The Sloan Screenwriting winners from Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation at have recently been announced, welcoming three new women filmmakers into the Sloan grantee community. CMU is one of six universities with whom the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has an ongoing relationship, offering annual prizes in screenwriting and production. Selected for the best screenplay furthering the public understanding of science and technology, the 2023 winners are:
FIRST PLACE:
TOO MANY FISH IN THE SEA by Sally Seitz (Feature)
Heartbroken, hometown marine biologist Hollie Ryan wants nothing more than a change of scenery post-breakup, but her plans to leave Little Cayman Island are interrupted by the rapid recolonization of the invasive lionfish. Will her love for the ocean be enough to save the very reefs that raise her AND heal her broken heart? Perhaps the arrival of a heartthrob documentarian will show Hollie that she is, in fact, still quite a catch.
SECOND PLACE:
SUNA by Lara Miller (Feature)
Grace Odero thinks about suna – mosquitoes – day and night from her home in western Kenya. As the dutiful daughter of a community health worker, she is on track to fulfill her father’s dream of becoming their island’s only physician. But secretly, she has the bigger dream of becoming the scientist to finally eradicate mosquito-transmitted malaria. After she lies to her father, accepts a position at MIT, and meets a similarly impassioned Chinese American scientist, she has a buzzing feeling that her two worlds are about to collide.
THIRD PLACE:
CLOUD CLUB by Jamie Olah (Feature)
In this coming-of-age story, uptight Aubrey, a 14-year-old obsessed with meteorology, must join forces with the partner of her nightmares, the rebellious Hli, to win a national science competition and meet her weather-forecasting idol.
Stay tuned for further coverage on the development of these promising new projects.
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