Find Your Favorites
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Sundance Institute Name Winners of Science-In-Film Initiative's Feature Film Prize and Artist Grants
L–R: Jonathan Cuchacovich, Sonia Kennebeck, Alan Fischer, Daeil Kim, Andrew Stanton, Colby Day, Tetiana Anderson

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Sundance Institute Name Winners of Science-In-Film Initiative’s Feature Film Prize and Artist Grants

2026 Sundance Film Festival Awards Juried Sloan Feature Film Prize to In The Blink of An Eye by Director Andrew Stanton and Grants Three Screenwriting Fellowships

PARK CITY, UTAH, JANUARY 26, 2026 — Today at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, the nonprofit Sundance Institute, in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, announced the recipients for the Science-In-Film initiative’s Feature Film Prize and artist grants. At the annual reception, the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize was awarded to In The Blink of An Eye from director Andrew Stanton and screenwriter Colby Day, which centers around the connection between science and human existence. In addition, the recipients of three artist grants to support projects currently in development were announced: Sonia Kennebeck and Tetiana Anderson received the Sloan Episodic Fellowship for Speak for the Dead: Excited Delirium, Daeil Kim was granted the Sloan Development Fellowship for Stem, and Alan Fischer and Jonathan Cuchacovich were awarded the Sloan Commissioning Grant for Cyborg Beast. The filmmakers received a total of $84,000 in cash awards and were honored at a reception hosted by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in Park City. Prior to the reception, the Feature Film Prize winners Andrew Stanton and Colby Day participated in a Sloan Foundation–sponsored Beyond Film event, The Big Conversation | From Fire to Flight: Humans, Technology and Time.

–

Ahead of the Feature Film Prize reception, guests attended a Beyond Film talk, The Big Conversation | From Fire to Flight: Humans, Technology and Time, hosted by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, that focused on the themes explored in In The Blink of An Eye, this year’s Feature Film Prize winner. Moderated by neuroscientist Dr. Heather Berli, and featuring In The Blink of An Eye director Andrew Stanton and screenwriter Colby Day, Co-Founder and CEO of Aurelia Institute Ariel Ekblaw, and IHO Research Scientist and Professor at ASU Institute of Human Origins Denise Su, the panelists discussed the shifting and vital relationship between science and film.

For over 20 years, the Science-In-Film initiative has supported emerging filmmakers whose work heightens public awareness of science in our culture, portrays the full range of humanity engaged in scientific and technological pursuit, illustrates the vital and unique role of scientists and their work in our society, and highlights the special possibilities of communicating through independent film. In addition to the prize, the Sloan-funded initiative underwrites the development of projects with science and technology themes through the Sloan Episodic Fellowship in the Sundance Institute Episodic Program and the Sloan Development Fellowship and Sloan Commissioning Grant in the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program. Over 50 scripts have been developed or are currently in development through this program, with numerous feature films produced and released theatrically. The initiative also expands public discourse about science and cinema through a dedicated panel at the Sundance Film Festival. Panelists and jurors over the past 21 years have included Alan Alda, Paula Apsell, Darren Aronofsky, Kerry Bishé, Mike Cahill, Sean Carroll, Antonio Damasio, Ann Druyan, Jim Gaffigan, Brian Greene, Clark Gregg, Dr. Mandë Holford, Tenoch Huerta, Clifford V. Johnson, Flora Lichtman, Brit Marling, Marvin Minsky, Jonathan Nolan, Sev Ohanian, Theresa Pak, Alex Rivera, Octavia Spencer, John Underkoffler, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Heather Berlin, Leland Melvin, Jill Tarter, Tracy Drain, and Cady Coleman.

