Read 20 Oscar-Hopeful Screenplays: 'Loving,' 'Manchester by the Sea,' and More
Plus: The Girl on the Train, Kubo and the Two Strings, and many more.
Awards season is in full swing again. And you know what that means? More screenplays are available to download (legally) for free, thanks to the studios. We kick things off this year with a trove of scripts from Focus Features, Amazon Studios, Universal Pictures, Bleecker Street, Sony Pictures Classics, and Walt Disney Studios.
Before we get to the screenplay links, let's take a look at a few of the trailers for the more recent and upcoming releases from each of these distributors.
First, writer/director Jeff Nichols' latest film Loving tells the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving, a mixed-race couple from Virginia who get married in DC and are arrested, tried, and exiled from their home state because of anti-miscegenation laws. Their quiet love and determination led to the landmark US Supreme Court ruling Loving v. Virginia, but Nichols' film focuses on the human story, avoiding the courtroom drama virtually altogether. After speaking at length with Jeff Nichols during our panel conversation at this year's Austin Film Festival and seeing Loving at AFF on opening night, we cannot recommend this film highly enough, especially at this very moment in our country's history.
Amazon Studios brings us Kenneth Lonergan's latest film, Manchester by the Sea, one of the big hits coming out of Sundance this year. Casey Affleck plays Lee Chandler, a man forced to return to his hometown Manchester-by-the-Sea after the death of his brother. Lee learns he has been named the guardian of his 16-year-old nephew, Patrick. Returning to town forces Lee to deal with his ex-wife and the reasons why he flew the coop, all the while coping with the loss of his brother and how to care for his teenage nephew.
Universal Pictures recently brought the runaway bestselling novel The Girl on the Train to the big screen, moving the story from London to New York City. Emily Blunt plays the eponymous Rachel, still reeling from her divorce and imagining the lives of the couples in the houses she passes every day on her train commute. One morning, Rachel thinks she witnesses something in one very particular house along the tracks and falls deep into the mystery of what she may or may not have seen.
Back in the spring, Bleecker Street released Eye in the Sky, a taut thriller focused on the moral and political dilemmas of drone warfare. A UK-based colonel, played by Helen Mirren, commands a drone mission that escalates from "capture" to "kill" to stop a suicide bombing attack in Kenya in cooperation with US forces. Suddenly, she learns from a US drone pilot that a nine-year-old girl has entered the target zone.
This December, Sony Pictures Classics will bring us Pedro Almodóvar's latest film, Julieta. Still suffering from the loss of her husband, Julieta discovers that her 18-year-old daughter has left her without a trace. In searching for her, Julieta realizes how little she knows about her own child.
Our thanks to the studios for making these screenplays available for download. (But make sure to download them soon, as we never know when the studios will remove them.)
- Loving, written by Jeff Nichols
- Kubo and the Two Strings, screenplay by Marc Haimes and Chris Butler, story by Shannon Tindle and Marc Haimes
- Manchester by the Sea, written by Kenneth Lonergan
- Love & Friendship, written by Whit Stillman, based on Jane Austen's unfinished novella
- The Girl on the Train, screenplay by Erin Cressida Wilson, based on the novel by Paula Hawkins
- Hail, Caesar!, written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
- The Secret Life of Pets, written by Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio and Brian Lynch
- My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, written by Nia Vardalos
- Bridget Jones's Baby, written by Helen Fielding and Dan Mazer and Emma Thompson, based on characters and story by Helen Fielding
- Eye in the Sky, written by Guuy Hibbert
- Captain Fantastic, written by Matt Ross
- Denial, screenplay by David Hare, based on the book History on Trial by Deborah E. Lipstadt
- Anthropoid, written by Sean Ellis and Anthony Frewin
- The Hollars, written by James C. Strouse
- I Saw the Light, written by Marc Abraham
- Julieta, written by Pedro Almodóvar
- Maggie's Plan, written for the screen by Rebecca Miller, based on a story by Karen Rinaldi
- The Meddler, written by Lorene Scafaria
- Miles Ahead, written by Steven Baigelman & Don Cheadle
- Zootopia, screenplay by Jared Bush and Phil Johnston, story by Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Jared Bush, Jim Reardon, Josie Trinidad, Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee
As always, these scripts are for educational purposes only. We'll post links to more as they become available. Stay tuned!