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JURORS, PANELISTS, MENTORS
Jurors
Andrew Dosunmu
Writer, Director, Photographer | Screenwriters Residency Program | Juror
Andrew Dosunmu began his career as a design assistant at Yves Saint Laurent, sharpening the refined visual sense that now defines his work. After moving into photography, filmmaking and creative direction, he broke out in the United States directing music videos for Isaac Hayes, Tracy Chapman, Maxwell, Aaron Neville and Wyclef Jean. A fascination with the humanity and beauty of global cultures threads through everything he shoots, from fashion and portraiture to ad campaigns, documentaries and feature films. His debut feature Restless City (2011) was followed by Mother of George (2013), which earned collaborator Bradford Young the Best Cinematography award at Sundance and won Dosunmu Best Director at the 2014 Africa International Film Festival. Subsequent projects include the Sundance-premiering Where Is Kyra? with Michelle Pfeiffer and Kiefer Sutherland, the Netflix original Beauty produced by Lena Waithe, and the Super Bowl film Born to Play (2024) for the NFL, shot in Ghana and widely ranked among the year's top spots. His 2023 photography book, Monograph, prompted a New Yorker profile that hailed him as a pioneer at the intersection of art and fashion, while his On Running short Untethered was recognized by both the One Show and the CLIOs. Across mediums, Dosunmu continues to expand his visual storytelling with the curiosity that launched his journey from Lagos to the global stage.
Andre Gaines
Writer, Director, Producer | Juror
Andre Gaines is a two-time Emmy-nominated director, producer, writer and financier, and the founder of the Los Angeles-based production company Cinemation Studios. Born in Toledo, Ohio, he is widely recognized for his inclusive storytelling, his intentional hiring of people of color, and his dedication to highlighting marginalized and overlooked historical and cultural narratives. Gaines made his directorial debut with The One and Only Dick Gregory (2021), a portrait of the comedian and civil rights activist, executive produced by Kevin Hart and Lena Waithe. The film closed the Tribeca Film Festival, premiered on Showtime and earned him his first Emmy nomination. He went on to direct the documentaries After Jackie (2022) and Triumph: Jesse Owens and the Berlin Olympics (2024). His first narrative feature, The Dutchman, which he directed, produced and co-wrote, is a psychological thriller adapted from Amiri Baraka’s landmark play, starring André Holland, Kate Mara, Zazie Beetz, Aldis Hodge and Stephen McKinley Henderson. Shot on a live New York City subway train, the film premiered at SXSW in 2025, was the Opening Night Film of the 2025 Bahamas International Film Festival, and was released in theaters in January 2026. As a producer and financier, Gaines has backed an extensive slate of film and television. He executive produced the HBO documentary series The Lady and the Dale, alongside Mark and Jay Duplass, and The Anarchists. His other credits include Spike Lee’s Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, the Netflix documentary Bill Nye: Science Guy, the remake of Stephen King’s Children of the Corn, and the Amazon animated feature The Immortal Warrior, starring Rodrigo Santoro. A graduate of Northwestern University and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Gaines founded Cinemation Studios in 2010.
Victoria Mahoney
Writer, Director | Screenwriters Residency Program | Juror
Victoria Mahoney began her career immersed in New York theater before moving to Los Angeles to pursue film. While acting came naturally, she envisioned herself on the other side of the camera. A raw, emotional script she wrote earned her admission to the highly competitive Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs. The resulting film, Yelling to the Sky, starring Zoë Kravitz, Jason Clarke, Gabourey Sidibe, Sonequa Martin and Tim Blake Nelson, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Golden Bear. Mahoney was named one of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film," one of Shadow and Act/IndieWire's "Filmmakers to Watch," and one of "3 Filmmakers to Watch" in Elle's Women in Hollywood issue. She has been an Auerbach, Annenberg, Cinereach, Maryland, Tribeca and IFP Narrative Lab fellow. In television, Mahoney has directed notable episodes of The Morning Show, Lovecraft Country, American Crime, I Am the Night, You, Seven Seconds, Gypsy, Claws, Grey's Anatomy, Power and Queen Sugar, as well as the pilot episodes of The Red Line and Suits LA. J.J. Abrams tapped her to direct second unit on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and most recently she directed Netflix's The Old Guard 2. With several film and television projects in development, Mahoney is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and the Directors Guild of America (DGA).
Jib Polhemus
Producer | Screenwriters Residency Program | Juror | Panelist
Jib Polhemus is an American film and television producer, literary manager and director based in Los Angeles, California. He began his career in the contemporary art business in New York and Los Angeles before moving into the entertainment industry through Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Over a career spanning more than 20 years, he has developed, produced and sold numerous high-profile film and television projects to major Hollywood studios, including Warner Bros., Universal, Paramount, Fox and Sony. In 2015, Polhemus founded Source Management + Production, a full-service literary management and production company representing cutting-edge film directors and screenwriters. He also serves as President of Simon West Productions, where he works closely with the British director to develop a diverse commercial slate. Through this role, he has been associated with highly successful projects and franchises such as Black Hawk Down, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, The Mechanic and The Expendables 2.
