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With the 2025 Sloan Film Summit just around the corner, we want to look back at some of our favorite films that have been supported in the past by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. These films are dramas, science fictions, biopics and big budget blockbusters. Yes, they all have science, math, technology, economics or engineering at their core, and this list goes to show just how much storytelling juice you can get out of those topics.

The films on this list show how universal stories about the sciences can be. We all care about nature, we all look up at the stars and wonder and we all love solving a good puzzle. And that’s what the sciences are all about. Both art and science help you understand the world better, just in different ways, and these films prove what you can do when they come together.

Adventures of a Mathematician...

Max has released the official trailer for its new original biographical series, Chespirito: Not Really on Purpose. Inspired by the life and legacy of Roberto Gómez Bolaños, the eight-episode series will debut its first episode on June 5 on Max, with weekly episodic premieres.

Roberto Gómez Bolaños is a legendary figure in entertainment who left an indelible mark on popular culture across Ibero-America and beyond. An actor, comedian, writer, screenwriter, director, and producer, his talent brought to life characters that became universal symbols of humor and warmth.

His legacy lives on through multiple generations who grew up with his stories and still fondly recall his lessons, laughter, and unforgettable catchphrases. A true icon of family-friendly comedy and a cultural ambassador of Latin entertainment, his work continues to cross borders and touch hearts around the world.

Chespirito: Not Really on Purpose portrays the life of Roberto Gómez Bolaños, the man who turned...

Disney’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” continued its reign at the top of the U.K. and Ireland box office, slicing through the competition in its second week of release.

The superhero film raked in £8 million ($10.1 million) over the weekend, bringing its total haul to £33.4 million ($42.4 million), according to numbers from Comscore. That makes it the third highest grossing film of 2024 in the territory so far after “Inside Out 2” and “Dune: Part Two.”

In second place, Universal’s “Despicable Me 4” held its ground, adding £2.5 million to reach a four-week total of £30.8 million. Warner Bros.’ “Twisters” maintained its position in the top three, generating £1.1 million in its third week for a cumulative total of £10.1 million.

Disney scored another win with “Inside Out 2,” which showed remarkable staying power in its eighth week. The film secured the fourth spot with £939,144, bringing its total to £52.2 million.

The highest-ranking new entry, Sony’s “Harold and the Purple Crayon,...

If the atmosphere seems spiced with something other than pumpkin extract this month, don’t worry. That’s just the creamy mouth-feel (sorry!) of awards season, which is once again upon us in full-force. Look no further than this month’s Don’t-Miss Indies, full of auteur-driven storytelling from tip to tail, including plenty of Film Independent Spirit Award alumni. Want to receive screeners and vote for this season’s Spirit Award winners? Go ahead!

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When You Can Watch: Now

Where You Can Watch: Theaters (limited), Apple TV+

Director: Christos Nikou

Cast: Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White

Why We’re Excited: Film Independent Spirit Award winners Buckley (Robert Altman Award co-recipient for last year’s Women Talking) and Ahmed (Best Male Lead for 2020’s Sound of Metal) stars as Anna and Amir—two colleagues who work at the “Love Institute”, which has supposedly developed a test to...

Back in 2013, journalist Joshua Davis published an article in Wired magazine that dubbed a young genius in Mexico who would later be called "the next Steve Jobs." One decade later, Radical explores the true story that started it all. Paloma is said student, and in the new film from director Christopher Zalla, she is played by Jennifer Trejo. Let's call it now — we'll be seeing this talented young actress in plenty of Hollywood films to come. But in the meantime, she shares the screen well with veteran actor Eugenio Derbez (Coda) in Radical.

The film follows the brilliantly alternative way Derbez's character Sergio teaches his young students in a tense Mexican border town plagued by crime, violence and more. Watch as Sergio unlocks the creative minds of Paloma and her bright young peers in an inspiring film that's a home run from start to finish.

'We're Going to Do Amazing...

Exclusive: Ahead of its U.S. release on November 3, Eugenio Derbez-starrer Radical is off to a great start in Mexico. The film, which won the Festival Favorite Award when it premiered at Sundance in January, opened last weekend in Mexico, selling 631.7K tickets, outdoing the sophomore frame of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, as well as that film’s debut the previous session; both in terms of admissions.

Released by Videocine, this was the biggest local-language opening in Mexico since the Covid era began in both grosses and ticket sales. Radical grossed Mxn 43,339,719 ($2.36M) across the October 20-22 frame, which is just slightly under what The Eras Tour brought in across its second weekend. That’s because the Taylor Swift movie is being sold at event pricing with tickets going for Mxn 215 a pop versus Mxn 69 for Radical. The latter also had the highest per-screen average of the October 20-22 session.

