FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Jason Berger
jberger@filmindependent.org
 

LOS ANGELES, May 7, 2025 – Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization dedicated to fostering independence and inclusivity in visual storytelling, in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, announced today the full lineup for the eighth Sloan Film Summit, which will be taking place May 9 through May 11 at the Garland Hotel in Los Angeles. Held once every three years, the 2025 Summit will celebrate the thriving nationwide Sloan Film Program, bringing together over 100 award-winning screenwriters, directors and producers, as well as working scientists and representatives from leading film schools and film organizations, who all work to bridge the gap between science, technology and popular culture.

The Sloan Film Summit, launched in 1999, forms part of the nonprofit Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Film Program under its broader effort in the Public Understanding of Science and Technology. The event highlights the ways in which art and science can support each other and work towards a common mission. The pioneering film program has supported hundreds of talented, young filmmakers through grants and mentorship and, every three years, brings together a new group of artists and scientists to propel this partnership into the future and ensure the continuing collaboration of science and the arts. This year’s exciting summit will feature a keynote address from astronomer Amy Mainzer, screenings of recent science-focused, Sloan-awarded films, including Magma and Love Me, and a variety of panels and conversations among a wide-range of experts in a variety of fields in the sciences and the arts.

“We’re delighted to partner with Film Independent to host this unique summit held only once every three years to celebrate the Sloan Foundation’s pioneering and prolific Film Program,” said Doron Weber, Vice President and Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “With a network of a dozen film schools, six screenplay development partners and four film festivals, Sloan has created a robust developmental pipeline for supporting original work that engages with science and technology themes and characters. The program has resulted in over 850 science-themed film projects from some of the most innovative and exciting filmmakers in the US and internationally, including over 30 completed feature films. Showing that science can entertain as well as enlighten, the Foundation has not only supported outstanding independent films, but also blockbusters such as Twisters, Oppenheimer, Don’t Look Up and Hidden Figures. We look forward to showcasing more great films and gifted filmmakers at this year’s summit.”

“The importance of science and technology and the power of storytelling to highlight how art and science intersect is more relevant now than ever,” said Brenda Robinson, Film Independent’s Acting President. “We are thrilled to continue our long-standing partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, whose remarkable work supporting the media arts and sciences is something that we regard as both inspiring and essential to our understanding of the world around us. We look forward to continuing our collaboration for many years to come.”

The Sloan Film Summit will kick off on Friday, May 9 at 4:30 pm with an opening reception followed by the Spotlight Screening of Magma, the volcano drama from director Cyprien Vial. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with seismology professor John Vidale on the impacts and hazards of earthquakes, Earth structure and volcanos.

On Saturday, May 10 the Summit will continue with a full day of keynote speeches, panels, script readings and networking sessions with industry professionals for all the Sloan supported filmmakers and organizations. Amy Mainzer, UCLA planetary science professor and principal investigator of NASA’s NEO Surveyor mission, will deliver the keynote speech. The esteemed astronomer, who also served as the science advisor for Don’t Look Up, will discuss the myriad ways science and storytelling have overlapped throughout her storied career. Following this talk, renowned artists and scientists, including virtual reality artist Jessica Brillhart, documentary filmmaker Aranya Sahay, journalist Nonny de la Peña, actor and playwright Anisia Uzeyman and new media artist Nancy Baker Cahill, will participate in a panel moderated by filmmaker Anisa Hosseinnezhad, titled Reality Augmented: AI, Machine Learning and the Future of Cinematic Expression about the future of machine learning in storytelling. Additionally, the panel The Consultants’ Cut: Scientific Accuracy in Storytelling, moderated by writer and critic Ritesh Mehta, will feature science consultants and storytellers David Saltzberg, David Goetsch, Erin Macdonald, Roshan Sethi and Jacob F. Lentz exploring the delicate balance between scientific accuracy and narrative engagement. The day will conclude with the ‘Science in Motion’ cocktail hour, an immersive science fair where each station offers a unique window into innovative research, artistic practice and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Sunday, May 11 features a public showcase of Sloan-winning short films, panels and a screening of the Closing Night film. The day’s panel, Beyond Screens: How Podcasts and Social Media are Democratizing Science Storytelling, will focus on how the digital revolution has transformed how scientific knowledge is shared, featuring Lindsay Nikole, Emily Graslie, Kiki Sanford and Latif Nasser and moderated by filmmaker Ali Vanderkruyk. This will be followed by a tour of the Academy Museum and a screening of Love Me, a post-apocalyptic romance in which a buoy and a satellite fall in love, from directors Andrew Zuchero and Sam Zuchero and starring Kristen Stewart and Steven Yuen. The screening will include a timely discussion with computer science and psychology professor Jonathan Gratch, whose research focuses on computational models of human cognitive and social processes, especially emotion, and the exploration of these models’ role in shaping human-computer interactions in virtual environments. The weekend will then conclude with a farewell reception for the artists and scientists at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

For more information about the supported projects and filmmakers please visit sloanfilmsummit.org.
 