Previous recipients of the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize include Cristina Costantini’s SALLY (2025), Sam & Andy Zuchero’s Love Me (2024), Sophie Barthes’ The Pod Generation (2023), Kogonada’s After Yang (2022), Alexis Gambis’ Son of Monarchs (2021), Michael Almereyda’s Tesla (2020), Chiwetel Ejiofor’s The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019), Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian’s Searching (2018), Michael Almereyda’s Marjorie Prime (2017), Ciro Guerra’s Embrace of the Serpent (2016), Kyle Patrick Alvarez and Tim Talbott’s The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015), Mike Cahill’s I Origins (2014), Andrew Bujalski’s Computer Chess (2013), Jake Schreier and Christopher D. Ford’s Robot & Frank (2012), Musa Syeed’s Valley of Saints (2012), Mike Cahill’s Another Earth (2011), Diane Bell’s Obselidia (2010), Max Mayer’s Adam (2009), Alex Rivera’s Sleep Dealer (2008), Chen Shi-Zheng’s Dark Matter (2007), Andrucha Waddington’s The House of Sand (2006), Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man (2005), Shane Carruth’s Primer(2004), and Mark Decena’s Dopamine (2003).

“We are immensely grateful for our long-standing partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the continuation of our shared efforts to uplift filmmakers who explore the intersection between art and science,” said Amanda Kelso, Sundance Institute Acting CEO. “The Science-In-Film Initiative Feature Film Prize and artist grants enable us to highlight voices that use science as a profound lens with which to explore humanity. We are honored to join together at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and celebrate their innovative work.”

 

“We are delighted to honor Andrew Stanton’s In The Blink of An Eye, a sweeping saga with three storylines spanning thousands of years that dramatizes the value of science and the abiding human quest for progress and meaning,” said Doron Weber, Vice President and Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “We are also immensely pleased to award three screenwriting fellowships to outstanding writers — Jonathan Cuchacovich, Alan Fischer, Sonia Kennebeck, Tetiana Anderson, and Daeil Kim — who portray the conflicts and challenges faced by scientists and engineers working outside the mainstream. 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 Institute.”

In The Blink of An Eye

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Sundance Institute Name Winners of Science-In-Film Initiative's Feature Film Prize and Artist Grants

2026 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize

In The Blink of An Eye has been awarded the 2026 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize and received a $25,000 cash award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation at today’s reception. The prize is selected by a jury of film and science professionals and presented to an outstanding feature film focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer, or mathematician as a major character. The 2026 jury for the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize included Sophie Barthes, Dr. Heather Berlin, Dr. Andrea Ghez, Ari Handel, and Nicole Perlman.

The jury selected Andrew Stanton’s In The Blink of An Eye “For its deft, moving depiction of three distinctive time periods separated by thousands of years but linked by an underlying human search for meaning and continuity, and for its expansive portrayal of science and scientists striving for progress and a shared, common humanity.”

In The Blink of An Eye / U.S.A. (Director: Andrew Stanton, Screenwriter: Colby Day, Producer: Jared Ian Goldman) — Three storylines, spanning thousands of years, intersect and reflect on hope, connection, and the circle of life. Cast: Rashida Jones, Kate McKinnon, Daveed Diggs, Jorge Vargas, Tanaya Beatty. World Premiere. Fiction. 2026 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize Winner.

Speak for the Dead: Excited Delirium

Sundance Institute | Sloan Episodic Fellowship

Sonia Kennebeck and Tetiana Anderson will receive a $17,000 cash award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for Speak for the Dead: Excited Delirium through the Sundance Institute | Sloan Episodic Fellowship. Previous recipients of the Sundance Institute | Sloan Episodic Fellowship includeGreenwashers, Tektite, The Professor and the Spy, Our Dark Lady, The Harvard Computers, and Higher.

Sonia Kennebeck is an award-winning, Emmy-nominated director, writer, producer, and member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her films, including Reality Winner (SXSW), Enemies of the State (TIFF), and National Bird (Berlinale), explore power and secrecy. They were distributed by Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, PBS, and others.

 

Tetiana Anderson directs, executive-produces, writes, and is a narrative consultant for brands including L’Oréal, United Way Worldwide, Bank of America, and more. A Telly Award winner and three-time Emmy nominee, she hosts Comcast’s national show Newsmakers. Raised in Mid-Michigan, she’s lived around the world and tells truth-inspired stories.