Exclusive: Film Independent has set seven filmmakers for the 2023 edition of its Producing Lab, an intensive program designed to help creative, independent producers develop their skills and further their careers. The list includes Camila Grimaldi & Farah Jabir (AmeriGirl), Rob Cristiano (Gone by Morning), Daniel Tantalean (In the Summers), Valeria Contreras (Not My Name), Annalisa Shoemaker (Obsolete), and Fiona Hardingham (Smoke Country).

Film Independent looks to bolster its Fellows by introducing them to film professionals who can advise them on both the craft and business of independent producing. Each is paired with a Creative Advisor, with whom they’ll look to develop a project over the course of the program. Rebecca Green will serve as lead creative advisor for this year’s program, which will also feature an expansive roster of guest speakers: Jason Michael Berman, Apoorva Charan, Marissa Frobes, Nate Kamiya, Kristen Konvitz, Stephen Lee, Alex Lo, Lauren Mann, Jack Pearkes,...

"Nothing has changed in education in the last 100 years. But it turns out these kids are really smart." Yep. Pantelion Films has debuted the official trailer for Radical. This first premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year to very positive reviews (read mine here), winning the "Festival Favorite Award". In a Mexican border town plagued by neglect, corruption, and violence, a frustrated teacher tries a radical new method to break through his students' apathy and unlock their curiosity, their potential... and maybe even their genius. Based on a true story (from 2013), which introduced the world to one young Mexican girl who they put on magazine covers. Eugenio Derbez stars as the teacher, Sergio, along with Daniel Haddad and a cast of vibrant young local kids. The "radical" method he uses is basically throwing out the text books and teaching them how to use their intuition to figure things out,...

Exclusive: Radical, the Mexican true-life drama starring Coda‘s Eugenio Derbez that broke out of Sundance as the 2023 Festival Favorite, has secured a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement that will permit publicity efforts ahead of its October 20 nationwide release, Deadline has learned.

Agreements of the sort do not guarantee actor participation in PR campaigns, only opening up the possibility for it amidst the SAG-AFTRA strike. But Radical is precisely the kind of film that would most benefit from it, as a small, star-driven awards prospect looking to perform at the box office. And it is expected that Derbez now will be out promoting the movie, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Related: SAG-AFTRA Tells Members It’s Ok To Promote Their Movies With Interim Agreements At Film Festivals

Among other major titles to have secured publicity-focused agreements from the actors guild recently are Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla and Michael Mann’s Ferrari,...

"What each and every one of you needs... you already have it." Pantelion Films has revealed a teaser trailer for Radical, the latest film from director Christopher Zalla. This first premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year to rave reviews (here's mine), winning the "Festival Favorite Award". In a Mexican border town plagued by neglect, corruption, and violence, a frustrated teacher tries a radical new method to break through his students' apathy and unlock their curiosity, their potential... and maybe even their genius. Based on a true story (from 2013), which introduced the world to one young Mexican girl who they put on magazine covers. Eugenio Derbez stars as the teacher, Sergio, along with Daniel Haddad and a cast of vibrant young local kids. The "radical" method he uses is basically throwing out the text books and teaching them how to use their intuition to figure things out, free...

Exclusive: Participant has partnered with TelevisaUnivision’s Pantelion Films and 3Pas Studios on Radical, the Eugenio Derbez-led film written and directed by Chris Zalla. Radical will be released in U.S. and Mexico theaters on October 20. Additionally, international sales have been made in several territories including the UK, Germany and Australia.

Radical will be distributed in the U.S. by Paul Presburger and Edward Allen’s Miercoles Entertainment on behalf of Pantelion Films. The announcement arrives following the film’s successful turn at the Sundance Film Festival where it earned the “Festival Favorite Award” from a field of 111 films.

“We are so excited to bring Radical to as wide an audience as possible, giving us the opportunity to share this powerful story with both Eugenio’s massive core audience as well as the specialty market. To reach these very different markets and audiences, we could not be more thrilled...

A still from Radical by Chris Zalla, an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute Radical Review — Radical (2023) Film Review from the 45th Annual Sundance Film Festival, a movie directed by Christopher Zalla, starring Eugenio Derbez, Daniel Haddad, Jennifer Trejo, Mia Fernanda Solis, [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Radical: Powerhouse Addition to Maverick Teacher Victory Canon [Sundance 2023]...

Teyana Taylor and Aaron Kingsley in ‘A Thousand and One’ (Photo Courtesy of Sundance Institute / Photo by Focus Features)

The Sundance Film Festival named A Thousand and One from writer/director A.V. Rockwell the winner of the prestigious U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic. Directors Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson’s The Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary at the 2023 festival which hosted in-person screenings as well as access online.

“This year’s Festival has been an extraordinary experience,” said Joana Vicente, Sundance Institute CEO. “The artists that comprise the 2023 Sundance Film Festival have demonstrated a sense of urgency and dedication to excellence in independent film. Today’s award winners highlight our programs’ most impressive achievements in the current moment of cinematic arts. I hope you will join me in congratulating our winners, as well as thanking all artists across sections...

