SFFILM’s 2024 Sloan Science in Cinema Fellows Announced with $70K in Cash Grants Awarded

San Francisco, CA – December 19, 2024 – SFFILM, in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, has announced the recipients of the Sloan Science in Cinema Fellowship. The 2024 Sloan Science in Cinema Fellows are Sara Crow and David Rafailedes for Satoshi and Lara Palmqvist for The Garden. In addition to receiving $35K each, for a total of $70K in cash grants, the 2024 fellows will benefit from advisory feedback from scientists who are matched to their film’s topic and dedicated professional support from SFFILM’s artist development team, which is led by Masashi Niwano, the organization’s Director of Artist Development.

Designed to ensure that narrative feature films tell compelling stories about the worlds of science and technology continue to be made and seen, the fellowship will support the development of the fellows’ narrative feature screenplays. Through the Sloan Science in Cinema Fellowship, SFFILM and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation aim to advance the understanding of science and technology through the artform of film.

“The key to making a truly successful film is a strong foundation,” said Anne Lai, Executive Director of SFFILM. “We’re thrilled that our partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation recognizes the significance of a well-crafted script, all while providing screenwriters with the support and resources they need to see their projects through a crucial filmmaking stage.”
“We are proud to partner with SFFILM in supporting these talented screenwriters whose scripts examine not only vital issues in the fields of science and technology, but in society at large,” said Doron Weber, Vice President and Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “This year’s Sloan Science in Cinema Fellows are part of a nationwide program that has supported over 850 science and film projects and include award-winning filmmakers from twelve distinguished film schools and six outstanding screenplay development partners.”

SFFILM’s partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation—the nation’s leading philanthropic grantor for science and the arts—culminates in the SFFILM Sloan Science in Cinema Initiative. SFFILM launched the program in 2015 to celebrate and highlight cinema that brings together science and the art of storytelling, showing how these two seemingly disparate areas can combine to enhance the power of one another. The selections are meant to immerse a broad public audience in the challenges and rewards of scientific discovery, as well as to engage members of the scientific community.

“After a highly competitive cycle that saw more impressive applications than in years past, we are thrilled to have selected two outstanding projects that explore the intersection of science, technology, and socially urgent themes through bold and artful storytelling,” the fellowship review committee said in a statement. “From a film that aims to demystify and bring a punk rock anarchist spin to the mysterious world of cryptocurrency to a story grounded in the universal need for food and the climate change issues that exacerbate this inequality, both films are powerful entryways into complex scientific fields that tackle our collective future and challenges. SFFILM and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation are proud to continue championing films and filmmakers that inspire audiences to think critically about the public understanding of science and technology.”

The fellowship review committee members who selected 2024’s Sloan Science in Cinema Fellows are Brad Balukjian, Ph.D., Professor of Natural History & Sustainability, Merritt College; Patrick House, Ph.D., Neuroscientist and Writer; Kelly Sutherland, Associate Professor of Biology, Oregon Institute of Marine Biology; Brittney Fraser, Software Engineer, Glossier, Inc.; and Ilana Segall, Data Scientist, Mozilla.

MEET THE 2024 SLOAN SCIENCE IN CINEMA FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS

From an open call for submissions, three screenwriters have been selected to receive the 2024 Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowship. The fellowship, which will support the development of their narrative feature screenplays, is designed to ensure that narrative feature films that center on science and technology continue to be made by filmmakers.

Satoshi

Sara Crow, Screenwriter/Director and David Rafailedes, Screenwriter/Producer
The potentially true story of a teenage anime-obsessed hacktivist who, after losing her scholarship to Stanford, returns home to Arizona to become the mysterious inventor of a new digital currency called Bitcoin.

