Aranya Sahay’s feature Humans in the Loop has received the Film Independent Sloan Distribution Grant, securing the film’s official qualification for Academy Awards consideration, the makers announced on Monday.

The Sloan Distribution Grant, presented jointly by Film Independent and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, supports narrative features that meaningfully engage with science or technology themes. The funding is designed to help such films expand their reach through targeted release strategies.

Following its US theatrical run and meeting other eligibility requirements, the film is now a contender for the 98th Academy Awards, where it will compete for a spot in the Best Original Screenplay category, according to a press release.

Set around an indigenous woman working in a rural data-annotation centre in India, Humans in the Loop explores the ethics and inequities embedded in machine learning systems.

“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,” said writer and director Sahay in a statement.

“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... 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,” producer Mathivanan Rajendran added.

The Sloan Film Program has supported more than 850 screenplays, shorts and features over the last two decades, including The Imitation Game, Hidden Figures, The Man Who Knew Infinity, and Oppenheimer. The grant makes Sahay and Rajendran Film Independent Fellows.

“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,” she added.