Announcing 2020 Sloan Student Program Grantees

We're excited to team up with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to announce the 2020 grantees for their Sloan Student programs. The Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize aims to help aspiring and professional screenwriters integrate factual science and technology into their creative work. Six leading film schools make up the Sloan symposium, with each school submitting one screenplay for consideration of the prize each year. In addition, the program consists of the Sloan Student Discovery Award, which awards one screenwriter per year from six public film programs with a grant and industry mentorship. The program provides these students with financial grants and curated industry and science mentorship. 

The winner of the Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize is Matthew Jackett (New York University) for his film WHITE COFFINS. Zoe Fleer (Brooklyn College) is the recipient of the Sloan Student Discovery Award for her film CLAMMING. Honorable mentions for the Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize and Sloan Student Discovery Award are Mrittika Sarin (UCLA) and Drew A. Metcalf (The University of Michigan), respectively.

See more information on this year’s recipients below:  

SLOAN STUDENT GRAND JURY PRIZE 

Winner: WHITE COFFINS 
Screenwriter: Matthew Jackett (New York University, Dramatic Writing MFA) 
Logline: In 1907 New York City, a female health inspector leads the pursuit of Typhoid Mary while struggling to accept her love for another woman. 

Honorable Mention: SCARCE 
Screenwriter, Producer: Mrittika Sarin (UCLA, MFA Screenwriting Program) 
Logline: In the water-starved city of Bangalore, a cynical software engineer goes head- to-head with her idealistic son when they discover the siphoning of treated water from an underprivileged community.  

SLOAN STUDENT DISCOVERY AWARD 

Winner: CLAMMING
Screenwriter: Zoe Fleer (Brooklyn College CUNY Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema) 
Logline: In a rugged fishing town at the end of Long Island, Bella conducts research on the warming waters that will decimate the local scallop population. Bella’s husband disregards her research and the scallop harvest washes up dead – just as Bella begins an affair with spirited local chef Celeste. Bella must now stave off the ecological collapse of her community and the emotional collapse of her marriage. 

Honorable Mention: IN THE BLACK 
Screenwriter: Drew A. Metcalf (The University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Film, Television, and Media) 
Logline: When a girl with a gift for numbers falls on hard times, she does what any logical teenage girl would do – becomes the accountant for the neighborhood drug dealer.