 

Speak for the Dead: Excited Delirium / A brilliant young medical examiner hunts one of the worst serial killers in U.S. history as junk science almost derails the investigation into the murders of 32 women and girls. Inspired by the untold true story and life of the woman who became America’s first Black chief medical examiner.

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Sundance Institute Name Winners of Science-In-Film Initiative's Feature Film Prize and Artist Grants

Sonia Kennebeck | Speak for the Dead Excited Delirium

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Sundance Institute Name Winners of Science-In-Film Initiative's Feature Film Prize and Artist Grants

Tetiana Anderson | Speak for the Dead/ Excited Delirium

Stem

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Sundance Institute Name Winners of Science-In-Film Initiative's Feature Film Prize and Artist Grants

Daeil Kim will receive a $17,000 cash award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for Stem through the Sundance Institute | Sloan Development Fellowship. Previous recipients of the Sundance Institute | Sloan Development Fellowship include Eruption, Satoshi, Light Mass Energy, Moving Bangladesh, Chariot, and Tidal Disruption.

Daeil Kim is a South Korean–born filmmaker based in Los Angeles and a recipient of the 2024 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant. His work has screened at the Sundance Film Festival, the Cannes American Pavilion, and AFI Fest. He holds an MFA from USC, where he was an Annenberg fellow.

Stem / A devoted scientist risks everything to win the approval of the world’s leading stem cell pioneer, only to be pulled into the dark secrets behind his “miracle cure” that claims it can end human disability.

Cyborg Beast

Sundance Institute | Sloan Commissioning Grant

Alan Fischer and Jonathan Cuchacovich will receive a $25,000 cash award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for Cyborg Beast through the Sundance Institute | Sloan Commissioning Grant. Previous winners of the Sundance Institute | Sloan Commissioning Grant include Thin Ice, Inverses,Incompleteness, The Futurist, Pharmacopeia, The Plutonians, and Challenger.

Alan Fischer is a Chilean American writer and director based in Los Angeles drawn to cross-cultural stories shaped by migration, innovation, and everything in between. His feature films, shorts, and documentaries have been recognized internationally. He holds a bioengineering degree and an MFA from USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Jonathan Cuchacovich is an Emmy-nominated Chilean writer based in Miami. He wrote the internationally acclaimed miniseries Isabel: The Intimate Story of Isabel Allende and has developed over 25 television dramas as writer, head writer, or script consultant.

Cyborg Beast / Based on a true story, a brilliant Latino student sacrifices everything to develop a groundbreaking prosthesis for children with disabilities, one that could either change the world or destroy his future.

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Sundance Institute Name Winners of Science-In-Film Initiative's Feature Film Prize and Artist Grants

Alan Fischer | Cyborg Beast

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Sundance Institute Name Winners of Science-In-Film Initiative's Feature Film Prize and Artist Grants

Jonathan Cuchacovich | Cyborg Beast

WHO

Sundance Institute

As a champion and curator of independent stories, the nonprofit Sundance Institute provides and preserves the space for artists across storytelling media to create and thrive. Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, the Institute’s signature labs, granting, and mentorship programs, dedicated to developing new work, take place throughout the year in the U.S. and internationally. Sundance Collab, a digital community platform, brings a global cohort of working artists together to learn from Sundance Institute advisors and connect with each other in a creative space, developing and sharing works in progress. The Sundance Film Festival and other public programs connect audiences and artists to ignite new ideas, discover original voices, and build a community dedicated to independent storytelling. Through the Sundance Institute artist programs, we have supported such projects as Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Big Sick, Bottle Rocket, Boys Don’t Cry, Boys State, Call Me by Your Name, Clemency, CODA, Dìdi (弟弟), Drunktown’s Finest, The Farewell, Fire of Love, Flee, Fruitvale Station, Half Nelson, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Hereditary, The Infiltrators, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Little Woods, Love & Basketball, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Mudbound, Nanny, One Child Nation, Pariah, Raising Victor Vargas, RBG, Requiem for a Dream, Reservoir Dogs, Sin Nombre, Sorry to Bother You, Strong Island, Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Swiss Army Man, A Thousand and One, Top of the Lake, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, and Zola. Through year-round artist programs, the Institute also nurtured the early careers of such artists as Paul Thomas Anderson, Gregg Araki, Darren Aronofsky, Lisa Cholodenko, Nia DaCosta, Ryan Coogler, The Daniels, Robert Eggers, Rick Famuyiwa, David Gordon Green, Sterlin Harjo, Marielle Heller, Miranda July, Nikyatu Jusu, James Mangold, John Cameron Mitchell, Kimberly Peirce, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Boots Riley, A.V. Rockwell, Ira Sachs, Walter Salles, Quentin Tarantino, Erica Tremblay, Taika Waititi, Lulu Wang, and Chloé Zhao. Support Sundance Institute in our commitment to uplifting bold artists and powerful storytelling globally by making a donation at sundance.org/donate. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, and Bluesky.

