'Wadjda', 'The Invisible Woman', 'The Past' Screenplays Available For Your Consideration

As more award contenders make their screenplays available online for free, legal download, today we present a rarity - a screenplay for the first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia and the first feature film made by a female Saudi director - plus two screenplays for films yet to be released in the United States. Thanks to Sony Pictures Classics, we have the screenplays for Wadjda, The Invisible Woman, and The Past for your consideration.

Written and directed by Haifaa al-Mansour, Wadjda is not only the first feature film directed by a female Saudi director and shot entirely in Saudi Arabia, but it is also the first film that Saudi Arabia has submitted to compete for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. During the shoot on the streets of Riyadh, al-Mansour had to direct from inside a van using a walkie-talkie as she was not allowed to mix in public with the men on the film crew. Also, Saudi Arabia has no commercial cinemas, so the film had to be screened in two foreign embassies and a cultural center in Riyadh to qualify for the Oscar, and only an estimated 1,000 people in the capital city saw the film. You can read more about the story behind Wadjda in our NFS post from May. Wadjda is still in limited release in the U.S. Here's the trailer:

The second feature film directed by Ralph Fiennes, The Invisible Woman tells the story of an affair between Charles Dickens and a young actress named Nelly Ternan. The film is set to be released on Dec. 25 in the U.S. Here's the trailer:

In his follow-up to the foreign language Oscar winner A Separation, Iranian writer/director Asghar Farhadi brings us The Past, a relationship drama in which a French woman asks her long-estranged Iranian husband to return to Paris from Tehran to finalize their divorce so she can move on with her current life and relationship. The Past arrives in U.S. theatres on Dec. 20. Here's the trailer:

Here are the links to the screenplays, thanks to Sony Pictures Classics:

• Wadjda, written by Haifaa al-Mansour
• The Invisible Woman, screenplay by Abi Morgan, based on the book by Claire Tomalin
• The Past, written by Asghar Farhadi

As always, please use these screenplays for your educational purposes only, and don’t wait to download them as we never know when they will go offline.

Also, if you missed our previous posts about award contender screenplays available for free, legal download, you can find them at the links below:

• Fruitvale Station and Lee Daniels' The Butler
• Despicable Me 2 and The Croods
• The Spectacular Now, Spring Breakers, and The Bling Ring
• Before Midnight and Kill Your Darlings

Do you prefer to read a screenplay before you see a film? Or do you like to read a screenplay after a screening to understand how the words on the page were translated to the screen? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

Link: Sony Pictures Classics Awards