Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize Awarded to I Origins at 04 Sundance Film Festival

Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize Awarded to I Origins at 2014 Sundance Film Festival The Buried Life, by Joan Stein Schimke and Averie Storck, Receives Sundance Institute / Alfred P. Sloan Lab Fellowship

Posted Jan 21, 2014

Park City, UT Sundance Institute today announced I Origins as the winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, as well as the recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Lab Fellowship, which is presented through the Institute's Feature Film Program.

These activities, as well as a panel at the Festival and the Alfred P. Sloan Commissioning Grant, are part of the Sundance Institute Science-in-Film Initiative, which is made possible by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The initiative supports 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.

We are delighted to collaborate with Sundance Institute for the 11th year in a row and to recognize Mike Cahill's original and compelling I Origins as the winner of this year's Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, said Doron Weber, Vice President, Programs at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. With Academy Award-nominated films like this year's Gravity and Her, I Origins as well as new scripts we are developing with Sundance Institute Labs such as The Buried Life and Prodigal Summer demonstrates that not only are science and technology central to understanding, engaging with and dramatizing modern life, but they also make for cracking good films that draw large audiences.

Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, said, Independent filmmakers offer unique perspectives on the role math, science and technology play in our world and culture. The Sundance Institute Science-in-Film Initiative, with critical support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, recognizes and encourages these projects as they make their way to audiences.

Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize

I Origins, directed and written by Mike Cahill, has been awarded the 2014 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize and will receive a $20,000 cash award by 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.

In I Origins, a molecular biologist and his lab partner uncover startling evidence that could fundamentally change society as we know it and cause them to question their once-certain beliefs in science and spirituality. The cast includesMichael Pitt, Brit Marling, Astrid Berg s-Frisbey, Steven Yeun, Archie Panjabi. The jury presented the award to the film for its intelligent and nuanced portrayal of molecular biologists as central characters, and for dramatizing the power of the scientific process to explore fundamental questions about the human condition.

Previous Alfred P. Sloan Prize Winners include: Andrew Bujalski, Computer Chess (2013); Jake Schreier, 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, The 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:

Dr. Kevin Hand

Dr. Kevin Hand is deputy chief scientist for Solar System Exploration at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His research focuses on the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the solar system. His fieldwork involves exploring some of Earth's most extreme environments from the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, to the depths of the Earth's oceans, to the glaciers of Kilimanjaro.

Flora Lichtman

Flora Lichtman is a science journalist living in New York. She has worked as a video journalist for the New York Times and National Public Radio's Science Friday and writes regularly for Popular Science magazine. She is the coauthor of Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us.

Max Mayer

Max Mayer is a founder and producing director of New York Stage and Film and has directed over 50 new plays by writers such as John Patrick Shanley, Lee Blessing, and Eric Overmyer. In addition to writing and directing Better Living and Adam, which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and won the Sloan Prize, Mayer has directed As Cool as I Am and episodes of The West Wing, Alias, and Family Law and written three produced plays.

Jon Spaihts

Jon Spaihts is the screenwriter of The Darkest Hour, Ridley Scott's Prometheus, and the upcoming Passengers and The Mummy. The one-time physics student and science writer continues to specialize in science fiction.

Jill Tarter

Astronomer Jill Tarter, the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for the SETI Institute, has devoted her career to hunting for signs of sentient beings elsewhere. The lead for Project Phoenix, a decade-long SETI scrutiny of about 750 nearby star systems, she now leads SETI's efforts to build and operate the Allen Telescope Array. A 2009 TED prize recipient, she is also the real-life researcher upon whom the Jodie Foster character in Contact is largely based.

Sundance Institute / Alfred P. Sloan Lab Fellowship

The Buried Life (U.S.A.)

Joan Stein Schimke and Averie Storck (co-writers/co-directo

LINK:	http://www.sundance.org/press-center/release/alfred-p-sloan-feature-fi...
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