Film Independent’s Fiscal Sponsorship program opens the door to nonprofit funding for independent filmmakers and media artists. Donate today and help bring Science New Wave Fund to life.

Logline

The Science New Wave Fund is an initiative that supports singular cinematic visions, offering unique perspectives on science’s place in cultural discourse. It celebrates bold storytelling and fosters daring interdisciplinary collaborations where film and science converge in singular, research-driven and compelling ways.

Synopsis

The Science New Wave Fund supports singular cinematic visions that offer fresh and unexpected perspectives on science’s place within culture, society, and the imagination. The fund champions projects that move beyond conventional depictions of science, embracing works that are poetic, provocative, formally inventive, and deeply research-driven.

Open to filmmakers, artists, scientists, and interdisciplinary teams from around the world, the fund celebrates bold storytelling in all its forms—from documentaries and fiction films to hybrid works, essays, installations, performances, and emerging modes of cinematic expression. It encourages daring collaborations in which scientific inquiry and artistic experimentation intersect, giving rise to new ways of seeing, feeling, and understanding the world.

At its core, the Science New Wave Fund exists to support compelling projects that expand the language of cinema and reimagine how science can be explored through moving images, narrative, and form.

Meet the Filmmakers

MANUEL — Founder/Artistic Director/Labocine
Manuel Del Valle, a filmmaker from San Luis Potosí, Mexico, now based in Los Angeles, merges his formal education from ArtCenter College of Design and California College of the Arts. His storytelling delves into themes of decay, transformation, connection, and disconnection. His unique narrative approach led him to be shortlisted multiple times for the Ariel Award and win at film festivals including HBO’s Urbanworld and La Habana
International Film Festival. His work has been selected for the Morelia Festival, HollyShorts, and featured in collaborations with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Currently, Del Valle is directing The Unexpected Symptoms of a Peculiar Heart in collaboration with Foton.Pictures. He is also developing Sandclouds, a stop-motion project in collaboration with Crea-Haus and Mackinon & Saunders ( The legendary artists behind Tim Burto’s Corpses Bride and Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. Amid these projects, he premiered his Oscar-qualifying short film for 2025, In the Fold, at the Tribeca Film Festival as part of the Indeed Rising Voices initiative led by Emmy nominee Lena Waithe. Additionally, he is preparing to launch Nomad Heart Studios, aiming to create content that resonates on both social and cultural levels.

Florencia Silva García — Creative Director/Labocine
Florencia Silva García is a documentary and ethnographic filmmaker from Buenos Aires whose work explores memory, community, education, and the relationship between technology and storytelling. She studied Multimedia Communication before specializing in audiovisual education and research in Spain.

She directed the short documentary Tú solo tú, filmed in the Maya community of Sisbichén in Yucatán, Mexico. The film captures local traditions through the lens of a wedding, revealing the textures of daily life and collective memory. Since 2018, she has led audiovisual workshops for students from across the Americas and Europe, developing projects that explore how digital tools can shape narrative and creativity. Her workshop, Diégesis, focuses on the relationship between technology and storytelling.

In 2021, Silva García carried out Digital Divide, a research project examining communities in northern Argentina with limited access to technology, particularly in the Gran Chaco region. The project focused on Criollo families and Indigenous nations including the Wichí, Guaraní, Chané, Qom, Chorote, and Pilagá. She is currently based in Brooklyn, where she is developing new work centered on natural dyes, plant-based processes, and material practices.

Thomas Campbell Jackson — Producer
Thomas has over two decades of experience in health policy and health economics. He was the Director of the City of New York’s Employee Health Benefits Program, which arranges health coverage for over a million city employees, retirees, and their families. He has worked in think tanks, and consulted for businesses, municipalities and nonprofits on health policy and insurance matters. Mr. Jackson is a Director of Nanotronics Imaging, Cell Machines, Inc., and other companies. He serves on the Board of Overseers of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health (where he is also President of the Board of its Alumni Association); the Board of Governors of the New York Academy of Sciences, the Board of Directors of the Galen Institute; and the boards of numerous arts and sciences organizations.

Make a donation to Science New Wave Fund.

Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.