Polhemus has produced a wide variety of features and series that have screened at top international film festivals, including Berlin, Tribeca, Zurich, Fantastic Fest and the Bahamas International Film Festival. His producing credits include World Breaker (2026), Coyotes and Howling Wolves (2025), Sunrise and Old Guy (2024), and Taurus, Good Mourning, Boundless, One Way and Stowaway (2022). Earlier, he produced The Last Son (2021), Zone 414 (2020) and Gun Shy (2017), and served as executive producer on Stratton (2017) and Wild Card (2015). He also made his directorial debut with Criminals in 2017.
Goli Samii
Acting Coach | Juror
Goli Samii has been teaching at DreamWorks for more than twenty years. Her clients have included Michael K. Williams of HBO's Boardwalk Empire, whom she coached until the end of his career; Jonathan Majors (Lovecraft Country, The Harder They Fall, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Creed III); and Havana Rose Liu, Ruby Cruz, Asa Germann, Rain Spencer, Genesis Rodriguez, Lana Parrilla and many other Hollywood stars.
Screenwriters Residency Program
Neil LaBute, Chair
Writer, Director | Screenwriters Residency Program Chair
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 include 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
Writer, Director | Screenwriters Residency Program | Juror
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 Screenwriters Residency Program on Harbour Island.
Nate Kohn
Producer, Director | Screenwriters Residency Program
Dr. Nate Kohn is a professor in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, festival director of Roger Ebert's Film Festival, director of the University of Georgia MFA program in screenwriting, director of the University of Georgia Cannes Film Festival and Cannes Lions Study Abroad Programs, and an award-winning producer.
Dr. Kohn produced Zulu Dawn starring Burt Lancaster and Peter O'Toole; the independent feature Somebodies, which premiered at Sundance (2006); Rain, The Bahamas' first indigenous feature, which premiered at Toronto (2007) and on Showtime (2010); the feature film Bottleworld (2010); and the feature-length documentary Bayou Maharajah, which premiered at SXSW (2013). He was executive producer on the BET television series Somebodies (2008), produced the Emmy Award-winning short documentary Ebertfest 2012, and was executive producer on the 73rd, 74th and 75th Annual Peabody Awards specials for Pivot TV/Participant Media (2014, 2015 and 2016).
He has served on juries and mentored screenwriters at the Atlanta, Hawaii, Kerala, Hot Springs and Bahamas International Film Festivals. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles and of the book Pursuing Hollywood: Seduction, Obsession, Dread (AltaMira Press, 2006). He is also a producer on the independent feature film Nobody Wants to Be Here, Nobody Wants to Leave, currently in post-production in Georgia and France.
Mick Davis
Writer, Novelist, Playwright, Director, Producer | Screenwriters Residency Program | Panelist
Mick Davis has worked in Hollywood for the last 30 years. Before moving to Los Angeles at the advice of his friend Rod Stewart, Davis was the first-team fitness coach for his boyhood idols, Glasgow Celtic Football Club. His writing career started at age 20, when he wrote a thriller novel, Young Kim.
Since moving to Hollywood, Davis has developed, written and directed stars such as Pierce Brosnan, Mickey Rourke, Al Pacino, Mel Gibson, Richard Harris, Geena Davis, Tim Allen, Wesley Snipes, Brittany Murphy, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Amanda Plummer, Chris Noth, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sir Ian Holm, Samuel L. Jackson and Andy Garcia. Davis also worked on rewrites for the Academy Award-nominated movie Elizabeth on behalf of director Shekhar Kapur. He also wrote the cult supernatural movie The Invisible. Davis created, wrote and executive-produced the CBS/Warner Bros. TV show Eleventh Hour for Jerry Bruckheimer, starring Rufus Sewell. He was also a producer on the Netflix movie The Saint. He is now developing the TV miniseries Heathcliff, from Emily Brontë's novel. He worked with Simon West on the Netflix movie The Saint, based on the classic TV show, and wrote the last scenes Roger Moore would do before his passing. Davis wrote and will direct The Red Lotus, a feature film based on the life of fashion designer Sue Wong, who escaped Communist China to become a worldwide success story. He is committed to writing and directing The Sculptor, a feature film based on the last weeks of Constantin Brâncuși. It will star Mickey Rourke, Helena Bonham Carter, Brian Cox and Andy Garcia, whom Davis directed in the feature film Modigliani. Andy Garcia was quoted as saying, "Mick Davis is my Scorsese." He wrote and directed the play Paganini, which ran for three years at the Metropolis Theater in Bucharest, Romania. Davis directed the Christmas comedy My Dad's Christmas Date, starring Jeremy Piven and Joely Richardson, for MSR Productions. He also directed the hit Netflix comedy Father Christmas Is Back, starring Kelsey Grammer and John Cleese. Davis just completed the biography of music-producing legend Jack Douglas, who produced John Lennon, Aerosmith and others, which will hit stores in mid-2026. Davis directed the comedy Trust in Love, winner of 38 film festival awards. Davis also wrote and directed the critically acclaimed horror movie Walden, starring Emile Hirsch. Davis will write and direct the horror film The Piper, a modern retelling of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Davis created, wrote and will direct Dr. Bell: The Original Sherlock Holmes, an action-thriller TV series centered on the origin of Sherlock Holmes, to be produced by Allan Scott, Andrew Higgie and Mick Davis. Davis created and wrote Bathory, which he will produce with award-winning director Matt Hastings. Davis created, wrote and will direct The Butler, starring Andy Garcia and set in The Bahamas. Davis will write and direct the faith-based thriller The Monarch, to be shot in Georgia in 2027. Also in 2027, he will direct the thriller Solitary Creatures, with Andy Garcia and Alice Eve.
