CHAIRMAN * NEIL LABUTE

Neil LaBute Screenwriters Residency Chairman

BIFF is honored to welcome Neil LaBute celebrated playwright, director, and screenwriter, as Chair of the 2026 Screenwriters Residency Program.

Since his Sundance-winning debut In the Company of Men (1997, starring Aaron Eckhart and Matt Malloy), LaBute has built one of contemporary cinema and theater's most fearless bodies of work. His credits include Your Friends & Neighbors (1998, Ben Stiller, Aaron Eckhart), Possession (2002, Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart), The Shape of Things(2003, Paul Rudd, Rachel Weisz), and the Tony-nominated play reasons to be pretty (2009, Thomas Sadoski, Marin Ireland). His work is headed back to the big screen with an adaptation of his play This Is How It Goes — an upcoming Apple Original Film directed by and starring Idris Elba, alongside Wunmi Mosaku, Charlie Cox, and Elliott Heffernan. This year, LaBute brings that same unflinching eye for character and dialogue to Harbour Island, where he will lead an exciting case study for selected residency screenwriters. Actors Who Have Brought LaBute's Work to Life: Aaron Eckhart, Chris Rock, Danny Glover, Ellen Burstyn, Gwyneth Paltrow, Idris Elba, Kerry Washington, Kevin Hart, Morgan Freeman, Nicolas Cage, Paul Rudd, Peter Dinklage, Rachel Weisz, Renée Zellweger, Samuel L. Jackson, Stanley Tucci, Zoë Saldaña, Matthew Broderick, Alice Eve, Diane Kruger, Kate Bosworth, Justin Long, and Maggie Q. Notably, Danny Glover, Morgan Freeman, Nicolas Cage, and Zoë Saldaña have attended BIFF in years past.

Geoffrey Fletcher

Geoffrey Fletcher is an Academy Award-winning screenwriter who made history as the first African American to win an Oscar in a writing category, earning the 2010 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Precious, based on the novel Push by Sapphire and directed by Lee Daniels. The film also brought him honors from the Independent Spirit Awards, the Black Reel Awards, and the NAACP Image Awards, among others, and went on to earn six Academy Award nominations overall. Fletcher's subsequent credits include Violet & Daisy, which he wrote and directed, and Trial by Fire, starring Laura Dern and Jack O'Connell. Alongside his film work, he has taught screenwriting as an adjunct professor at both NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and Columbia University. In 2009, Precious served as the Closing Night Film of the Bahamas International Film Festival, with Fletcher traveling to Nassau for a screening and audience Q&A. He now returns to BIFF as a mentor for the Screenwriter's Residency Program on Harbour Island.