Get to know the inaugural winners of the SFFILM Sloan Stories of Science Development Fund

2019 was a very busy year for the SFFILM Makers team, with a record number of grants and fellowships awarded to independent filmmakers from all over the world. SFFILM’s newest artist support program was developed in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the non-profit dedicated to bridging the cultures of science and the humanities, and focuses on the adaptation of important scientific and technological discoveries to the big screen.

Four screenwriting teams that have been selected to receive funding through the new Sloan Stories of Science Development Fund, which is the latest addition to a suite of screenwriting programs that cultivate and champion narrative feature films exploring scientific or technological themes and characters.

The Sloan Stories of Science Development Fund supports the screen adaptation of specific scientific articles and discoveries, catalogued in the Sloan Stories of Science Sourcebook as inspiration for filmmakers. The Sourcebook library featured articles from outlets such as Wired magazine, the New York Times Magazine, the Verge, Discover magazine, The Atlantic, and the New Yorker, as well as a list of recent momentous scientific and technological discoveries, whose stories are well suited to be adapted into feature film screenplays.

These inaugural winners each receive a $10,000 cash grant and access to a two-day filmmaker retreat. designed to provide guidance and mentorship from scientists, science and tech journalists, and film industry professionals to help them shape their storytelling vision; and from producers and legal advisors to help navigate adapting true stories to the screen.

Let’s get to know the winning screenwriters and their projects:

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Tasha Van Zandt, writer/director

A world-renowned marine biologist risked his reputation and welfare on an obsessive hunt for the sea’s most elusive creature. Now, retired and far from his life of adventure, he is told he will soon lose his eyesight due to a rare degenerative condition. In a race against time, he must decide if he is willing to risk it all again and embark on one last expedition to capture the giant squid.

The Futurist
Shawn Snyder, co-writer/director; Jason Begue, co-writer

The Futurist depicts the rise and maddening descent of a scientist once on the cutting edge but now on the outer fringes. When the scientific community abandons him, a neurologist takes matters into his own brain — using himself for cyborgian research. Recovering from experimental brain surgery, he embarks on a journey of the mind that reaches back into his personal and professional obsessions and forward into man’s distant future, all in search of connection and a lasting legacy.

Sort You Out
Isabel Shill, writer

It’s the Swinging Sixties in East London. A spinster opens a marriage bureau and enlists the help of the chip shop lady to design the world’s first computerized matchmaking machine.

Start a Fire
William Moran, writer

A Calistoga artist runs an art exhibit based on the DNA sampling of his community. Unknown to the locals, he is also uploading their DNA profiles to an ancestry website with the hope of identifying a serial arsonist who started the fire that killed his wife. His actions unleash police investigations, secret DNA collections, and suspicion throughout the community.

The Stories of Science Development Fund is part of SFFILM and the Sloan Foundation’s year-round Science in Cinema initiative, which is designed to develop and present new feature films and episodic content that portray fully-drawn scientist and technologist characters; immerse audiences in the challenges and rewards of scientific discovery; and sharpen public awareness of the intersection of science, technology and our daily lives. Leveraging its position in the heart of the innovation capital of the world, SFFILM seeks to forge meaningful connections between the artistic and scientific communities through a suite of programs. In addition to this program, the initiative also features the Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowship, which also supports the development of narrative feature screenplays; Sloan Science in Cinema Prize, which celebrates a finished narrative feature film each fall; and Sloan Science on Screen, a spotlight program at the San Francisco International Film Festival that debuted in 2016.

For more information, visit sffilm.org.

Meet the Fall 2019 SFFILM Rainin Grant winners

SFFILM and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation have selected the fall 2019 winners of the SFFILM Rainin Grants, the flagship film funding program offered by SFFILM Makers.

A total of $225,000 has been awarded in this round of grants, to eight narrative feature projects from a diverse group of emerging storytellers tackling important social issues facing the nation.

SFFILM, in partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, is the largest granting body for independent narrative feature films in the United States. The SFFILM Rainin Grant program has awarded over $5 million to more than 100 projects since its inception, including Joe Talbot’s The Last Black Man in San Francisco, which won a record number of juried prizes at Sundance 2019 and was just released in theaters nationwide by A24; Nijla Mu’min’s Jinn, which won a Special Jury Award at SXSW 2018 following its premiere there; Boots Riley’s indie breakthrough Sorry to Bother You, which had a successful release last summer through Annapurna Pictures before winning an Indie Spirit Award for Best First Feature; Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Monsters and Men, which won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance 2018; Short Term 12, Destin Cretton’s sophomore feature which won both the Narrative Grand Jury Award and Audience Award at SXSW 2013; Ryan Coogler’s debut feature Fruitvale Station, which won the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, the Un Certain Regard Avenir Prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the narrative category at Sundance 2013; and Ben Zeitlin’s debut phenomenon Beasts of the Southern Wild, which won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize and Cannes’ Camera d’Or in 2012 and earned four Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture).

