The 16th edition of the "Black List" features 80 unproduced screenplays. Here are 12 more, indexed from S to T.
You can read and download the "Black List: 2020" screenplays and scripts right here, right now.
They're cataloged and indexed alphabetically for quick access. For Your Consideration, the next batch of 12 scripts. Including Steve Desmond's and Michael Sherman's "The Saturday Night Ghost Club," Cat Wilkins' comedy, "Two Faced," and everything in between.
If you're a young writer looking for study guides, you've found the right place. These "Black List: 2020" scripts were chosen by industry executives.
What is the "Black List" you ask? It may not be exactly what you'd expect. Discover more, below.
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 particular year. Screenwriters, young and old, repped or voiceless, submit their works for consideration.
Annually, since 2005, film industry executives read hundreds of screenplays and choose which ones are their favorite. Referred to as a "mention" (or a vote), favored scripts with the most mentions are featured on, in this regard, the "Black List: 2020." And, you may have already noticed that a great number of screenplays featured on The List have since been produced.
Past scripts include "3:10 to Yuma," and "Adventureland."
The Saturday Night Ghost Club
Written by: Steve DesmondMichael Sherman
Mentions: 17
After being haunted by a terrifying entity, a twelve-year-old boy teams up with his eccentric uncle and three other misfits to form their own ghost club, investigating all the paranormal sites in town so that he can find and confront the ghost that’s tormenting him.
The Sauce
Written by: Chaz Hawkins
Mentions: 17
A depressed, selfish black man fights for his life after taking a job at a white-owned beauty parlor, whose monstrous owners concocted a wildly popular shampoo that requires a sickening ingredient
Sharper (2023)
Written by: Brian GatewoodAlessandro Tanaka
Mentions: 17
A chain of scam artists goes after one wealthy family with the perfect plan to drain them of their funds. But when love, heartbreak, and jealousy slither their way into the grand scheme, it becomes unclear whether the criminals are conning or the ones being conned. IMDb
A Single Point of Failure
Written by: Terry Huang
Mentions: 9
Journalists race to expose how Boeing knowingly misled regulators, pilots, and airlines to cover up a problematic flight software system on the 737 MAX, leading to two major airplane crashes and the deaths of 346 people. Based on real events.
St. Simmons
Written by: Greg Wayne
Mentions: 11
When a very fat and possibly gay boy from New Orleans is visited by an angel called Barbra Streisand, he sets out on a holy crusade in daytime television to touch and save the soul of every obese person in America before his demons consume him - if only to make his daddy proud. It’s the true gospel of Richard Simmons.
State Lines
Written by: Rachel Wolf
Mentions: 9
When headstrong but well-intentioned college student Sara Jane bails on Senior Spring Break to drive a fourteen-year-old girl to get an abortion, she’s shocked to discover that her passenger is an undercover pro-lifer who has kidnapped her.
Story
Written by: Emily Siegel
Mentions: 10
When a journalist turned stay-at-home mom relocates to Los Angeles to rebuild after a personal trauma, she blurs the lines between fact and fiction... only to find herself at the center of her own story.
Suncoast
Written by: Laura Chinn
Mentions: 14
A awkward teenage outcast comes of age against the backdrop of the hospice where her brother (and coincidentally, Terri Schiavo) are dying.
Tin Roof Rusted
Written by: Michelle Harper
Mentions: 7
When two life-long best friends discover that they’re both pregnant, they promise to embark on their journey together. But with the constant pressure of outsiders, the two struggle midst personal differences and must re-learn that what connected them as children can still be their glue as adults.
Towers
Written by: Aaron Rabin
Mentions: 8
A businessman’s obsession with his competitor leads him down a rabbit hole of self-discovery, fantasy, and delusion.
Trespasser
Written by: Gabe Hobson
Mentions: 8
A father and daughter living in remote isolation must fight for survival after aliens arrive seeking revenge for killing one of their own.
Two Faced
Written by: Cat Wilkins
Mentions: 25 (5th overall in 2020)
A high school senior attempts to get her principal fired after observing racist behavior, but she quickly learns he won’t go down without a fight.