Robot & Frank, directed by Jake Schreier and written by Christopher Ford and Valley Of Saints, directed and written by Musa Syeed, have each been awarded the 2012 Alfred P Sloan Feature Film Prize. Close far Away wins the Sundance Institute / NHK award.

The pair will split the $20,000 cash award by the Alfred P Sloan Foundation. Now in its tenth year, the prize is chosen by a jury of film and science professionals and presented to “outstanding feature films focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character.”

In Robot & Frank a curmudgeon’s grown-up children instal a robot as his caretaker. Valley Of Saints centres on a Kashmiri man who meets a young woman researching a dying lake.

Sundance Institute and NHK Japan Broadcasting Corporation announced on Friday (27) that Jens Assur, director of the upcoming film Close Far Away, has won the 2012 Sundance/NHK International Filmmaker Award.

Previous winners include the current festival entryBeasts Of The Southern Wild.