East Hampton - This year, the Hamptons International Film Festival is proud to present the 2010 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize to Jeremy Sim's powerful war drama, "Beneath Hill 60" (distributed by Entertainment One U.S.). The film tells the true story of Australian mining engineers who were instrumental in changing the course of World War I. The October 8 screening will be followed by a panel discussion with the film's writer/producer, David Roach, as well as experts in the fields of history and of engineering technology.

"Sloan is proud to join the Hamptons Film Festival in recognizing "Beneath Hill 60," a historically based film which reveals the untold story of a platoon of Australian mining engineers who tunneled under the German lines and changed the course of a key battle in World War I," said Doron Weber, Vice President, Programs, for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. "In depicting how a small team of engineers working secretly underground had a bigger impact on the battle than thousands of soldiers fighting in the trenches, this fact-based war movie shows yet again how science and technology offer screenwriters and filmmakers a rich untapped vein of material for dramatic storytelling."

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Feature Film Prize of $25,000 is presented each year as part of the Hamptons International Film Festival. The cash prize is awarded to a feature-length narrative film that explores science and technology themes in fresh, innovative ways, and depicts scientists and engineers in a realistic and compelling fashion. The Hamptons International Film Festival was the first film festival to partner with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in 1999, and this prestigious prize has been an annual highlight of the festival, having been presented in the past to films such as "Kinsey" (2004), "The Fountain" (2006), "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (2007) and last year to Alejandro Amenabar's "Agora."

"Our partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is now entering its second decade and remains central to the festival's success. From the screenwriters lab, to the Feature Film Prize winning film each year, working with the Sloan Foundation allows us to find and celebrate some of the most exciting filmmakers working today" states Executive Director Karen Arikian.

Annual Staged Reading Screenplays And Cast Announced
The Sloan Screenplay readings this year take place on Sunday, October 10, with selections from two outstanding science and technology-themed screenplays from the festival's annual screenwriter's lab. This year's winning screenplays are "Tube Wars," written by Todd Krainin, and "Bystander" by Rob Cohen. "Tube Wars" is the true story of Philo Farnsworth, the 14 year-old farm boy who invented television while plowing his family's fields in Utah. His struggle to build the most influential technology of the 20th century pits him against David Sarnoff, the chairman of RCA, one of the most powerful corporations in America. "Bystander" is a fictionalized account of the 1960s psychological study on the "Bystander Effect," which explained the inaction of 38 witnesses who failed to intervene or call the police when they heard a woman being raped and murdered in Kew Gardens, Queens. This year, a number of notable actors will perform, including Golden-Globe nominated Michael Stuhlbarg ("A Serious Man," "Boardwalk Empire"), Will Janowitz ("The Sopranos," "Mad Men," "Taking Woodstock," "The People vs. Leo Frank"), Kevin Kilner ("Damages," "White Collar") and Scott Cohen ("Gilmore Girls", "Love And Other Drugs," "Gia"), among others. The readings will be directed by Jay Anania ("William Vincent," "Day on Fire," "Her Name is Carla") and was cast by Amy Devra Gossels, CSA.

About The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
The New York based Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, founded in 1934, makes grants in science, technology, economics and the quality of American Life. Sloan's program in public understanding of science and technology, directed by Doron Weber, supports books, radio, film, television, theater and the Internet to reach a wide, non-specialized audience. Over the past 10 years, Sloan has partnered with six of the top film schools in the country - AFI, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, NYU, UCLA, and USC - and established annual awards in screenwriting and film production. In addition to Sloan Screenplay Development Programs, Sloan has supported such film projects as "Future Weather," a coming of age story about a young woman who finds personal meaning in science, starring Lily Taylor and Amy Madigan, now in post-production, and "A First Class Man," the story of the great Indian mathematician Ramanujan, slated for production this winter in Cambridge, England and Chennai, India. The Foundation has sponsored screenwriting and film production workshops at Sundance, the Hamptons, Tribeca, and Film Independent, and honored feature films such as "Obselidia" and "Agora." Sloan is also a longtime supporter of new science plays at the Ensemble Studio Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Club. This coming November, the Ensemble Studio Theatre will present the production of "Photograph 51," the story of Rosalind Franklin and her role in the discovery of the double helical structure of DNA. For more information about the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation please go to www.sloan.org.

About The HIFF
The Hamptons International Film Festival was founded to celebrate the Independent film - long, short, fiction and documentary - and to introduce a unique, varied spectrum of international films and filmmakers to the public. The Festival is committed to exhibiting films that express fresh voices and differing global perspectives, with the hope that these programs will enlighten audiences, provide invaluable exposure for filmmakers and present inspired entertainment for all.

HIFF greatly appreciates the support from their corporate sponsors, which include Altour International, American Airlines, Lexus, The Wall Street Journal, Vector Media, Babelgum, Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte, Easy Scent Lampe Berger and Nice Shoes among many others. The Hamptons International Festival headquarters are located at the beautiful c/o The Maidstone Hotel on Main Street in East Hampton.

For more information about the 2010 Festival, and to become a member go to www.hamptonsfilmfest.org.