Sara Crow is a Brooklyn-based writer/director whose stories center subcultures and misfits. She is a 2024 Sundance Screenwriters Lab and Directors Lab Fellow and the co-recipient of the Sloan Sundance Fellowship and a $100,000 NYU/Sloan Feature Film Prize with Satoshi. Her debut narrative short film, Bluebird, won Best Short Film at the Montana International Film Festival and the New Jersey Film Festival, as well as the Black Family Film Prize at NYU’s Graduate Film Program, where she is a Martin Scorsese Scholar. Her thesis film, Why I Am an Anarchist, received NYU’s AnnaRose King Award for Comedic Storytelling. Sara loves world-building and diving into secret and little known histories.

David Rafailedes is a bicoastal (Hudson River/Lake Erie) writer-director-producer. He is a 2024 Sundance Screenwriters/Directors Lab Fellow and dual degree student (MBA/MFA) at NYU pursuing a graduate degree in film. Rafailedes is the co-writer and co-creator of the hit off-broadway play, Cellino v. Barnes. Prior to graduate school, he was the digital department head on two Stephen Colbert-produced television shows. Rafailedes is the recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Feature Film Production Grant and the Sundance Institute Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship. David has a wonderful wife and two toddlers, so he spends most of his free time saying “no” and “don’t.”

The Garden

Lara Palmqvist, Screenwriter
In a world of advanced climate change and deep class divides, a passionate plant breeder tries to secure his family’s future by developing genetically enhanced seeds while working for a controlling socialite who wants to create her own Garden of Eden on a Kentucky estate.

Originally from New Mexico, Lara Palmqvist is also shaped by over a decade spent living in the rural Midwest. She earned her B.A. in biology and American studies from St. Olaf College, where she was awarded a fellowship from the National Science Foundation to study native pollinators in farmland corridors. She also earned an M.Th. in religion in peace and conflict from Uppsala University in Sweden as a Rotary Global Grant Scholar, and holds an MFA in fiction and screenwriting from the Michener Center for Writers at UT-Austin. She is the 2023 winner of the Sloan Student Discovery Prize. Also in 2023, she won the Goldenberg Prize for Fiction and was a semi-finalist for the Nicholl Fellowship. Her work has also received a Humanitas Prize for exploring the human condition in a nuanced and meaningful way, as well as the Fania Kruger Fellowship for writing characterized by a vision of social justice. She previously served as a Fulbright Fellow in Ukraine.

GENERAL INFORMATION

ABOUT THE ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a New York based, philanthropic institution that makes grants for research in science, technology, and economics; quality and diversity of scientific institutions; and public engagement with science. Sloan’s program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology, directed by Doron Weber, supports Books, Radio, Film, Television, Theater, New Media, and YouTube & TikTok to bridge the two cultures of science and the humanities. The program also supports special initiatives that strengthen science as a social good. The Foundation works with about 20 film school and film festival partners and has supported over 800 film projects, including over 30 feature films. For more information visit sloan.org or follow @SloanPublic on X, Instagram and Facebook.

ABOUT SFFILM MAKERS

Since 2009, SFFILM Makers programs have granted over $10 million to more than 750 independent filmmakers worldwide. Through its partnerships with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Jenerosity Foundation, and more, SFFILM Makers provides sustained creative resources, fellowships, residencies, and advisory services. In addition to premiering at marquee festivals around the world, SFFILM supported films are showcased annually at the San Francisco International Film Festival and Doc Stories documentary series.

ABOUT SFFILM

SFFILM is a nonprofit organization whose mission ensures independent voices in film are welcomed, heard, and given the resources to thrive. SFFILM connects and inspires audiences, students and teachers, and filmmakers through film exhibition, youth education, and artist development programs. Annual public film programs include the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival) which is the longest running film festival in the Americas, Doc Stories documentary showcase, special events with the best and boldest in contemporary film, and family programming. SFFILM Education serves more than 15,000 local students and educators with learning opportunities designed to cultivate media literacy, global citizenship, and a lifelong love of movies. SFFILM Makers supports the careers of independent filmmakers from the Bay Area and beyond with grants, residencies, and other creative development services.

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CONTACT INFO

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