Presenting Partner
Signature Partners
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TRIBECA FILM INSTITUTE AND THE ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION
ANNOUNCE FIRST EVER TFI SLOAN FILMMAKER PRIZE
$10,000 Awarded to Help Bring Project to Completion
New York, NY – (March 14, 2013) –Tonight the Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) announced the winner of the first ever TFI Sloan Filmmaker Prize, Newton’s Laws of Emotion. The project will receive a $10,000 cash prize that will be used to help bring the film closer to completion. The prize was awarded by a jury comprised of film and science luminaries in order to further support a project that has the most potential to succeed in fulfilling the program's mission of advancing a greater public understanding of science.
The project was chosen from the four 2013 Sloan Filmmaker Fund recipients. Those recipients were awarded a total of $140,000 in grants earlier in the month. Each of the projects integrates science and technology themes and characters into their storylines. The grant recipients will also receive year-round mentorship from science experts and members of the film industry in order to complete their projects.
Newton’s Laws of Emotion (Eugene Ramos, Screenwriter; Andeep Singh, Producer) follows a young Isaac Newton as he pursues the affections of a headstrong princess and seeks to uncover the principles of love using his new system of mathematics. However, his equations start to break down when her former lover enters the scene.
The 2013 jury members included actors Clark Middleton (Kill Bill: Vol. II, Sin City), Ron Livingston (Office Space, Band of Brothers), Dean Winters (“Oz,” “30 Rock,” “Rescue Me”), Helen Fisher, PhD, biological anthropologist; and John Quackenbusch, Harvard professor of computational biology and bioinformatics.
“We have selected four amazing TFI/Sloan film projects this year but we are especially thrilled to award the first ever TFI Sloan Filmmaker Prize to Newton’s Laws of Emotion,” said Doron Weber, Vice President, Programs at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “It gives us a brilliant, swashbuckling and romantic Isaac Newton whose personal emotions color his scientific theories –and vice versa—and shows yet again how science is a quintessentially human enterprise that translates into great storytelling and box office magic.”
“Isaac Newton is a remarkable figure in the scientific community and we are proud to champion a project that explores Newton’s brilliance and character,” said Tamir Muhammad, Director of Feature Programming, TFI. “This prize will give the project additional resources to bring an interest in his work to a wider audience.”
In addition to the TFI/Sloan Filmmaker Prize, the TAA Creative Promise Awards and the alumni grants were presented at an evening reception at MEGU in Manhattan on April 24, 2013.
About the Tribeca Film Institute:
The Tribeca Film Institute is a 501(c)3 year round nonprofit arts organization founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in the wake of September 11, 2001. TFI empowers filmmakers through grants and professional development, and is a resource and advocate for individual artists in the field. The Institute’s educational programming leverages an extensive film community network to help underserved New York City students learn filmmaking and gain the media skills necessary to be productive citizens and creative individuals in the 21st century. Administering a dozen major programs annually, TFI is a critical contributor to the fabric of filmmaking and aids in protecting the livelihood of filmmakers and media artists.
For more information and a list of all TFI programs visit http://www.tribecafilminstitute.org/
Follow us on Twitter @TribecaFilmIns. Join the conversation #scienceandfilm.
About the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation:
The New York based Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, founded in 1934, makes grants in science, technology, and economic performance. Sloan’s program in public understanding of science and technology, directed by Doron Weber, supports books, radio, film, television, theater and new media to reach a wide, non-specialized audience.
Sloan’s film program encourages filmmakers to create more realistic and accurate stories about science and technology and to challenge existing stereotypes about scientists and engineers in the popular imagination. Over the past decade, the Foundation has partnered with some of the top film schools in the country – including AFI, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, NYU, UCLA, and USC – and established annual awards in screenwriting and film production and an annual best-of-the-best Student Grand Jury Prize that Tribeca administers. Sloan also supports Screenplay Development Programs at Sundance, Hamptons International Film Festival, Film Independent and Tribeca and has developed such film projects as Future Weather, a coming of age story about a young woman who finds personal meaning in science, starring Lili Taylor and Amy Madigan (which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival); Valley of Saints and Robot and Frank both of which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and shared the Sloan Feature Film Prize; A Birder’s Guide to Everything which will premiere at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival; and Computer Chess, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and will be released in theatres this summer.
The Foundation awards annual Science and Technology Feature Film Prizes and has honored feature films such as The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Grizzly Man, Obselidia, Agora and Another Earth. Sloan also partners with Ensemble Studio Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Club in support of new science plays such as Isaac’s Eye about the rivalry between Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke and the upcoming world premiere of The Explorers Club, a witty satire about gender bias in science. For more information about the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation please visit www.sloan.org.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Sunshine, Sachs & Associates for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Adam Berkowitz: 212.691.2800 or berkowitz@sunshinesachs.com
Rubenstein Communications for Tribeca Film Institute
Emily Vicker: 212.843.8078 or evicker@rubenstein.com
Tribeca Film Institute
Tammie Rosen: 212.941.2003 or trosen@tribecaenterprises.com
