Who Needs Film School? Binge-Read the Latest Scripts

Film school, screenwriting books, workshops, and seminars are excellent food for the brain (and often helpful for beginners), but the best education a screenwriter can receive is by writing, watching, and especially reading. 

Writing is the obvious necessity. You can't evolve as a writer without writing multiple scripts. 

Watching movies is key as well. You'll learn all you need to know about pacing, concept, dialogue, character arcs, tone, atmosphere, etc.

And then there's reading scripts.

Read the good ones. Read the bad ones. Read scripts from experienced and successful screenwriters and read those from inexperienced and novice screenwriters through various script share programs, local writing groups, etc.

Thankfully, studios and production companies these days are often more than willing to showcase their screenplays after a film has debuted — for educational purposes of course.

Below is a collection of scripts from recent celebrated films within the last few years, thanks to our friends at Go Into the Story for curating many of these.   Simply click the movie post of the screenplay you want to read.  We'll be sure to update this collection continuously as Awards Season ramps up.

These select scripts are from multiple genres and are great examples that screenwriters can learn from when tackling a certain story. Wondering how to handle a certain type of story, character, structure, subject, action, suspense, etc.? Learn from proven scripts that were produced to much acclaim. 

Are you ready to go to school? Are you ready to show up for class? Are you ready to study? No need to pay tuition. No need to rush to campus. Keep writing, keep watching, and now start reading. Enjoy...

Note: Keep in mind that many scripts online are shooting scripts, director/writer auteur scripts, etc. All of which aren't always showcased in the general film industry expectations of screenplay format. So be sure to avoid emulating format that includes multiple camera angles, multiple transitions , etc. For a perfect example of the basic format screenwriters should try to emulate, read ScreenCraft's Elements of Screenplay Formatting.    

Thanks to Go Into the Story for the links!