At the 2018 LA Film Festival, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in partnership with Film Independent awarded $60,000 to three science-themed projects all written by women.

THE BURNING SEASON, directed by Claire McCarthy, will star Naomi Watts as a primatologist, specializing in lemurs, in Madagascar with her daughter. The film is adapted by Jenny Halper from Laura Van Den Berg’s short story What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us. With the Sloan Fast Track Grant, Halper and producer Kate Sharp will participate in the Film Independent Fast Track financing market.

Darcy Brislin and Dyana Winkler’s feature BELL received the $30,000 Sloan Producer’s Grant for producer Clay Pruitt to use in developing the film. BELL is told from the perspective of Alexander Graham Bell’s wife, Mabel, who was Deaf. The story centers on a pivotal moment in history–at the end of the nineteenth century–when there was heated debate about whether it was better to learn sign language or to lip-read and speak.

Finally, a Mirella Christou's scripted series SEVEN ETERNITIES—about Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert’s research into the effects of psychedelics—was awarded $10,000 towards the series’ development.

Stay tuned to Science & Film for more as these films develop.