Six new film projects have won a total of $160,000 from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s partnerships with the Tribeca Film Institute and Columbia University. Each film is still in script stage, and funds will go towards production. Many of the films focus on women protagonists, and are based on true stories. The new grant winners are:

Winner of the Tribeca Film Institute’s Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize, WHITE COFFINS is set in 1907 New York City and follows a female health inspector tracking Typhoid Mary. Writer Matthew Jackett is a screenwriter and playwright who was previously Executive Director of the Ivy Film Festival, an entirely student-run international film festival in Providence, RI. WHITE COFFINS won its first Sloan grant in 2019 through NYU.

Winner of the Tribeca Film Institute’s Sloan Student Discovery Award, the feature film CLAMMING focuses on a researcher based in Long Island who studies how rising water temperatures affect the local scallop population. Writer Zoe Fleer is a graduate of Brooklyn College’s Graduate School of Cinema, and teaches in the Radio, Film, Television department at Hofstra University. CLAMMING is the second winner of the newly established Sloan Student Discovery Award, which accepts submissions from six graduate film programs without existing Sloan grants.

Winner of the Sloan Screenwriting Award at Columbia University, BAG LADY is based on the true story of 19^th century inventor Margaret E. Knight, one of the first female inventors with a U.S. patent, for a machine which revolutionized the packaging industry. The screenplay is written by Kristin Curtis and Max McGillivray.

Winner of the Sloan Screenwriting Award at Columbia University, JASON is inspired by the true story of a group of U.S. scientific advisors known as JASON tasked with developing high-tech solutions to the war in Vietnam. The screenplay is written by Harry Bartle.

Winner of the Sloan Screenwriting Award at Columbia University, MARCIA MARCELA MADRE MUJER is based on the true story of the first gender reassignment operation in Chile. Writer Constanza Majluf is a Chilean filmmaker and actress whose recent short film STILL made its world premiere at the Miami Film Festival.

Winner of the Sloan Production Award at Columbia University, the short film LET THERE BE LIGHT is based on the true story of prominent African-American inventor Lewis H. Latimer. It is written by Jon K. Jones.

Winner of the Sloan Production Award at Columbia University, the short film IT MIGHT AS WELL BE SPRING follows an angry ecologist named Leo who gets into trouble borrowing his dad’s car. Writer Ben Eckersley has written and directed a number of shorts, most recently HUNGRY GHOST which premiered at the San Diego Asian Film Festival.