With the arrival of spring comes a new crop of Sloan grantees, each a talented and emerging filmmaker with a compelling science or technology-themed project. Columbia University, one of the six universities with whom the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has a year-round partnership, has announced its latest grant recipients. Five new projects, four films and one series pilot, will receive funding from the 2024 screenwriting and production grants. Both selected by a committee of Columbia University faculty, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation representatives, and science advisors, the production grants support short films ready to be shot and the screenwriting grants support the development of feature film scripts or series pilot scripts. Read more about the latest winners below.
Winners of the Columbia University 2024 Sloan Production Grants:
CITRUS GREEN. Dir. María Cristina Morales. Prod. Fernando Morett Garza. (Short Film)
A young woman in rural Puerto Rico struggles to choose between pursuing her dream of becoming an agricultural scientist or leaving her father and heritage behind.
STRANDED. Dir. Raina Yang. Prod. Amie Song. (Short Film)
A Chinese marine biologist arrives in a remote fishing village to save a repeatedly stranded humpback whale, only to be swept into resurfacing childhood memories of the home she left behind.
Winners of the Columbia University 2024 Sloan Screenwriting Grants:
ERUPTION by Katla Sólnes (Feature)
In the untamed highlands of Iceland in 1972, Elín, the dutiful wife of renowned geologist Dr. Kári Karlsson, is in for a surprise when their student helper arrives. She’s a woman, Jane, and lied on her resume about her gender. This arrival threatens to rupture Elín’s marriage and as passion smolders beneath the shadow of volcanic rumblings, Elín grapples with desire, duty, and the seismic shifts of her heart in this primal, feminist odyssey.
MUTE EVIDENCE by Cece Wheeler (Feature)
In 1979, FBI Special Agent James Rolland investigates reports of mysterious cattle deaths on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation in northern New Mexico. As Rolland becomes increasingly embroiled in local UFO conspiracies, he enlists the help of veterinary pathologist Dr. Julie Prine. Together, they uncover a more sinister truth: a government cover-up of a massive environmental disaster.
SALTON SEA by Derin Çelik (Series)
Defne, a material scientist from Turkey from a humble background, must survive among a group of corrupt, self-involved scientists. The future of the world energy crisis depends on it.
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