From To Sir, With Love through Stand and Deliver and Dangerous Minds, inspirational dramas about dedicated educators overcoming the apathy of disadvantaged students to expand their horizons generally stick to a formula carved in stone. But when that formula works, it works. In rare instances, a movie in this narrative ballpark breaks the mold, like Laurent Cantet’s The Class, with its granular documentary-style textures and illuminating social and political context. Writer-director Christopher Zalla adheres to the subgenre’s conventions and doesn’t stint on sentimentality, but Radical more than earns its surging emotional payoff.

Given its assault on the tear ducts combined with its resolute channeling of hope even in the wake of tragedy, it’s no surprise that the film snagged Sundance’s Festival Favorite Award, voted by the audience. That should help give it an acquisitions nudge, along with a big-hearted lead performance from superstar Mexican actor and comedian Eugenio Derbez,...

The outside-the-box teacher who inspires their world-weary students to reach beyond themselves is a narrative path than has been well-trod, but rarely has a film thoroughly explored why said students can't just do it themselves. Radical manages to do just that, depicting the dire circumstances of its characters almost too well while introducing audiences to its hero of higher education. Radical paints a grim portrait of the effects of poverty on a Mexican elementary school, but it offers hope all the same through Eugenio Derbez's sincere performance.

Derbez plays Sergio Juarez, the real-life educator at the heart of Radical who makes the surprising choice of requesting a transfer to Jose Urbina Lopez Elementary in Matamoros. Even the school's principal (Daniel Haddad), or "Director" as he's referred to throughout the Spanish-language school, cannot believe his ears. Jose Urbina Lopez is a place where computers have never been installed, and the library barely even has books,...

Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Participant and Pantelion Films releases the film in theaters on Friday, November 3.

The figure of the selfless teacher with an idealist mindset about education has abundant onscreen representation. Of these, Edward James Olmos’ lively, Oscar-nominated portrayal of Jaime Escalante, who taught math to marginalized teens at James A. Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, in “Stand and Deliver,” serves as quintessential example of these admirable paladins of knowledge in American popular culture.

In the well-intentioned drama “Radical,” Eugenio Derbez boasts similar, if more subdued charisma as unorthodox elementary teacher Sergio Chavez. This crowd-pleaser based on a remarkable true story documented in a Wired article by Joshua Davis (also a producer here), marks the Sundance return of director Christopher Zalla, whose 2007 debut “Padre Nuestro” won the top jury prize in the U.S. Dramatic competition.

The role...

Idealistic teachers propel some of the most shamelessly schmaltzy tearjerkers of cinema, but whether we like it or not, we all respond to them at some sincere, emotional level. Christopher Zalla’s resolute crowdpleaser “Radical” is a heart-tugger in the mold of such old-school “inspiring teacher changes everything” tales as “To Sir With Love,” “Dead Poets Society” and even recent Oscar winner “Coda,” with which it shares star Eugenio Derbez. It’s a conventional film with broad audience appeal — watch it without tissues at your own risk — and hits all the expected notes.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing for a film centered on time-honored themes. Based on a true story, Zalla’s script is inspired by a decade-old Wired article titled “A Radical Way of Unleashing a Generation of Geniuses” — the writer of which, Joshua Davis, serves as a producer here. In the piece, Davis zeroed in on...

International comedy star Eugenio Derbez has touched down in Utah for the world premiere of his latest dramatic turn in “Radical,” one of the opening night presentations at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.

Variety has an exclusive first look at the project, the story of an outside-the-box teacher in a crime-ridden Mexican border town.

The film is directed by Christopher Zalla, who won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize in 2007 for “Sangre de Mi Sangre.” In the exclusive clip, Derbez can be seen changing the physical layout of a classroom — and removing his own desk — at a hard-knock school known more for discipline than academic encouragement. Already getting pushback from the establishment faculty, Derbez admits he wants to try something different.

The film marks Derbez’s return to Sundance after the record-breaking sale of “Coda,” which would go on to win the Oscar for best picture. “Radical” was chosen by the festival...

Sofía Hernandez (Ilse Salas) has everything: three children she can ignore, servants and maids to take care of her every whim, and a husband (Flavio Medina’s Fernando) who inherited his wealth from his father and still has yet to really work for it thanks to Uncle Javier (Diego Jáuregui) managing things like he always had. Theirs is a charmed life of opulence and excess wherein they can afford to treat aristocratic etiquette and tradition as sacrosanct while “new money” commoners try to enter their social circle as though they are animals just arrived from the wild. Sofía and Fer are practically European by contrast, propping up their Mexican backyard with class and grace. All that could make life better is Julio Iglesias serenading some “Happy Birthday” magic.

Unfortunately for them, writer/director Alejandra Márquez Abella ensures their false sense of financial security crosses paths with Mexico’s 1982 economic crisis.