Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s The Stanford Prison Experiment has received the Alfred P Sloan Feature Film Prize and a $20,000 cash award as the Sundance Institute announced Science-In-Film honourees.

Jonathan Minard and Scott Rashap earned the Sundance Institute / Sloan Fellowship for Archive while Jon Noble (Tyfus), Cutter Hodierne and John Hibey (Otzi) have been awarded Sundance Institute / Sloan Commissioning Grants presented through Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program.

The Sundance Institute Science-in-Film Initiative is made possible by a grant from the Alfred P Sloan Foundation.

“Independent film can illustrate the importance and unique application of  math, science and technology in our world,” said Sundance Institute executive director Keri Putnam. “The Sundance Institute Science-in-Film Initiative, with critical support from the Alfred P Sloan Foundation, is a great way to encourage production of thoughtful work surrounding these imperative topics which make a lasting impact on audiences.”

Doron Weber, vp of programmes at the Alfred P Sloan Foundation, said: “We are thrilled to recognise Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s powerful film The Stanford Prison Experiment as the 2015 winner of the Sloan Feature Film Prize at Sundance in our 13th year of this truly pioneering programme.

“With The Imitation Game, Theory Of Everything and Interstellar wowing audiences and winning accolades this year - and with Gravity, Her and Dallas Buyers Club similarly successful last year - it is clear that science and technology themes and characters are entering the cinematic mainstream.

“Sloan’s own nationwide development pipeline has now produced 14 feature films, including Experimenter, which premiered this year at Sundance Film Festival, and the eight-times Oscar-nominated The Imitation Game.

“This year we are excited to support Sundance Institute in adding three new film projects — Archive, Otzi  and Tyfus — to this terrific collaboration and we hope to see all three at the Sundance Film Festival and in our local theatres soon.”

  • Sundance Institute announce that the films set to visit US and international locations under the auspices of Sundance Film Forward in its fifth year are: Difret, Imperial Dreams, Little Accidents, Little White Lie, Meet The Patels, The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Schwartz, Wadjda and We Are the Giant. This year’s locations range from Texas to Miami to Michigan as well as Hong Kong in September for Hong Kong Selects. A second international location will be identified at a later date.