SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2009: ALFRED P. SLOAN PRIZE

Director Max Mayer wins Alfred P. Sloan Prize


Adam director resurrected for another project.

By John Esther

The 2009 Sundance Film Festival announced director Max Mayer's Adam the recipient of this year’s Alfred P. Sloan Prize. The Prize, which carries a $20,000 cash award to the filmmaker provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is presented to an outstanding feature film focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character.

Adam tells the story between a man (Hugh Dancy) with Asperger's Syndrome and a woman (Rose Byrne) who moves into his apartment building and what science can do for their love. (Science is making a comeback in America!)

Director Max Mayer is a Founder and Producing Director of New York Stage and Film which has presented twenty-four summer seasons of original plays at the Powerhouse Theatre at Vassar College. Mayer has directed over fifty new plays including world or US premieres by writers such as John Patrick Shanley, Lee Blessing, Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros, Richard Nelson, George F. Walker and Eric Overmyer. His productions have opened both Off-Broadway and in regional theatres including Arena Stage, Long Wharf and Steppenwolf in Chicago.

On screen Mayer has directed episodes of The West Wing, Alias and Family Law. Mayer also directed his first feature film, Better Living, starring Roy Scheider, Olympia Dukakis and Edward Hermann which opened theatrically in 2000. Last year, Adam was chosen as a winner of the 12th Annual Writers’ Network Fiction and Screenplay Competition. Adam is his Mayer's second feature film.