National Geographic’s Science Fair: The Series takes the audience inside the incredibly competitive world of Science Fair and gives them a glimpse of some of the brightest young minds around the world today. I got the chance to speak with Darren Foster and Cristina Costantini, the directors and executive producers of the new series, about all the work that went into their new project.
Science Fair: The Series is a followup to Foster and Costantini’s 2018 film simply titled Science Fair. Foster explained how this new series came to be.
“We had such a wonderful time making that film that Nat Geo asked us to make a series sort of inspired by it,” Foster said. “A series gives you a little bit more time to explore the students stories and also the science that they’re performing in the science. So, for us, we think these are the innovators of tomorrow that we get to catch in all their high school glory.”
Foster also explained that creating this series was a fairly different process from when they made the original film in 2018.
“You know, when we made the movie, it was a very scrappy little team. Cristina, myself and Pete Alton,” Foster said. “So we actually had a bigger team [on the series] and it was a little more civilized on the approach I think. We were able to spend more time with more kids and more communities and so I think the range of schools that we follow and the projects we follow are much deeper than the film.”
Costantini, who placed at the International Science and Engineering Fair herself, explained that the level of science being executed by these students is what makes the series so compelling.
“It’s not potato batteries or volcanoes, it’s like real cancer research, solutions to huge problems that have evaded scientists and some of the most brilliant brains in the world for a long time,” Costantini said. “So these kids are doing true science, they’re solving real problems and it’s just exciting to catch them at this point of their life. You know, to be able to meet Albert Einstein when he’s a teenager, it’s a unique kind of experience.”
While the audience is sure to become completely invested in this competition for these brilliant young students, it was a challenge for these filmmakers to stick to the typical documentary approach.
“It’s a problem. I think I cried for every single win and every single loss,” Costantini laughed. “I was like, totally very bad at the documentary, like arms length distance thing. I’m like so invested in all their stories.”
“There’s hardly any objectivity in this filmmaking,” Foster laughed. “We’re rooting for all of them, we want them all to win.”
You can watch the complete interview with Darren Foster and Cristina Costantini in the video below.
About Science Fair: The Series:
- National Geographic’s new series Science Fair: The Series gives viewers a glimpse at the next wave of scientific discoveries as they follow brilliant teenage minds from around the globe. Inspired by the Sundance Festival favorite and SXSW Audience Award-winning documentary, the three-part series showcases students working to solve the world’s most complex and pressing issues using science, while competing for a coveted spot at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the most competitive science fair on the planet.
- In Science Fair: The Series, the stakes are high and the pressure palpable, but these exceptional students prove that with hard work, passion and drive, no challenge is too big and no obstacle is too great to overcome. The journey to ISEF is intense, but with their friends, family and countries behind them, the sky's the limit for these teens.
- Science Fair: The Series premieres December 10 on National Geographic and will be available December 13 on Disney+ and Hulu.