EXCLUSIVE: The Sundance Institute and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation today awarded three artist grants intended to support projects in development, as part of their Science-in-Film initiative.
Ella Gale was awarded the Sloan Episodic Fellowship for Greenwashers, with Katla Sólnes accepting the Sloan Development Fellowship for Eruption, and Brittany Wang taking the Sloan Commissioning Grant for Thin Ice.
The filmmakers collectively received a total of $84,000 in cash prizes and were honored at a reception hosted by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in Park City, where the previously selected Cristina Costantini was honored with the juried Feature Film Prize for her feature doc Sally.
“We are deeply appreciative of our long-standing partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that allows us to honor artists that are exploring the connection between art and science,” said Amanda Kelso, Sundance Institute Acting CEO. “The Science-In-Film Initiative;s Feature Film Prize and artist grants give us the opportunity to recognize the artists at the forefront of this exploration. We are thrilled to celebrate this year’s recipients and give them a space for discussion on this topic at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.”
Said Doron Weber, Vice President and Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, “We are delighted to honor Cristina Costantini’s SALLY, a feature-length documentary that honors the remarkable, closeted life of pioneering astronaut and physicist Sally Ride, the first American woman to go to space. We are also immensely pleased to award three screenwriting fellowships to three outstanding women writers – Ella Gale, Katla Sólnes, and Brittany Wang – who explore the unique challenges faced by women in science determined to contribute to their field and be treated as equals. This year’s winners are wonderful additions to the nationwide Sloan film program and further proof of the vitality of our landmark, two-decade partnership with Sundance.”
The Sundance Institute and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Feature Film Prize is awarded to an outstanding feature focused on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer, or mathematician as a major character. Jurors for this year’s prize included Michael Almereyda, Nia Imara, Monica Lopez, Nicholas Ma, and Sam & Andy Zuchero.
A comedy writer, director, and fiction podcaster, Gale’s Greenwashers follows an idealistic young environmental engineer who gets sucked into a water rights conspiracy at a shady consulting company. Like Gale, Sólnes received a $17,000 cash award — in her case, for Eruptions, which is set in the highlands of Iceland in 1972. The story follows a geologist’s wife who finds her marriage tested when a wily American student arrives, stirring tensions as volatile as the volcanic landscape. Awarded $25,000, Wang’s Thin Ice is set in 1999, following graduate student Jane Willenbring as she embarks on a research expedition under renowned glaciologist David Marchant.