Applications are currently being accepted for the Spring 2020 round of SFFILM Rainin Grants; the deadline to apply is February 12. For more information visit sffilm.org/makers.

FALL 2019 SFFILM RAININ GRANT WINNERS

Could I be dead and not know it?
Ilinca Calugareanu, writer/director; Mara Adina, producer — $25,000 for screenwriting
A police raid in the dead of the night and two weeks in a detention center end with Relu being deported back to his home country, where he discovers he has long been declared dead by his estranged wife. Relu abandoned everyone 20 years ago, ran away to a new land and never looked back, but now he is forced to face the consequences of his actions.

The Goddesses of Nanking
Carol Liu, writer/director/producer — $25,000 for screenwriting
Two women crusade to bring to light the Japanese wartime atrocities committed at the Rape of Nanking, but their heroic efforts come at a great personal cost.

Miss Juneteenth 
Channing Godfrey Peoples, writer/director; Neil Creque Williams, Jeanie Igoe, James M. Johnston, Toby Halbrooks, Theresa Page, Tim Headington, producers — $50,000 for post-production
A former beauty queen turned hardworking single mom prepares her rebellious teenage daughter for the Miss Juneteenth pageant, hoping to keep her from repeating the same mistakes in life that she made.

Noche de Fuego
Tatiana Huezo, writer/director — $25,000 for post-production
Noche de Fuego depicts life in a town at war as seen through the eyes of three young girls on the path to adolescence.

One Hand Clapping
Shelly Grizim, writer/director; Deniz Buga, producer — $25,000 for screenwriting
Two women are trapped in an obsessive relationship and only through acts of hopeless revenge is their great love revealed. In this temporal loop of conflicted hearts, an Israeli woman, a Palestinian woman, and a young child form an impossible family.

1791
Stefani Saintonge, writer/co-director/producer; Sébastien Denis, co-director/producer — $25,000 for screenwriting
It’s August 1791 in the French colony of Sainte-Domingue when a massive slave revolt erupts sparking the Haitian Revolution.

Stampede
Sontenish Myers, writer/director — $25,000 for screenwriting
Set on a southern plantation in the 1800s, a young slave girl named Lena develops telekinetic powers she cannot yet control. Circumstances escalate when she is separated from her mother to be a house girl, in close quarters with the mercurial Master’s wife, Elizabeth.

Washing Elena
Maria Victoria Ponce, writer; Vanessa Perez, producer — $25,000 for development
Set in Richmond, California, Washing Elena follows 31-year-old Indalia as she attempts to solve the mystery surrounding her best’s friend’s sudden death. To find answers, Indalia must confront the realities of her friend’s surprising conversion to Islam, leading her to challenge her own biases and lingering guilt.

Meet SFFILM’s 2020 FilmHouse residents

The new year is just around the corner, which means it’s time to welcome a new group of Bay Area–based storytellers to take up residence at FilmHouse, SFFILM’s dynamic shared workspace for independent filmmakers. FilmHouse residencies, made possible by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation with additional funding from the San Francisco Film Commission, supports both narrative and documentary films by providing 12-month residencies to filmmakers actively engaged in various stages of production.

FilmHouse is the only year-round artist residency program of its kind. In addition to flex use workspace, FilmHouse residents will be provided with dedicated rooms for writing and editing their films, and special access to established industry professionals offering mentorship, office hours, and deeper artistic guidance from their various areas of expertise. Other resident benefits will include a robust guest speaker series, featuring lectures and presentations by leading industry professionals; workshops led by prominent filmmakers and other members of the independent film industry; peer-to-peer support; work-in-progress screenings; bi-weekly production meetings; access to meaningful networking opportunities; and numerous other community-building programs.

Let’s meet the 31 residents that will be taking their projects to the next stage — whether it be screenwriting or post-production — at FilmHouse in 2020.

2020 FILMHOUSE RESIDENTS — 12-MONTH TERMS

(* denotes extension of previous residency)

Liz Anderson* — Cordyceps — narrative feature, screenwriting / development

Natalie Baszile* — Good People — narrative feature, screenwriting

Erin Brethauer — Another Day in Paradise — documentary feature, production

Christy Chan* — Dear Wizard — narrative feature, screenwriting

Darren Colston* — Grandpa’s Hands — narrative feature, screenwriting

Jennifer Chang Crandall — Whitman, Alabama — hybrid documentary feature, production

Daniel Freeman* — Teddy, Out of Tune — hybrid documentary feature, post-production

Contessa Gayles — No Time to Waste (working title) — hybrid documentary feature, development

Jen Gilomen — Delivering Justice: A Movement Is Born — documentary feature, development

