'Obselidia' honored at Sundance Festival

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PARK CITY, Utah, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- Judges at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah say "Obselidia" won the annual Alfred P. Sloan Prize as the best science or technology-theme movie.

Festival officials said in a release Friday the movie directed by Diane Bell was honored as the top feature film that either contained a theme based around science or technology or that featured a major character that is an engineer, mathematician or scientist.

"Obselidia" follows a encyclopedia salesman named George who attempts to create a compendium of obsolete things, only to learn from a scientist the world may be coming to an end.

The Sundance award comes with a $20,000 cash prize supported by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The prize is part of the festival's Sundance Science-in-Film Initiative intended to support movies about science and technology or individuals working in those fields.

Past Sloan Prize honorees include 2009's "Adam," 2008's "Sleep Dealer," 2007's "Dark Matter" and "The House of Sand" in 2006.