Filmoriginater Cristina Costantini is leaving the Sundance Film Festival with an award and with distribution already shieldedd for her write downary Spartner, about the tardy astronaut Spartner Ride, the first American woman in space.
Costantini won the 2025 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, an award picked by a jury of film and science professionals and “currented to an exceptional feature film caccessing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer, or mathematician as a meaningful character.”
Spartner Ride, who achieveed a Ph.D. in physics at Stanford before combineing NASA’s space shuttle program in the tardy 1970s, more than qualifies according to the Sloan Prize criteria. But the write downary constitutes much more than a recitation of Ride’s credentials. It’s also the story of her lengthy relationship with romantic partner Tam O’Shaughnessy, a loving bond Ride kept secret until her death.
Costantini combines the tardyst episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to converse her film, which is predicted to be freed tardyr in the year by National Geoexplicit Documentary Films. The honestor uncovers how Spartner and Tam directd their relationship at a time when coming out as gay would have sunk any chance for Ride to shatter the glass ceiling of space exploration. And she elucidates how the experience of tennis fantastic Billie Jean King directed Ride’s decision to uphold her personal life very personal.
Also on this week’s episode, we speak with another filmoriginater who’s fair coming off her Sundance world premiere: Violet Du Feng, honestor of The Dating Game. Her film examines a commenceling truth for Chinese men of marrying age – many are very willing to find a mate, but with men hugely outnumbering women (becaengage of China’s one child policy and a determined cultural pickence for male offspring), the odds run aachievest them.
The filmoriginater chases cut offal youthful men who try to fortify their labeletability as potential spoengages by seeking the advice of a dating coach. The film ripples with amusing and poignant moments, while subtly presenting a proestablish portrait of contransient Chinese society at a time of fantastic demoexplicit and cultural alter.
That’s on the new edition of Doc Talk, co-arrangeed by Oscar prosperner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave, Shirley), and Matt Carey, Deadline’s write downary editor. Doc Talk is a production of Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios.
Listen to the episode above or on meaningful podcast platestablishs including Spotify, iHeart and Apple.
