Max Mayer's Sundance romance Adam is the recipient of this year's Alfred P Sloan Prize and $20,000 cash award honouring 'an outstanding feature film focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character.'

Fox Searchlight acquired worldwide rights earlier in the week to the story of an engineer with Asperger's Syndrome and the broken-hearted woman who moves into his apartment building. Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne star.

The winning film was selected by a committee of film and science professionals based on the quality of the film's presentation of science and technology themes and/or characters.

The Alfred P Sloan Prize is a major component of the Sundance Science-in-Film Initiative, which is made possible by a grant from the Alfred P Sloan Foundation. The initiative supports the development and exhibition of films that explore science and technology themes or that depict scientists, engineers and mathematicians in engaging and innovative ways.

Previous Alfred P Sloan Prize Winners include Alex Rivera for Sundance 2008 entry Sleep Dealer, Shi-Zheng Chen for 2007's Dark Matter, Andrucha Waddington for The House Of Sand in 2006, Werner Herzog for 2005's Grizzly Man and Shane Carruth's 2004 thriller Primer.

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