The creative partnership between film and science took center stage when SFFILM revealed that it had distributed a total of $115,000 in awards and grants under the Sloan Science in Cinema Initiative during the 69th San Francisco International Film Festival, which runs through May 4. Among the honors was the presentation of the Sloan Science on Screen Award—accompanied by a $5,000 prize—to Ildikó Enyedi’s celebrated film Silent Friend, a title that premiered at Venice in 2026 and opens theatrically on May 8 from 1-2 Special.
The award night includes a screening and conversation: on Sunday, April 26 at 7 p.m. the film will play at the Premier Theater at One Letterman, followed by an onstage discussion between director Ildikó Enyedi and Benjamin Blackman, an associate professor affiliated with the Departments of Plant & Microbial Biology and Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley. Jessie Fairbanks, SFFILM’s director of programming, will moderate the conversation.
Prizes, fellows, and how money is allocated
SFFILM’s funding this year combines prize money for an established film with direct support for writers at the script stage. The headline figure—$115,000—covers the $5,000 Sloan Science on Screen Award, two Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowships (each carrying a $35,000 cash grant plus access to the FilmHouse, SFFILM’s creative hub), and multiple development grants from the Sloan Stories of Science Development Fund that can reach up to $20,000 each.
Who received support and what their projects explore
The program emphasizes scripts that weave authentic scientific ideas into dramatic storytelling. Two recipients of the Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowship are Destiny Macon for “Talk Black” and Justin Kim WooSŏk for “The Green Corridor,” each selected at the screenplay stage as projects that integrate science, technology, or scientific careers into their core narrative.
Filmmaker fellowship projects
“Talk Black” follows a reserved engineer who develops a striking alternate persona to push back against a male-dominated workplace and to resist urban renewal threatening the historically Black neighborhood she comes from. The story uses engineering, identity, and community stakes to drive personal transformation. “The Green Corridor” traces Joseph Yoon, a Korean-American anthropologist, on a Fulbright return to his ancestral land after rumors of a tiger sighting in the DMZ. Partnering with a sound ecologist, the investigation becomes a meditation on colonial history, grief, and how sensory research reshapes what we think we can perceive.
Development fund recipients
The Sloan Stories of Science Development Fund backed early drafts of several projects including Lane Unsworth’s “Hello Neighbor” and the team of Sid Gopinath and Aditya Joshi for “One Inch From Earth.” “Hello Neighbor” imagines a retired children’s science entertainer recruited into NASA public affairs as the agency prepares for the possibility of life on Europa, probing how institutions craft messages when scientific discovery becomes global news. “One Inch From Earth” centers on a scrappy group of scientists fighting internal agency politics, rival teams, and governmental obstacles to launch a mission meant to prove life on a distant Jovian moon.
Context and commentary from program leaders
Program leaders framed the awards as part of a decade-long effort launched with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in 2015. Anne Lai, SFFILM’s executive director, reflected on the initiative’s goal of making scientific ideas visible and meaningful through cinematic storytelling, noting that the program has supported roughly 40 artists in its local fellowship track and, across the broader national effort, more than 850 science-and-film projects.
Voices from the Sloan partnership
Doron Weber, vice president and program director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, celebrated the film and the new cohort of writers, connecting the current winners to an alumni roster that includes directors such as Guillermo del Toro, Christopher Nolan, and Lee Isaac Chung. Masashi Niwano, SFFILM’s director of artist development, highlighted the value of intervening at the screenplay phase so writers can join a network of peers and scientific advisors, citing this year’s projects that tackle topics from politically inaccessible wildernesses to gentrification and the ethics of a first-contact announcement.
Together, the awards, fellowships, and development grants aim to deepen both the accuracy and emotional reach of science on screen—helping storytellers translate complex ideas into narratives that audiences can feel and remember while strengthening ties between filmmakers and the scientific community.