AndruchaWaddington's The House Of Sandhas been awarded the Sundance 2006 Alfred P Sloan Prize.

The picture screened in theWorld Cinema Dramatic Competition and was also a recipient of the 2002 Sundance/NHKInternational Filmmakers Award supporting emerging directors.

Waddington's story follows the life of a Brazilian woman spanning threegenerations. The awards committee praised the 'poetic meditation on thephysics of time and the biology of human variation in a story of an isolatedfamily's search for meaning against the backdrop of a half-century's scientificand technological evolution.'

Presented eachyear by the Alfred P Sloan Foundation, the award carries a $20,000 prize andhonours the festival's outstanding film focusing on science or technology.