-- 20th Year of Science-In-Film Initiative Celebrated, Feature Film Prize Goes to After YangPark City, UT - The Sundance Film Festival has announced the artist grant recipients for the Sundance Institute Science-in-Film initiative at the twentieth annual Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Feature Film Prize Reception, where the previously announced 2022 Feature Film Prize winner (Kogonada, After Yang) was honored. The grantees received a total of $70,000 in funding for their projects in development through the Sloan Episodic Fellowship (Kathryn Lo, Our Dark Lady), Sloan Development Fellowship (Nuhash Humayun, Moving Bangladesh) and Sloan Commissioning Grant (Shawn Snyder and Jason Begue, The Futurist).The Science-In-Film Initiative is turning 20 and we are thrilled to gather and celebrate After Yang and our grantees. With the importance of this initiative becoming clearer every year, it's with gratitude that we mark two decades of the Sloan Foundation providing material support and recognition for filmmakers whose work engages with science and technology in an entertaining, meaningful way said Festival Director Tabitha Jackson.
From Primer, Grizzly Man, and Robot & Frank to Searching, Tesla, and After Yang - I was there for every award - it's been a wonderful, pioneering, two-decade partnership with Sundance, said Doron Weber, Vice President and Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. To see extraordinary work move from development to the screen and beyond for 20 years is to witness a line of progress in science and technology representation that has deeply influenced our culture. This year's Feature Film Prize winner Kogonada and screenwriting recipients - Kathryn Lo, Nuhash Humayun, Shawn Snyder, and Jason Begue are outstanding additions to the multitalented Sloan family. We're honored to recognize these gifted artists and look forward to contributing to their future success.
The twenty-year partnership between the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Sundance Institute forms part of the Sloan Foundation's nationwide Film Program, which includes support for six of the nation's leading film schools plus six additional public schools and seven screenwriting development partners and has resulted in over 750 film projects and 30 completed feature films. In addition to Hidden Figures, originally supported by a Sloan book grant, the film program has long championed stories about women in science from Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story to stories about Louise Pearce, Rosalind Franklin, Marie Curie, Lise Meitner and Jane Goodall. The program has also supported many works about the role of technology in daily life, including the impact of machine learning, robotics and artificial intelligence. Sloan has supported feature narrative films such as Adventures of a Mathematician, One Man Dies a Million Times, The Sound of Silence, To Dust, The Catcher Was a Spy, The Man Who Knew Infinity, The Imitation Game, Experimenter and Operator, along with documentaries, such as the 2020 Sundance Film Festival selection Coded Bias and several new projects, including episodic television, in development. The program has also given early recognition to stand-out films such as Don't Look Up, Ammonite, The Aeronauts, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, First Man, Searching, The Martian and Son of Monarchs, last year's recipient of the Feature Film Prize.
AFTER YANG: Winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize
After Yang has been awarded the 2022 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize and received a $20,000 cash award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation at today's online reception. The Prize is selected by a jury of film and science professionals and presented to an outstanding feature film focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character.
The 2022 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize Jury was previously announced on December 13th.
The jury stated, For its exquisitely crafted and deep poetic meditation on how technology can help us reflect on our humanity, and the ways our brains navigate memory, loss, and connection - even while it poses new challenges to our privacy, security, and identity - the 2022 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at the Sundance Film Festival goes to Kogonada's After Yang.
After Yang / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Kogonada, Producers: Andrew Goldman, Caroline Kaplan, Paul Mezey, Theresa Park) - In the near future, a father and daughter try to save the life of Yang, their beloved robotic family member. Cast: Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith. Justin H. Min, Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja, Haley Lu Richardson. North American Premiere. Fiction.
Koganada's debut film, Columbus, starring John Cho and Haley Lu Richardson, premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. He wrote and directed his second feature, After Yang, starring Colin Farrell and Jodie Turner-Smith, for A24.
Sundance Institute / Sloan Episodic Fellowship
Kathryn Lo (writer) will receive a $10,000 cash award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation at this year's Sundance Film Festival for Our Dark Lady. Previous winners include: The Harvard Computers, Higher, and DELTA-V.
Our Dark Lady: After James Watson trashes scientist Rosalind Franklin in his memoir on the discovery of DNA's double helix, a friend seeks to uncover the theft of her data by investigating two labs in 1950s England - where Rosalind emerges as the centerpiece of the most important scientific breakthrough of the modern era.
Working in print, radio, television and online, Kathryn Lo relishes storytelling of all forms. She spent 10 years curating the Emmy-winning documentary series Independent Lens, and oversaw a 450-hour program pipeline at PBS. After a career of championing others' work, Kathryn is excited to pursue her own cu
