60 Screenplays About Love and Heartbreak to Download and Study for Free

From romantic dramas to romantic comedies, I've curated a list of 'Valentine's Day' scripts that should provide a well-rounded education in telling cinematic love stories

Feb 09, 2024

∙ Paid

Valentine’s Day is around the corner. It’s a manufactured holiday, yes, but let’s just skip the capitalism-is-terrible conversation for now so that I can share with you this bonus feature for 5AM StoryTalk’s paid subscribers - 60 screenplays about love and heartbreak (otherwise known as romantic comedies and romantic dramas).

Some are obvious. Some I’ve added to my curation because I think they offer fun twists on the expectation of what a “romance” is. All moved me in some way or another.

All these screenplays tend to vanish, as all things do on the Internet. Download ASAP for your personal educational purposes. If you want more resources like this one, be sure to check out these other articles:

10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU (1999) by Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith

Oozing with charm and wit like pretty much everything McCullah and Smith do together.

(500) DAYS OF SUMMER (2009) by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber

THE ABYSS (1989) by James Cameron

A daring choice for a list of romantic films, I know, but the love story between Bud and his estranged wife Lindsey is so goddamn good.

AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957) by Delmer Daves, Donald Ogden Stewart, and Leo McCarey; story by Leo McCarey and Mildred Cram

A film so achingly romantic that another screenplay on this list, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, directly references it and utilizes aspects of its structure for its finale. Oh god, the reveal at the end why she didn’t meet him…

THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT (1995) by Aaron Sorkin

A spiritual prequel to “THE WEST WING”. It harkens back to a time when romantic comedies were a key part of the theatrical experience, but also a time when America wasn’t a complete and utter dumpster fire.

THE APARTMENT (1960) by Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond

AMOUR (2012) by Michael Haneke

Heartbreaking. Just heartbreaking.

ANNIE HALL (1977) by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman

I get it, Allen is problematic for many of us. But there’s no getting around how hilarious, poignant, and structurally revolutionary that this script is.

AS GOOD AS IT GETS (1997) by Mark Andrus and James L. Brooks; story by Mark Andrus

“You make me want to be a better man.”

ATONEMENT (2007) by Christopher Hampton

Most of the great romances are also tragedies. This is both, but, more importantly, a brutal meditation on the nature of truth.

AWAY FROM HER (2006) by Sarah Polley

I do not recommend watching this as part of a double feature with AMOUR.

A STAR IS BORN (2018) by Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, and Will Fetters

A huge Hollywood romantic drama that feels spiritually ripped out of the fifties. Why can’t we have more of these?

BEFORE MIDNIGHT (2013) by Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, and Julie Delpy

Some of you might hesitate at the third film in the BEFORE trilogy being included given where Jesse and Celine end up…but if you’ve been married, you know that’s also what a real love story is.

BEFORE SUNRISE (1995) by Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan

As the years pass, I find it more and more difficult to watch this film. It transports me to such a different time in my life, when summer romances felt like they could change your life forever, when possibilities felt endless, that I no longer feel nostalgia as much as something like sadness. But all that said, it doesn’t get more romantic than this film. More, for screenwriters, pay special attention to a lack of discernible Hollywood structure in this film or the rest of the trilogy. Events drift one into the next…tension increases because of the decision the characters are meant to make…and then resolution. It’s simple and driven wholly by yearning.

BEFORE SUNSET (2004) by Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, and Ethan Hawke; story by Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan

The innocence of BEFORE SUNRISE collides with the reality of growing up. Beautiful and moving and, by the end, kind of like coming home if home was heaven.

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