Davis was born in the Gorbals, Glasgow, and now resides in Los Angeles.
Chris Prapha
Chris Prapha is a Los Angeles–based talent manager and producer and a partner at AIG and the founder of Creative Partners Group. He works with international actors and creative talent across film, television, and brand partnerships, guiding careers and bringing talent together with distinctive projects and collaborators around the world. With a relationship-driven approach and a global perspective, Chris works closely with clients, casting teams, producers, and studios to develop opportunities from early conversations through production. His work spans talent representation, producing, and creative partnerships across the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Panelists
George Heller
Producer, Lawyer | Panelist
George Heller is a manager-producer at Brillstein Entertainment Partners, the oldest and one of the most storied film and TV companies of its kind. Founded in 1969, Brillstein was a driving force behind the careers of Lorne Michaels, Jim Henson, John Belushi, Gilda Radner and many other iconic performers, filmmakers and artists. In 2023, Brillstein was acquired by the sports and music company Wasserman, now The Team. Most recently, Heller was an executive producer on Last Days, directed by Justin Lin, which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, and Role Play for Amazon Studios, starring Kaley Cuoco, David Oyelowo and Bill Nighy. The latter is based on his own original idea and was released over MLK weekend 2024. Previously, he was an executive producer on The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers for Disney+, a half-hour series based on the 1990s film franchise of the same name. He also executive-produced Morgan, starring Paul Giamatti, Kate Mara and Anya Taylor-Joy, for 20th Century Fox alongside Ridley Scott, and Haven, starring Orlando Bloom, Zoe Saldaña and Bill Paxton.
Upcoming feature projects include Antarctica for Searchlight Pictures, to be directed by Academy Award winner Danny Boyle. This true story will shoot in the Arctic and Iceland in Q1 2027. Heller represents a diverse list of writers, filmmakers and TV creators who work across a wide spectrum of mediums and genres, with an emphasis on elevating female and other underrepresented voices. He graduated from the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television with a BFA in Filmic Writing in 2001.
Cisely Saldaña
Producer | Panelist
Cisely Saldaña is an executive producer and co-founder of Cinestar Pictures, the production company she built with her sisters, Mariel and Zoe Saldaña. Her producing credits include The Bluff (Prime Video), From Scratch (Netflix), Gordita Chronicles (HBO Max) and Taylor Sheridan's Lioness (Paramount+), which returned this year for a well-reviewed third season. Her work lives where stories begin: in the script, the pitch and the long road between an idea and a green light.
She believes the best projects start as conversations, and she is drawn to the people stubborn enough to see them through. Based between Los Angeles and Paris, she also writes Precisely by Cisely, a newsletter on film, design, travel, culture and the business of taste. An early friend of BIFF, she is delighted to return and share her experience with the next generation of filmmakers.
Robbie Brenner
Producer | Panelist
Robbie Brenner is the President and Chief Content Officer of Mattel Studios and an Academy Award-nominated film producer. In June 2025, she was elevated to oversee Mattel's combined film and television divisions, where she leads the company's slate of releases, including Masters of the Universe and a Matchbox film project. A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with a BA in Film, Brenner has spent more than 30 years in the film industry. She spent nine years in production and development at Miramax Films, working on films such as Serendipity, before leaving in 2004 to produce Haven, a Cayman Islands crime drama directed by Frank E. Flowers and starring Orlando Bloom, Bill Paxton and Zoe Saldaña. She went on to hold executive roles at 20th Century Fox, Davis Entertainment and Relativity Media, where she served as President of Production. Brenner produced the global blockbuster Barbie (2023), which grossed more than $1.4 billion and earned multiple Academy Award nominations. She also produced Dallas Buyers Club (2013), which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Her other credits include Burden (2018), Call Jane, The Fighter and Immortals.