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Film Festival Today

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Two Winners Of Alfred Sloan Prizes At Sundance

Written by: FFT Webmaster | February 1st, 2012

The Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize rewards films that creatively expand a sense of the sciences at a number of leading U.S. film festivals. At this year’s edition of the Sundance Film Festival, two prizes were awarded, splitting a $20,000 cash prize. The first prize went to the feature film ROBOT & FRANK, directed by Jake Schreier and written by Christopher Ford, in which Oscar nominee Frank Langella played an aging curmudgeon whose grown kids (played by Susan Sarandon, James Marsden and Liv Tyler) install a robot as his caretaker. The jury cited the film for its “humane and prescient portrait of the relationship between an aging father and his non-human caregiver, and for raising profound questions about the role of technology in our collective future.” The second prize was awarded to VALLEY OF SAINTS, directed and written by Musa Syeed, a feature film from India that debuted in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. In the film, the lead character plans to run away from the war and poverty surrounding his village in Kashmir with his best friend, but a beautiful young woman researching the dying lake leads him to contemplate a different future. The film stars Gulzar Ahmad Bhat, Mohammed Afzal Sofi and Neelofar Hamid. The jury presented the award to the film for its “brave, poetic and visually arresting evocation of a beautiful but troubled region, and for it’s moving, nuanced and accurate depiction of the relationship between a local boatman and a young woman scientist whose research challenges the status quo and offers hope for a restored eco-system.”

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