HIFF 2014: Alfred P. Sloan Programs

The 22nd Hamptons International Film Festival Announces the 2014 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize will be presented to The Imitation Game, directed by Morten Tyldum and starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley.

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The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) is proud to announce that the 2014 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize will be awarded to Morten Tyldum’s The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode and Mark Strong. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation chose the film for its sensitive and moving portrait of the complex, brilliant mathematician who not only created the model for the early computer and for computer language, but whose code breaking skills helped the Allies win World War II.

Cumberbatch delivers a monumental performance as British mathematician Alan Turing in Morten Tyldum’s stirring historical drama. Told via flashback, The Imitation Game tracks the young, brilliant, and socially awkward Turing in the early days of World War II as he applies for a top-secret position tasked with decoding the “unbreakable” Nazi cipher machine called Enigma, used to encrypt all military radio transmissions. His work was famously labeled by Winston Churchill as “the greatest single contribution to victory,” but after the war he suffered great personal and professional turmoil as he dealt with his homosexuality in a time when it was illegal.

The Weinstein Company will release the film on November 21, 2014.

The October 11 Festival screening of The Imitation Game will be followed by a panel discussion about the use of cryptography and computer science in a historical context, as well as Turing’s impact in the field.

Panelists:

♦ Janna Levin, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Barnard College and Columbia University 
♦ Dan GuidoHacker in Residence at NYU Polytechnic and CEO of Trail of Bits
Radu Sion, Stony Brook University; Director, National Security Institute; CEO, Private Machines Inc.
♦ Moderated by Bilge Ebiri, Film Critic at New York Magazine 

Tickets to the film will include admission to the panel.

Sloan Screenplay Readings

In addition to the film prize award, HIFF will present the Sloan Screenplay Readings on Sunday, October 12, at 4:00 pm. Palimpsest, written by Ben Nabors and Michael Tyburski, and Evan Schwartz’s Televisionaries are this year’s featured selections. Avram Ludwig will direct the readings with a terrific cast, including Richard Kind, Michael Nathanson, Harris Yulin, Lois Robbins, Tom Brangle and Robert Mobley. Palimpsest and Televisionaries were both selected for HIFF’s Sloan Screenwriters Lab last April.

Get tickets.

PALIMPSEST

by Ben Nabors & Michael Tyburski

Palimpsest is based on the Sundance award-winning short film ‘Palimpsest‘ and examines the subtle forces at play in our urban lives. Peter, a successful House Tuner who calibrates the sounds of interior spaces for optimal living, meets Ellen, a client whose problem he can’t solve. Peter’s failure, and Ellen’s unique mystery, threatens his grandiose theories about human behavior.

TELEVISIONARIES

by Evan Schwartz

Televisionaries is an inspirational drama about obsession, deception and the controversial birth of the most influential invention of our time. While rooted in science and technology, this deeply human story illuminates the seldom-seen dark side of the process of creativity and innovation.

Details about cast and crew can be found here


ABOUT THE ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION



Sloan-260The New York based Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, founded in 1934, makes grants in science, technology, and economic performance.  Sloan’s program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology, directed by Doron Weber, supports books, radio, film, television, theater and new media to reach a wide, non-specialized audience.

Sloan’s film program encourages filmmakers to create more realistic and accurate stories about science and technology and to challenge existing stereotypes about scientists and engineers in the popular imagination. Over the past decade, the Foundation has partnered with some of the top film schools in the country—including AFI, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, NYU, UCLA, and USC—and established annual awards in screenwriting and film production and an annual best-of-the-best Student Grand Jury Prize that Tribeca administers.

Sloan also supports Screenplay Development Programs at Sundance, Hamptons International Film Festival, Film Independent, and Tribeca and has developed such film projects as Future Weather, a coming of age story about a young woman who finds personal meaning in science, which premiered at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival; Valley of Saints and Robot & Frank, both of which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and shared the Sloan Feature Film Prize; A Birder’s Guide to Everything, which is in theatres in 2014; and Computer Chess, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

The Foundation awards annual Science and Technology Feature Film Prizes and has honored feature films such as The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Grizzly Man, I, Origins, Agora, Decoding Annie Parker, and Another Earth. Sloan also partners with Ensemble Studio Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Club in support of new science plays such as Isaac’s Eye, about the rivalry between Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke, and The Explorers Club, a witty satire about gender bias in science. For more information about the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation please visit http://www.sloan.org.