50 Great Screenplays by People of Color to Download and Study for Free
Ava DuVernay, Guillermo del Toro, and Spike Lee - oh my. Continue your education in the art of screenwriting by reading these brilliant — and diverse — writers
Back when I staffed my first television series, I asked to be sent an equal number of submissions from women and, without a specific number in mind, scripts from people of color. This was more than a decade ago, and while I finally got agencies to relent and share some writing samples from women, it was nearly impossible to get anyone to send me scripts by screenwriters of color.
Now, things have improved in Hollywood, but not that much. As my friend Franklin Leonard, founder of the Black List, recently said of Hollywood’s state of inclusion: “Laughably similar to immediately before every company posted Black tiles on Instagram and made performative promises to make change.”
But hey, this doesn’t mean you have to remain as ignorant or systemically shut off to diversity as Hollywood still is…which is why I’ve compiled this list of 50 screenplays by screenwriters of color that are currently available for you to download for free and study.
Note: this is not a “greatest” list, rather a list of great screenplays I could find online.
While you’re at it, be sure to check out these other resource articles:
“Read the 10 Feature Screenplays the WGA Thinks Are the Best of 2023”
“10 Screenplays by the Great Walter Hill to Download and Study”
“15 Iconic '90s Pilot Scripts to Download and Study”
“20 Christmas Movie Screenplays to Download and Study for Free”
“30 Brilliant BBC Drama Scripts to Download and Study for Free”
“40 Great Action Screenplays to Download and Study for Free”
“50 Essential 21st-Century One-Hour Pilot Scripts to Download and Study for Free”
“50 Great Screenplays by Women to Download and Study for Free”
“60 Great Comedy Screenplays to Download and Study for Free”
“60 Screenplays About Love and Heartbreak to Download and Study for Free”
“100 Horror Screenplays to Download and Study for Free”
All these screenplays tend to vanish, as all things do on the Internet. Download ASAP for your educational purposes.
Enjoy!
12 YEARS A SLAVE by John Ridley
ANTEBELLUM by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz
BABEL by Guillermo Arriaga
BELLE by Misan Sagay (Misan is a dear personal friend and this is a beautiful script)
THE BIG SICK by Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani
BIRDMAN (OR THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE) by Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr., and Armando Bó
BLACK PANTHER by Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER by Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole
BOYZ N THE HOOD by John Singleton
CANDYMAN (2021) by Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld
CRAZY RICH ASIANS by Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim
DA FIVE BLOODS by Kevin Willmott and Spike Lee
DO THE RIGHT THING by Spike Lee
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
THE FAREWELL by Lulu Wang
THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD VERSION by Radha Blank
FRIDAY by Ice Cube and DJ Pooh
FRUITVALE STATION by Ryan Coogler
GET OUT by Jordan Peele
GRAVITY by Alfonso Cuarón and Jonás Cuarón
A HERO by Massoumeh Lahidji
IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK by Barry Jenkins
JOJO RABBIT by Taika Waititi
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH by Will Berson and Shaka King
LOVE AND BASKETBALL by Gina Prince-Blythewood
MALCOLM X by James Baldwin, Arnold Perl, and Spike Lee
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM by Ruben Santiago-Hudson
MIDDLE OF NOWHERE by Ava DuVernay
MINARI by Lee Isaac Chung
MUDBOUND by Virgil Williams and Dee Rees
NIGHTMARE ALLEY by Guillermo del Toro and Kim Morgan
NOPE by Jordan Peele
ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI by Kemp Powers
PAN’S LABYRINTH by Guillermo del Toro
PARASITE by Bong Joon-Ho and Han Jin Won
RESPECT by Tracey Scott Wilson; story by Callie Khouri and Tracey Scott Wilson
SHAME by Steve McQueen and Abi Morgan
SELMA by Paul Webb and Ava DuVernay
THE SHAPE OF WATER by Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor
SORRY TO BOTHER YOU by Boots Riley
SPY KIDS by Robert Rodriguez
TILL by Michael Reilly & Keith Beauchamp and Chinonye Chukwu
TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE by Sofia Alvarez
THE WHITE TIGER by Ramin Bahrani
ZOLA by Janicza Bravo and Jeremy O. Harris
If this article and the time I spent on it added anything to your life, please consider buying me a coffee so I can keep this newsletter free for everyone.
My debut novel PSALMS FOR THE END OF THE WORLD is now available in hardback and paperback from Headline Books, Hachette Australia, and more. You can order it here no matter where you are in the world:
