The 2016 Tribeca Film Festival will debut 8 science-themed feature films in its slate of 101. The Festival will feature the premiere of a Sloan-supported feature film, a works-in-progress reading of scripts in development, and the world premiere of a Sloan-winning filmmaker’s second film.

In the International Narrative Competition is ICAROS: A VISION, a Peruvian film directed by Leonor Caraballo and Matteo Norzi. Exploring the use of the psychedelic ayahuasca as a form of healing, the film makes its world premiere.

In the Viewpoints program: EQUALS, by Drake Doremus, is a narrative film which deals with human emotion as a disease; 14 MINUTES FROM EARTH, by Jerry Kolber, is a documentary about engineers exploring the stratosphere in New Mexico. A Sloan-supported “American Experience” documentary SPACE MEN, which was featured on Science & Film, also tells the story of men testing their limits outside the bounds of NASA. HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM! by Ziga Virc is a narrative film about the Yugoslavian space program in the early 1960s.

In the Spotlight program: Robert Kenner has made a documentary COMMAND AND CONTROL about the perilous human error which led to the explosion at the Titan II nuclear site in Arkansas at the end of the Cold War; LIFE, ANIMATED is another documentary, by Roger Ross Williams, about an autistic youth who learned how to communicate through Disney movies.

Also in the Spotlight section is Rob Meyer’s film LITTLE BOXES. Meyer is a winner of Sloan-Tribeca and Sundance grants for his first film A BIRDER’S GUIDE TO EVERYTHING about a group of teenage birders. LITTLE BOXES is Meyer’s second feature and is about a biracial child adjusting to a new town.

Special Screenings during the festival include: DON’T LOOK DOWN by Daniel Gordon, a documentary about entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson who travelled in a hot air balloon across the Atlantic and Pacific. On April 15 Sloan will host the New York premiere of THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY, directed by Matthew Brown, which received support from a Film Independent-Sloan grant. The film is based on the true story of the prodigious Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons star. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with the crew and cast of the film along with an esteemed mathematician. The film is being distributed by IFC and will be in theaters April 29. Check back on Science & Film for an interview with producer Jim Young.

On April 22 Sloan will host a Works in Progress reading of winning scripts in development with Tribeca Film Institute.

The festival takes place April 13-24 in New York. The Sloan Foundation develops scripts with the Tribeca Film Institute and features an annual screening, a panel, and a works in progress reading at the Tribeca Film Festival.