth, Primer (2004) and Marc Decena, Dopamine (2003). Several past winners have also been awarded Jury Awards at the Festival, including the Grand Jury Prize for Primer, the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for Sleep Dealer and the Excellence in Cinematography Award for Obselidia.
As previously announced, this year's Alfred P. Sloan jury members are:
Paula Apsell
As director of the WGBH Science Unit and senior executive producer of the PBS science series NOVA, Paula Apsell has overseen the production of hundreds of acclaimed science documentaries, including such distinguished miniseries as The Fabric of the Cosmos with Brian Greene, Origins with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Making Stuff with David Pogue and the magazine spin-off NOVA scienceNOW. NOVA is the nation's most-watched science series, a top site on pbs.org, and recipient of every major broadcasting honor, including the Emmy, the Peabody, and the duPont-Columbia Gold Baton. Apsell has won numerous individual awards and has served on many boards including the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History. In 2012 she was journalist in residence at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at University of California, Santa Barbara and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Janna Levin
Janna Levin is an astrophysicist and writer. She has contributed to an understanding of black holes, the cosmology of extra dimensions, and gravitational waves in the shape of spacetime. She is the author of the popular-science book How the Universe Got Its Spots and a novel, A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, which won the PEN/Bingham prize. Levin is a professor at Barnard/Columbia and was recently named a Guggenheim Fellow.
Brit Marling
Brit Marling will be seen in Daniel Barbers The Keeping Room, a film about three Southern women defending their home during the Civil War which premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Fest
