The Coolidge Corner Theatre and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation named the 2024−25 recipients of their nationwide Science on Screen® grant program this week, awarding grants totaling $250,000 to 41 independent cinemas, museums, and community groups with film programs.
Each organization will receive up to $9,000 to create and present three or more Science on Screen events, which pair expert-led discussions of scientific topics with screenings of feature and documentary films. At least one of the films shown by grantees must be a past recipient of the annual Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Feature Film Prize or a Sloan Development Grant.
Since partnering with Sloan in 2011, the Coolidge has awarded over $2.75 million in grants to 131 film and science-focused organizations in 45 states (plus Washington, DC) across the country.
Science on Screen features classic, cult, and documentary films provocatively matched with presentations by experts who discuss scientific, technological, or medical issues raised by each film. The Coolidge/Sloan Foundation nationwide Science on Screen partnership seeks to inspire in theater-goers an increased appreciation for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics as compelling enterprises and vital elements of a broad understanding of human culture and current events.
EXPLORE COOLIDGE SCIENCE ON SCREEN TITLES
Highlights from the most recent season
Taos Center for the Arts (Taos, N.M.) paired Hocus Pocus with a talk about potions and elixirs by Los Alamos National Laboratory Chemist Alex Cleveland.
Before a screening of Sloan Award-winning film Linoleum at Martha’s Vineyard Film Society (Vineyard Haven, Mass.), planetary scientist Dr. Philip Metzger explored how we navigate the growing problems of orbital debris.
In Rushmore, Wes Anderson captures both the folly and superpower of youth. At the Kenworthy Performing Arts Center (Moscow, Id.), Washington State University neuroscientist Dr. Kristen Delevich discussed what the latest research tells us about the inner workings of the teenage brain.
Volcanologist Michael Ort introduced a screening of Dante’s Peak at Science Moab (Moab, Ut.) with a talk entitled “Your Jeep can't actually outrun a pyroclastic cloud”.
Before a screening of Death Becomes Her at the Coolidge Corner Theatre (Brookline, Mass.), award-winning author and science journalist Carl Zimmer delved into two fascinating new lines of anti-aging research: the rejuvenating power of young blood (for real), and the relentless ticking of the epigenetic clock.
The County Theater (Doylestown, Pa.) presented a screening Bride of Frankenstein. Daniel Cohen, Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University, discussed the connection between Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," bioelectric medicine, and bioengineering.
"We are thrilled to continue our seminal partnership with the Coolidge Corner Theatre to support the nationwide Science on Screen program. These events, which pair expert speakers in over 40 states with popular titles such as Sloan-winning films Oppenheimer, Daniela Forever and Love Me, demonstrate that science can illuminate films just as films can illuminate science. We’re also proud that theaters can select recent Sloan-supported documentaries such as The White House Effect, Leonardo da Vinci, and Theater of Thought and bringing attention to urgent contemporary issues and inspirational scientific figures." —Doron Weber, Vice President and Program Director at the Sloan Foundation
Science on Screen was initially conceived and established in 2005 for Coolidge Corner Theatre audiences in greater Boston, which boasts one of the nation’s largest populations of life and physical scientists. In 2011, the Sloan Foundation partnered with the theatre to take Science on Screen nationwide and to make it an integral part of its coast-to-coast film program. To date, the Sloan Foundation has awarded the Coolidge more than $4.5 million to support the program, including the creation of a website where information on these programs and archived videos of the speakers’ presentations are available to the public.
All of these grant recipients play a significant role in the cultural life of their communities, with successful track records of building strong community partnerships and producing creative, thought-provoking film programs that both educate and entertain audiences.
The 2024−25 Science on Screen grantees include 10 first-time participants:
- Bridgeport Film Festival City Lights, Bridgeport, Conn.
- Dreamland, Tulsa, Okla.
- Penn Theatre, Plymouth, Mich.
- Sag Harbor Cinema Arts Center, Sag Harbor, N.Y.
- San Juan Film Institute / Ouray International Film Festival, Ouray, Colo.
- Sidewalk Film Center, Birmingham, Ala.
- SNF Parkway Theatre, Baltimore, Md.
- Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Ky.
- Stray Cat Film Center, Kansas City, Mo.
- Vermont International Film Festival, Burlington, Vt.
Grantees returning to Science on Screen in 2024−25 are:
- Amherst Cinema, Amherst, Mass.
- Aspen Film, Aspen, Colo.
- Austin Film Society, Austin, Texas
- The Avalon Theatre, Washington, D.C.
- Belcourt Theatre, Nashville, Tenn.
- The Buskirk-Chumley Theatre, Bloomington, Ind.
- Cinema Arts Centre, Huntington, N.Y.
- Colonial Theatre, Bethlehem, N.H.
- Cornell Cinema, Ithaca, N.Y.
- County Theater, Doylestown, Penn.
- Enzian Theater, Maitland, Fla.
- Film Streams, Omaha, Neb.
- FilmScene, Iowa City, Iowa
- Frida Cinema, Santa Ana, Calif.
- The Gem Theater, Bethel, Me.
- Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, Ill.
- Heartland Film, Indianapolis, Ind.
- Images Cinema, Williamstown, Mass.
- Jacob Burns Film Center, Pleasantville, N.Y.
- Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre, Moscow, Id.
- Martha’s Vineyard Film Society, Vineyard Haven, Mass.
- Media Arts Center San Diego, San Diego, Calif.
- Michigan Theater / Marquee Arts, Ann Arbor, Mich.
- Montclair Film, Montclair, N.J.
- New Orleans Film Society, New Orleans, La.
- New York International Children’s Film Festival, New York, N.Y.
- The Nightlight Cinema, Akron, Oh.
- Pickford Film Center, Bellingham, Wash.
- Ragtag Film Society, Columbia, Mo.
- Rooftop Films, Brooklyn, N.Y.
- Sioux Falls State Theatre, Sioux Falls, S.D.
About the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a New York based, philanthropic, not-for-profit institution that makes grants in three areas: research in science, technology, and economics; quality and diversity of scientific institutions; and public engagement with science. 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 and to bridge the two cultures of science and the humanities.
