Screenwriter Sessions 2026
We are back for our 6th edition and could not be happier to announce our Guest Speakers for 2026. This year’s program will run from February 3 to March 2, with sessions held weekly on Tuesdays. Join us for an exciting series featuring acclaimed guest speakers whose impressive and influential credits span a wide range of storytelling.
These four speakers bring an impressive balance of experience in both television and film. From hit, award-winning series such as The Queen’s Gambit, House of Cards, Andor, and This Is Us; to breakout first features such as Eve’s Bayou and Crazy Rich Asians, box-office success films like Marley and Me, and Get Shorty; to highly anticipated upcoming projects such as The Five-Star Weekend and The Princess Diaries 3.
Check out our lineup below, and sign up to join us for a month of inspiration and connection!
Learn more about this year’s guest speakers below.
Adele Lim – Tuesday, February 3rd
Adele Lim (Writer/Director/Producer) is Writer-Director and Co-Founder of 100 Tigers Productions. Her screenwriting credits include Crazy Rich Asians (Warner Bros) and Oscar-nominated Raya and the Last Dragon (Disney Animation). In 2023 she made her directing debut with Joy Ride (Lionsgate). A Malaysian immigrant of Chinese descent, she graduated from Emerson College, Boston, and got her start in the entertainment industry as a Writer-Producer on primetime TV dramas, including hit series Las Vegas, One Tree Hill, Private Practice, and Lethal Weapon. In 2023, together with her producing partner Naia Cucukov-Richards, she co-founded 100 Tigers Productions, a TV & Film production company that centers cross-cultural stories with global appeal.
Additionally, Adele mentors emerging writers through the WGA, CAPE, and AMPAS to promote equity and representation in entertainment. Currently, Adele is developing the Crazy Rich Asians TV series for HBO MAX, and is slated to direct the next installment of Princess Diaries with Anne Hathaway.
Bekah Brunstetter – Tuesday, February 10th
Bekah Brunstetter’s(Writer/Producer/Playwright) writing and producing credits include Netflix’s Maid, NBC’s This is Us, Molly Smith Metzler’s Netflix series Sirens and upcoming The Five-Star Weekend starring Jennifer Garner for Peacock. She wrote the book for the stage adaptation of The Notebook. Following its Broadway debut, the musical is currently touring the country. Her play The Cake has been produced over 80 times worldwide and ran off-Broadway at Manhattan Theater Club. Brunstetter is represented by WME, The Shuman Company, and Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham.
For more, visit: www.bekahbrunstetter.com
Beau Willimon – Tuesday, February 17th
Beau Willimon (Writer/Director/Producer) is a screenwriter, playwright and producer. Television: Creator/Showrunner of Netflix’s House of Cards, for which he received multiple Emmy, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations and was a recipient of a Peabody Award. Beau also served as Creator/Showrunner of Hulu’s The First, Writer on both seasons of Tony Gilroy's Andor for Disney+, Executive Producer on Severance Season 2 for Apple.
His Film credits include: Co-screenwriter for Ides of March (based on his play Farragut North) for which he received Academy Award®, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations. Screenwriter of Mary Queen of Scots. Willimon served as president of the Writers Guild of America, East for four years, on Council for seven. He received a BA from Columbia University, MFA from Columbia’s School of the Arts and a fellowship from Juilliard's Playwriting Program. He is the co-founder of Westward Productions.
Scott Frank – Tuesday, February 24th
Scott Frank (Writer/Director/Producer) has written the screenplays for Little Man Tate, Dead Again, Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Minority Report, The Interpreter, The Lookout, Marley & Me, A Walk Among the Tombstones and Logan, as well as all of the teleplays for the series Godless, The Queen’s Gambit, Monsieur Spade, and Dept Q.
He directed the films The Lookout and A Walk Among the Tombstones, as well as all episodes of the limited series Godless, The Queen’s Gambit, and Monsieur Spade. He also directed 6 episodes of Dept. Q.
The Lookout won Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature) while Out of Sight and Logan were nominated for Academy Awards for adapted screenplay. Nominated for 18 Emmy award, he received two Emmy as director and producer of The Queen’s Gambit, for which he also received the DGA award. Godless was nominated for 12 Emmy awards, the WGA and DGA awards.
He received the WGA award for Out of Sight and The Queen’s Gambit. In 2025 he received the Ian McClellan Hunter Award for Career Achievement in Film and Television from the WGAe.
He is a board member of PEN and the Sundance Institute.
Kasi Lemmons – Monday, March 2nd
Kasi Lemmons (Writer/Director/Actor/Producer) - As an actor, director, writer, producer, librettist, mentor, and educator, Kasi Lemmons is one of the most powerful voices of our time. Her first feature, Eve’s Bayou, is considered one of the essential works of the 1990s and in 2017 was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress's National Film Registry.
Her second film, The Caveman's Valentine, starring Samuel Jackson, opened the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. Lemmons’ third feature Talk to Me, starring Don Cheadle, earned the 2008 NAACP Image Award for outstanding directing. Her fourth film, Black Nativity, was released nationwide on Thanksgiving 2013. In 2019, Lemmons’ fifth film, Harriet, starring Cynthia Erivo as the iconic freedom fighter, was nominated for two Oscars, including Best Actress.
Her first libretto, “Fire Shut Up In My Bones,” composed by Terence Blanchard, opened The Metropolitan Opera’s ’21-’22 season, the first opera by an African-American composer and librettist ever performed at The Met. “Fire Shut Up In My Bones” went on to win a Grammy for Best Opera Recording. Her sixth film, Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody, opened Christmas ’22 and was #1 on Netflix during its debut weekend. Lemmons is an Arts Professor in the Graduate Film Department at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