Marjolaine Grappe — The Envelope — documentary feature, production

Dee Hibbert-Jones* — Run with It — animated documentary feature, production

Alexandra “Alle” Hsu* — Queens — narrative feature, screenwriting / development

Tim Hussin — Another Day in Paradise — documentary feature, production

Emily Cohen Ibañez* — Fruits of Labor — documentary feature, post-production

Yvan Iturriaga* — American Babylon — narrative feature, development

Jonathan Kiefer — So Fast They Follow — narrative feature, screenwriting

Eugene Kim — Press Only — narrative feature, screenwriting

Erin Semine Kökdil — La Caravana — documentary short, production / post-production

Luke Lorentzen — Untitled Marine Salvage Documentary — documentary feature, development

Simran Mahal — Americanized — narrative short, post-production

summer fucking mason — 818 — narrative feature, production

Ed Ntiri — A Lo-Fi Blues — narrative feature, screenwriting

Erin Persley* — Human Shield — documentary feature, development / production

Reaa Puri — K for Kashmir — documentary feature, development

Débora Souza Silva* — Black Mothers — documentary feature, production

Nomi Talisman — Run with It — animated documentary feature, production

Tasha Van Zandt — After Antarctica — documentary feature, post-production

Ellie Wen — Elementary (working title) — documentary feature, development

Taylor Whitehouse — Nobody Has a Plan — narrative feature, screenwriting

Sephora Woldu — Aliens in Eritrea — narrative feature, screenwriting / development

Sebastian Zeck — After Antarctica — documentary feature, post-production

For more information about SFFILM’s artist development programs, visit sffilm.org/makers.

Meet the winners of SFFILM’s 2019 Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowships

Some exciting news for those who love great films about science and technology: SFFILM and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation have selected the recipients of the 2019 Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowships! Supporting the development of narrative feature screenplays that explore scientific or technological themes and characters, Sloan Fellowships are awarded once a year. Writer/directors Gina Hackett (A Bridge Between Us) and Josalynn Smith (Something in the Water) will each receive a $35,000 cash grant and a two-month residency at SFFILM’s FilmHouse residency space.

Fellows will gain free office space alongside access to weekly consulting services and professional development opportunities. SFFILM will connect each fellow to a science advisor with expertise in the scientific or technological subjects at the center of their screenplays, as well as leaders in the Bay Area’s science and technology communities. In addition to the residency and grant, SFFILM’s artist development team will facilitate industry introductions to producers and casting, financing, and creative advisors — investing in fellows from early script development stages through to release with the goal to further professional development and career sustainability.

Previous recipients of the Sloan Science in Cinema Fellowship include Michael Almereyda, to develop his screenplay about Nikola Tesla; Darcy Brislin and Dyana Winkler, to illuminate the lesser-known aspects of the life of Alexander Graham Bell; Mark Eaton and Ron Najor, who are exploring the darkest corners of the dark web; So Young Shelly Yo, telling the story of Yi So Yeon, South Korea’s first astronaut; and Erica Liu, who is developing a feature about a young mycologist attempting to heal a contaminated old-growth forest. These newest fellows are in good company!

A Bridge Between Us
Gina Hackett, writer/director
When the chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge is paralyzed in the early stages of its Victorian-era construction, his high-society wife Emily reluctantly steps up to act as his intermediary, courting jealousy and hostility as she blossoms into an engineer in her own right. Based on a true story, A Bridge Between Us tracks the building of a bridge and the collapse of a marriage.

Gina Hackett is a writer, director, and journalist based in New York. A Harvard alumna hailing from the Midwest, she is currently pursuing an MFA in Film at Columbia University and tells stories about women who make trouble. In 2019, she received the Katharina Otto-Bernstein Production Grant for her thesis film Delicate Prey, which she shot on 16mm film and is currently in post-production. Her most recent film, Amateur Night, had its world premiere at the 2019 New Orleans Film Festival and is currently on the festival circuit.

Something in the Water
Josalynn Smith, writer/director
 Leah, a teen girl living in St. Louis City, feels isolated and ignored after moving to a new neighborhood and being bused to a new school in an overwhelmingly white county. When Leah begins to observe behavioral changes in her little brother, through her research and experimentation she soon discovers that lead is the culprit. Now tasked with finding the source of the contamination and advocating for a systemic overhaul, a girl, once ignored, begins to find her voice.

Josalynn Smith is a Black American filmmaker based in New York. A recent graduate of Columbia University’s Film MFA program, her thesis short, also titled Something in the Water, received the Sloan Foundation’s Production Grant. Additionally, Smith is the recipient of the Jesse Thompkins III Screenwriting Award from Columbia. Her shorts and a feature documentary on which she served as a narrator and videographer have screened at St. Louis International Film Festival, Queer Fest St. Louis, Twin Cities Black Film Festival, and Williamsburg International Film Festival.

For more information about the SFFILM Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowship and other SFFILM Makers artist development programs, visit sffilm.org/makers.