The 8th edition of "The Black List" features 78 screenplays. Here are the first 14, indexed alphabetically, from A to C.
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Read and download the "Black List: 2012" screenplays. We have 77 of the 78 selected scripts from the 8th edition. For a faster browsing experience, we've spread the downloads across a number of pages.
For Your Consideration, we have the first 14 scripts cataloged and indexed alphabetically, from A through C, for quick access. Including Sean Armstrong's "A Country of Strangers," to Marissa Jo Cerar's "Conversion," and everything in between.
If you're a young writer looking for study guides, you've found the right place. These "Black List: 2012" scripts were chosen by more than 290 film-industry executives as some of the best unproduced scripts this year.
What is "The Black List" you ask? To find out how it all works, go ahead and scroll down a little more.
Unsure about exactly what is "The Black List"? Read on.
Consider the name ironic. This isn't a list of scripts written by those who are unwelcome in the industry. Rather, "The Black List" is a compilation of "most liked" unproduced screenplays from a certain year. Screenwriters, young and old, repped or voiceless, submit their works for evaluation and possible consideration.
Annually, since 2005, film industry executives read hundreds of screenplays and choose which ones are their favorite. Referred to as a "mention" (a vote, basically), favored scripts with the most mentions are featured on, in this regard, the "Black List: 2012." And, you may have already noticed that a great number of screenplays featured on The List have since been produced.
Past picks include "Disturbia," and "Hanna."
A Country of Strangers
Written by: Sean Armstrong
Mentions: 43 (2nd overall in 2012)
Based on true events. Inspector Geoff Harper conducts a forty year search for the Beaumont Children, three siblings taken from an Australian beach in January of 1966.
All-Nighter (n.k.a. Run All Night) (2015)
Written by: Brad Ingelsby
Mentions: 11
An aging hitman goes up against his boss over a single night in order to protect his family. IMDb
Almanac (n.k.a. Project Almanac) (2015)
Written by: Jason PaganAndrew Stark
Mentions: 6
A group of high school kids discover how to time travel, but fail to recognize the potential consequences. IMDb
Americatown
Written by: Ben Poole
Mentions: 20
In a China-dominated near future, a former LAPD officer attempts to save his family from destitution in Los Angeles by working for a crime lord in the American ghetto within a thriving Hong Kong.
The Ballad of Pablo Escobar (n.k.a. El Patron)
Written by: Matt Aldrich
Mentions: 16
A telling of the last years of Pablo Escobar’s life, the war he waged on the Colombian government, and his fight to recapture his son’s love and respect.
Black Box
Written by: David Guggenheim
Mentions: 13
When Air Force One crashes, a journalist discovers a cover up after gaining access to the plane’s black box data and must unravel the mystery.
Bleeding Kansas
Written by: Russell SommerDan Frey
Mentions: 7
A runaway slave and a sheriff must journey to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a Gubernatorial candidate against the backdrop of Kansas’ induction into statehood and whether or not it would be a slave or free state.
Border Country
Written by: Jonathan W. Stokes
Mentions: 8
The Broken
Written by: John Glosser
Mentions: 12
In 1967 Oklahoma, a war vet/farmer investigates the suspicious death of his estranged son in the next county. When he discovers his son’s brutal murder was a covered-up gay bashing, he goes on a one-man mission to take down the corrupt sheriff responsible.
Cherries (n.k.a. Blockers) (2018)
Written by: Brian KehoeJim Kehoe
Mentions: 13
Three fathers learn of their teenage daughters’ pact to lose their virginity on prom night and band together to stop them. IMDb
Clive
Written by: Natasha Pincus
Mentions: 19
After an accident causes a successful CEO to lose both legs, he is forced to re-evaluate his life and identity.
Comancheria (n.k.a. Hell or High Water) (2016)
Written by: Taylor Sheridan
Mentions: 19
Two brothers, one an ex-con and the other a divorced father of two kids, face the foreclosure of their family’s West Texas farm. They team for a skillfully-calculated bank robbing spree that puts them on a collision course with two Texas Rangers determined to take them down. IMDb
Come and Find Me (2016)
Written by: Zack Whedon
Mentions: 6
When his girlfriend goes missing, David must track down her whereabouts after he realizes she’s not who she was pretending to be. IMDb
Conversion
Written by: Marissa Jo Cerar
Mentions: 9
A preacher’s wife, grieving from the loss of her teenage son and struggling to hold her family together, forms an unlikely friendship with a young street hustler who helps her understand her lost son and survive alcoholic depression.