 

Sundance Film Festival®

The Sundance Film Festival, a program of the nonprofit Sundance Institute, is the preeminent gathering of original storytellers and audiences seeking new voices and fresh perspectives. Since 1985, hundreds of films launched at the Festival have gone on to gain critical acclaim and reach new audiences worldwide. The Festival has introduced some of the most groundbreaking films and episodic works of the past decades, including Kiss of the Spider Woman, Prime Minister, Pee-wee as Himself, Dìdi (弟弟), A Real Pain, Daughters, Thelma, Will & Harper, Past Lives, 20 Days in Mariupol, The Eternal Memory, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, A Thousand and One, Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, Rye Lane, Navalny, Fire of Love, Flee, CODA, Passing, Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Minari, Clemency, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Zola, O.J.: Made in America, On the Record, Boys State, The Farewell, Honeyland, One Child Nation, The Souvenir, The Infiltrators, Sorry to Bother You, Top of the Lake, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Hereditary, Call Me by Your Name, Get Out, The Big Sick, Mudbound, Fruitvale Station, Whiplash, Brooklyn, Precious, The Cove, Little Miss Sunshine, An Inconvenient Truth, Napoleon Dynamite, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Reservoir Dogs, and sex, lies, and videotape. The program consists of fiction and nonfiction features and short films, series and episodic content, innovative storytelling, and performances, as well as conversations and other events. The 2026 Festival will be held January 22–February 1, 2026, in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, and online January 29–February 1, 2026, across the country. Be a part of the Festival at festival.sundance.org and follow the Festival on Facebook,Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, and Bluesky.

The Festival is a program of the nonprofit Sundance Institute. To date 2026 Festival sponsors include: Presenting Sponsors – Acura, Sundance Now, Chase Sapphire Reserve®, Adobe; Leadership Sponsors – Audible, Casamigos, Hulu on Disney+, Ketel One Vodka, Omnicom, United Airlines; Sustaining Sponsors – Canon U.S.A., Inc., Dropbox, World of Hyatt®, IMDbPro, Patagonia, Rabbit Hole Bourbon & Rye, White Claw Hard Seltzer; Media Sponsors – Deadline Hollywood, IndieWire, Los Angeles Times, Variety, Vulture. The support of these organizations helps offset the Festival’s costs and sustain the Institute’s year-round programs for independent artists. Please visit festival.sundance.org for more.

 

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. Sloan’s program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology, directed by Doron Weber, supports books, radio, film, television, theater, new media, and YouTube and TikTok to reach a wide, nonspecialized 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 top film schools in the country — including AFI, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, NYU, UCLA, and USC — 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 Sundance Institute, SFFILM, the Black List, the Athena Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and Film Independent. The Foundation has supported over 900 film projects and has helped develop over 30 feature films, including 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 Pedro Kos, Bonni Cohen, and Jon Shenk’s The White House Effect, 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 standout films such as Twisters, Frankenstein, 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 Tony Award–winning Eureka Day, Michael Walek’s Have You Met Jane Goodall and Her Mother?, 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 bestselling 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 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, Instagram, and Facebook.

BRAND NEWS

More of the Latest