TRIBECA FILM INSTITUTE AND THE ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION ANNOUNCE FIRST-EVER RECIPIENT OF $50,000 STUDENT GRAND JURY PRIZE FOR SCREENWRITING

Robert Cohen of New York University to Receive Financial Support, Supervision and Guidance from the Tribeca Film Institute as the Inaugural Winner of Sloan’s Best of Best Prize for Science-Themed Screenplay

Sloan has Awarded over $3 Million in Direct Grants to Film Students Since 1997

[New York, NY] – The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) today announced the recipient of the inaugural Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Student Grand Jury Prize for Screenwriting. The “best-of-the-best” screenplay was selected from the winning scripts at six leading film schools participating in Sloan’s decade-long National Film Program.

Bystander by Robert Cohen of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, has been selected for a new $50,000 annual grant created to recognize exceptional feature screenplays that dramatize science and technology themes and/or that portray scientists, engineers, or mathematicians in prominent character roles. Cohen will receive a $30,000 cash prize, an additional $20,000 to be used in direct support of the project, and year-round support from TFI, including mentorship and guidance from scientific and film industry professionals, networking opportunities, and industry exposure.

Bystander was selected by an awards committee comprised of Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman; Academy Award-winning screenwriter Eric Roth; Len Amato, President, HBO Films; Dr. Darcy Kelley, Columbia University; Dr. Dudley Herschbach, 1986 Nobel Laureate, Harvard University. Additional input came from the Sloan Foundation and its four partners in screenplay development: the Tribeca Film Institute, Film Independent, the Hamptons International Film Festival and Sundance Institute. Cohen’s screenplay was chosen from nominees that had earlier won Sloan prizes at the Foundation’s six affiliated film school programs: AFI Conservatory, Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, New York University, University of California – Los Angeles, and University of Southern California.

Bystander is about the rape and murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964 outside an apartment complex in Queens while 37 witnesses looked on. Though the attack lasted over 30 minutes, none of the witnesses called the police or intervened until she was already dead. In 1968, John Darley and Bibb Latané published a psychological study on the “Bystander Effect” explaining the inaction of the witnesses. It became one of the most conclusive and replicable effects in the field of psychology. Bystander is a fictional account of the aftermath of this attack, but the scientific research and theories it includes are historically and psychologically accurate.

The Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize was created to recognize the very best student screenplay in the nation that uses science and technology themes or characters to tell an engaging and entertaining story. Since 1997, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has given over $3 million dollars in direct grants to film students throughout the country, including $1.5 million in prize money to student screenwriters and more than $1.5 million to student directors and producers. Established as part of Sloan’s increasing commitment to support science and technology films through to commercial production, the Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize will boost development of the winning project, and introduce the work and its writer to the industry at large.

“The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has become an integral part of the Tribeca community through our annual TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund, providing the crucial funding and year-round support that allows filmmakers to create and distribute their science and mathematics related films,” said Jane Rosenthal, Co-Chairman of the Board, TFI. “The new Sloan Student Grand Jury prize is the next step in our partnership, and we are grateful for Sloan’s continued support and the opportunity to continue to nurture and encourage student filmmaking.”

“We are delighted to establish this inaugural award honoring the year’s single most outstanding science screenplay from our film school partners. We see this as the next stage in our decade-plus commitment to influencing the next generation of filmmakers and expanding the types of stories and range of characters that can make for great films,” said Doron Weber, Vice President, Programs for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “With over 250 student film projects funded by Sloan, plus dozens more from our screenplay development partners, we have one of the richest pipelines of scripts anywhere—and I’ve read every one so I can attest to their remarkable quality. This year alone we have half a dozen projects that have been shot or are going into production and we hope that Robert Cohen’s Bystander, aided by TFI’s stellar experience and expertise—Tribeca has been an exceptional partner for Sloan—will soon join their ranks.”

The award will be presented at a reception in New York on March 3, 2011.

About the Tribeca Film Institute:

The Tribeca Film Institute is a 501(c)3 year round nonprofit arts organization founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in the wake of September 11, 2001. TFI empowers filmmakers through grants and professional development, and is a resource and advocate for individual artists in the field. The Institute’s educational programming leverages an extensive film community network to help underserved New York City students learn filmmaking and gain the media skills necessary to be productive citizens and creative individuals in the 21st century. Administering a dozen major programs annually, TFI is a critical contributor to the fabric of filmmaking and aids in protecting the livelihood of filmmakers and media artists.

For more information and a list of all TFI programs visit http://www.tribecafilminstitute.org/

About the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

The New York based Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, founded in 1934, makes grants in science, technology, and economic performance. Sloan’s program in public understanding of science and technology, directed by Doron Weber, supports books, radio, film, television, theater and new media to reach a wide, non-specialized audience.

Sloan’s film program encourages filmmakers to create more realistic and accurate stories about science and technology and to challenge existing stereotypes about scientists and engineers in the popular imagination. In addition to Screenplay Development Programs, Sloan has supported such film projects as Future Weather, a coming of age story about a young woman who finds personal meaning in science, starring Lily Taylor and Amy Madigan (now in post-production), and Valley of Saints, which initially received an NYU First Feature Production Award and is one of the first films shot in Kashmir (and now in post-production).

The Foundation has sponsored screenwriting and film production workshops at Sundance, the Hamptons, Tribeca, and Film Independent, and honored feature films such as Obselidia, Agora and Another Earth. Sloan also partners with Ensemble Studio Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Club in support of new science plays such as Photograph 51, the story of Rosalind Franklin and her role in the discovery of the double helical structure of DNA. For more information about the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation please visit www.sloan.org.