Yesterday Tribeca Film Institute announced the winners of the 2015 TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund, an annual award which provides funding and professional guidance in support of innovative and compelling films that offer a fresh take on science, mathematics and technology. With topics ranging from an unknown math genius to a baseball player who doubled as a spy, this year’s recipients will receive a collective total of $150,000 in grants to support their projects. The TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund has now given more than $1 million dollars to filmmakers. Recent grantees of the fund have been widely successful both mainstream and on the Festival circuit, including Morten Tyldum's The Imitation Game (2014 Grantee), Nghiem-Minh Nguyen-Vo's 2030 (2013 Grantee), and Andrew Bujalski's Computer Chess (2012 Grantee). The four films awarded grants, which explore the world of science and technology and the personalities behind them, are:

THE CATCHER WAS A SPY, directed by Ben Lewin, produced by Tatiana Kelly.
Based on the best selling book by Nicholas Dawidoff, this is the true story of Moe Berg - Major League Baseball player, Ivy League graduate, attorney who spoke nine languages—and a top-secret spy for the OSS who helped the U.S. win the race against Germany to build the atomic bomb. Pre-production

HOUSE OF TOMORROW, directed by Peter Livolsi.
A home-schooled sixteen-year-old raised on the futurist teachings of Buckminster Fuller gets a chance at life outside his bubble when he meets a punk rock kid with a heart transplant who wants to start a band. Development

THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY, directed by Matt Brown and produced by Jim Young, Jomon Thomas, Edward Pressman and Swati Bhise.
Based on the life of math genius Srinivasa Ramanujan and Professor G.H. Hardy, who recognized Ramanujan’s brilliance despite the latter’s lack of formal training and education and plucked him from obscurity in Edwardian India. Post-production

PICKING COTTON, directed by Jessica Sanders.
The riveting true story of rape survivor Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton, whom she had wrongfully identified as her rapist. After 11 years in prison, DNA evidence cleared Ronald of the crime. Jennifer and Ronald are now friends and activists, improving the criminal justice system. Early-development