ABOUT FILM INDEPENDENT

For 40 years, Film Independent has helped filmmakers get their projects made and seen. The nonprofit organization’s core mission is to champion creative independence in visual storytelling in all its forms and foster a culture of inclusion, in support of a global community of artists and audiences who embody diversity, innovation, curiosity and uniqueness of vision.

In addition to producing the Film Independent Spirit Awards, the organization supports creative professionals with Artist Development programs, grants and labs. Signature mentorship program Project Involve fosters the careers of talented filmmakers from underrepresented communities. Weekly Education events and workshops equip filmmakers of all ages and experience levels with tools and resources. International programs provide cultural exchanges and career-building opportunities for film professionals around the world. And year-round screening series Film Independent Presents offers a robust program of unique cinematic experiences, including screenings, conversations, Live Reads and Bring the Noise musical events.

For more information or to become a Member, visit filmindependent.org.
 

ABOUT THE ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a New York-based, philanthropic, not-for-profit institution that makes grants for research in science, technology, and economics; quality and diversity of scientific institutions; and public engagement with science.
 

ABOUT SLOAN’S PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING PROGRAM

Sloan’s program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology, directed by Doron Weber, supports Books, Radio & Podcasts, Film, Television, Theater, New Media, and YouTube & TikTok to reach a wide, non-specialized audience and to bridge the two cultures of science and the humanities.

Sloan’s Film Program encourages filmmakers to create more realistic and compelling stories about science and technology and to challenge existing stereotypes about scientists and engineers in the popular imagination. Over the past two decades, Sloan has partnered with a dozen leading film schools and established annual awards in screenwriting and film production, along with an annual best-of-the best Student Grand Jury Prize. The Foundation also supports screenplay development programs with the Sundance Institute, SFFILM, Film Independent, the Black List, the Athena Film Festival, and the Toronto International Film Festival, and has helped develop over 30 feature films including Nicholas Ma’s Mabel, Michael Almereyda’s Tesla, Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler’s Radium Girls, Thor Klein’s Adventures of a Mathematician, Jessica Oreck’s One Man Dies a Million Times, Michael Tyburski’s The Sound of Silence, Shawn Snyder’s To Dust, Logan Kibens and Sharon Greene’s Operator, Morten Tyldum’s The Imitation Game, and Matthew Brown’s The Man Who Knew Infinity. The Foundation has supported feature documentaries such as Werner Herzog’s Theater of Thought, David France’s How to Survive a Pandemic, Sharon Shattuck and Ian Cheney’s Picture a Scientist, Shalini Kantayya’s Coded Bias, Noah Hutton’s In Silico, Ric Burns’ Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, Mark Levison’s The Bit Player, Alexandra Dean’s Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, Mark Levinson’s Particle Fever, and Jacques Perrin’s Oceans. It has also given early award recognition to stand-out films such as Twisters, Oppenheimer, BlackBerry, Don’t Look Up, Linoleum, Ammonite, The Aeronauts, The Martian, First Man, and Hidden Figures.

The Foundation has an active theater program and commissions about 20 science plays each year from the Ensemble Studio Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, and the National Theatre in London, while supporting select productions across the country and abroad. Recent grants from Sloan’s Theater Program have supported Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day, Michael Walek’s Have You Met Jane Goodall and Her Mother?, Lloyd Suh’s Franklinland, Nelson Diaz-Marcano’s Las Borinqueñas, Mark Rylance’s Dr. Semmelweis, Anchuli Felicia King’s Golden Shield, Sam Chanse’s what you are now, Charly Evon Simpson’s Behind the Sheet, Lucy Kirkwood’s Mosquitoes, Chiara Atik’s Bump, Nick Payne’s Constellations, Lucas Hnath’s Isaac’s Eye, Anna Ziegler’s Photograph 51, David Auburn’s Proof, Leigh Fondakowski’s Spill, and Bess Wohl’s Continuity. The Foundation’s book program includes early support for Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, the best-selling book that became the highest grossing Oscar-nominated film of 2017, and Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin’s Pulitzer Prize–winning American Prometheus, adapted for the screen in Christopher Nolan’s 2023 hit film Oppenheimer.

For more information about the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, please visit  www.sloan.org or follow the Foundation at @SloanPublic on X and Instagram.

Film Independent Contact:
Jason Berger, Film Independent, jberger@filmindependent.org
Aline Loustaunau, Film Independent, aloustaunau@filmindependent.org

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Contact:
Anna Chen, Burness, achen@burness.com
Carol Schadelbauer, Burness, carol@burness.com