Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Sundance Institute Award announce recipients for Science-in-Film Initiative and Artist Grants
Yesterday at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, the nonprofit Sundance Institute, in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, presented the juried Feature Film Prize to Cristina Costantini for her work on SALLY. Three artist grants designed to support projects in development were also announced for Ella Gale, Katla Sólnes and Brittany Wang. Previous recipients of the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize include Sam & Andy Zuchero’s Love Me (2024), Chiwetel Ejiofor’s The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019), and many more.
“We are deeply appreciative of our long-standing partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that allows us to honour 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.”
The filmmakers collectively received a total of USD 84,000 in cash prizes and were honoured at a reception hosted by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in Park City. Prior to the reception, the Feature Film Prize winner Cristina Costantini participated in a Sloan Foundation–sponsored Beyond Film event, The Big Conversation: Breaking Barriers, where panellists discussed the scientific and technological barriers that are exemplified by broader cultural and social challenges faced by scientists, engineers, and mathematicians, and how they are united in fascinating, complex narratives in film and television.

Cristina Costantini, director of SALLY, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
“We are delighted to honour Cristina Costantini’s SALLY, a feature-length documentary that honours the remarkable, closeted life of pioneering astronaut and physicist Sally Ride, the first American woman to go to space,” 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 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.”
SALLY has been awarded the 2025 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize and received a USD 25,000 cash award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation at yesterday’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 2025 jury for the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize included Michael Almereyda, Nia Imara, Monica Lopez, Nicholas Ma, and Sam & Andy Zuchero.

Ella Gale
Comedy writer, director and fiction podcaster Ella Gale will receive a USD17,000 cash award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for Greenwashers through the Sundance Institute | Sloan Episodic Fellowship. Previous recipients of the Sundance Institute | Sloan Episodic Fellowship include: Tektite, The Professor and the Spy, Our Dark Lady, The Harvard Computers, and Higher.

Katla Sólnes
Icelandic writer-director Katla Sólnes will receive a USD 17,000 cash award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for Eruption through the Sundance Institute | Sloan Development Fellowship. Previous recipients of the Sundance Institute | Sloan Development Fellowship include: Satoshi, Light Mass Energy, Moving Bangladesh, Chariot, and Tidal Disruption. She is also the recipient of the 2024 Sloan Screenwriting Award at Columbia University.

Brittany Wang
Born in Tianjin, China, and raised in suburban Maryland, screenwriter Brittany Wang will receive a USD 25,000 cash award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for Thin Ice through the Sundance Institute | Sloan Commissioning Grant. Previous winners of the Sundance Institute | Sloan Commissioning Grant include: Inverses, Incompleteness, The Futurist, Pharmacopeia, The Plutonians, and Challenger.
Images courtesy of Sundance Institute
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