Humans In The Loop Receives Film Independent’s Sloan Distribution Grant, Enters Oscar Race

Kiran Rao-backed Aranya Sahay's critically acclaimed film, Humans in the Loop, had a stellar run at several film festivals. The film is currently streaming on Netflix. It has received the Film Independent Sloan Distribution Grant, qualifying for the Academy Awards.

Following its US theatrical release and meeting other eligibility criteria, Humans in the Loop has officially qualified to be a contender for the 98th Academy Awards. It will compete in the Best Original Screenplay category.

Humans in the Loop is executive produced by National Award-winning filmmaker Biju Toppo and Rao.

Humans in the Loop wins Sloan Grant, enters Oscar

The Sloan Distribution Grant, given by Film Independent and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, supports narrative features that engage meaningfully with science or technology themes or characters, helping to reach wider audiences through strategic release support. Over the past two decades, the Sloan Film program has backed more than 850 screenplays, short films and feature films, including The Imitation Game, Hidden Figures, The Man Who Knew Infinity, and Oppenheimer. The grant makes Aranya Sahay and Mathivanan Rajendran Film Independent Fellows.

Writer-director Sahay shared, “We are at a cusp with artificial intelligence, and humanity needs to take responsibility for the kind of AI and the kind of future we are building.”

“I’m deeply grateful to Film Independent and the Sloan Foundation for allowing us to take this conversation across the US. Humans in the Loop is about the human heartbeat inside technology, and this grant recognises the people whose labour and stories often remain unseen,” he added.

“Through Humans in the Loop and our work at the Museum of Imagined Futures, we’ve been creating space for technologists and creatives to rethink how stories about technology are told,” said producer Mathivanan Rajendran, producer.

“The Sloan Foundation’s support and now the film’s entry into the Oscar race are a validation of Aranya’s screenplay that creatives can help shape the future of tech,” he added.

“We are proud to help bring awareness in the US about Humans in the Loop through the Sloan Distribution Grant,” said Dea Vazquez, Associate Director of Fiction Programs at Film Independent. “The film’s rigorous and deeply human approach to exploring AI and the role of technology in our lives perfectly reflects the mission of the grant.”

Humans in the Loop plot

Humans in the Loop tells the story of an Indigenous woman working at a rural data-annotation centre in India. The film examines the ethics and inequities of machine learning while foregrounding empathy, lived experience, and cultural knowledge.