Where the script comes first. Educating & inspiring screenwriters since 2010. We ❤️ movies and believe that reading scripts is the best screenwriting education.
Congratulations to the 2024 TSL Free Screenplay Contest Winners:
First Place: Coastal Watch by Danielle Weinberg
Second Place: Inside Me by Darien Harte
Third Place: Sinners by April Son
Congrats writers, and as always, Keep writing!
Reading screenplays is by far the best
#screenwriting
education that any screenwriter can receive. 🔥 And what better script to read than one that has been nominated for an Academy Award?
Download 2020 Oscar-Nominated Screenplays Now! -
#filmmaking
Seth Rogen's advice? Don't be precious with your work. Get it out and on the page. At the end, he's talking about an exercise Judd Apatow taught him: Write down 100 ideas in one sitting - without being precious about them. Pick one and go with it. See what happens.
This is the first time in Oscars history that all five nominees for best original screenplay are up for best picture. 🏆
And we have all five scripts available for you to read. Download them for free:
Steven Spielberg on the value of studying classic films. Take a look at the greatest films of the past to see where the inspiration comes from with all the greatest filmmakers of today. What's your favorite classic film?
Credit: American Film Institute
“Nobody knows anything... Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what's going to work. Every time out it's a guess and, if you're lucky, an educated one.” - William Goldman (1931-2018)
"If you genuinely want to make films, then write screenplays… it’s only through writing scripts that you learn specifics about the structure of film and what cinema is.” - Akira Kurosawa
More from the acclaimed film director, screenwriter, and producer:
Shonda Rhimes is one of the most successful television writers, executive producers, and showrunners. Here are some ways she became successful, along with words of advice.
How to write a script - according to David Lynch. He makes it seem so easy... But I think the idea of breaking the script down in bite sized scenes is a great place to start. That's what so many writing rooms do. The index card method. Classic.
Credit: Frame Into Focus
A thread of the best TV scripts of 2021 ⬇️
Here are scripts for the TV shows that entertained us, fascinated us, and inspired us to become better writers ourselves.
🧵 with links to download and read for free!
Jordan Peele made the jump from sketch comedy to feature thrillers with his Oscar-winning screenplay (and acclaimed feature directorial debut) Get Out.
Here are tips from the award-winning screenwriter on writing exceptional thrillers.
Congratulations to the quarterfinalists of the 2021 TSL Free Screenplay Contest! 🎉
There were almost 13,000 submissions this year 🤯
Check out the list below and make sure to read the FAQ post about what comes next.
Want to read the 2023 Academy Award nominated scripts? Look no further.
Here are all the scripts for nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay in one thread - free to download ⬇️
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” - Stephen King
Check out the TSL Script Library, chock fully of award-winning screenplays you can download for free:
If you write (or want to write) screenplays, one of the most important skills you can have is the ability to critically watch and analyze other movies or TV shows. Here are some tips for watching with a critical eye.
Congratulations to the quarterfinalists of the 2020 TSL Free Screenplay Contest! 👏
View the full list:
We also have a handy blog post to help answer FAQs about the contest.
Check it out here:
The meet-cute is one of the oldest screenwriting conventions in Hollywood – it’s something that audiences expect and even crave. Brushing off the meet-cute as just a chick-flick gimmick is one of the biggest mistakes you can make.
Download TV scripts for free! Read more scrips, become a better writer. Here are just a few of our favorite comedies, all available to download and read.
Search for your favorites:
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the genius writer and actor of Fleabag fame, stumbled into writing because she wanted to create interesting work for herself as an actor.
Here are seven of our favorite insights we've learned from her (so far!)
Our annual Free Screenplay Contest is now open!
In partnership w/
@Coverfly
, we are offering this FREE screenplay competition to open talent-discovery to anyone, regardless of financial ability.
Open to feature, TV and short screenplays.
Details:
Did you know Heath Ledger never went "full Joker" in rehearsals? When the cameras were finally rolling, he actually frightened
@themichaelcaine
so much that he forgot his lines! Dive into this scene on our blog:
#screenwriting
#writing
#scripttoscreen
Here's some great creative advice from Rick Rubin. Make what you're writing a diary entry. At least, the first draft. Try not to think about an audience and write what is truly meaningful to you. What are you working on right now? And how's it going?
Credit: Andrew Huberman
“My first draft of Chicago 7 was a dramatized Wikipedia page. I knew it wasn’t good enough,”
#screenwriter
Aaron Sorkin reflects. Research was key to unlocking the story on an emotional level for his characters.
Read the script for Trial of the Chicago 7:
Filmmakers intended for captions to be on the duration of Sound of Metal, and that is how it was shown at film festivals. They wanted to bring hearing people into the experience of those who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Read the script for free: