Read This Year’s Oscar Nominated Screenplays!
The 98th Academy Awards aired this past Sunday. By now, the speeches have all been YouTube’d, the gowns have all been analyzed, and thousands of opinions about the show have been tweeted and instagrammed. But for screenwriters, the real event isn’t the ceremony — it’s the scripts. Those hundred-odd pages of story that existed long before the red carpet or Oscar campaigns.
And here’s the good news: even though the awards show is over, many of this year’s nominated screenplays are still online. The less good news? They won’t be forever (studios have a habit of quietly pulling them down once awards season ends). So, before the buzz dies down and the links disappear, now’s your chance to dig in.
Curious how to juggle multiple languages in one film? Sentimental Value shows how Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier seamlessly weave together Norwegian and English dialogue. Struggling with how to express a visually ambitious concept on the page? Check out Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. Into animation? Have a read of KPop Demon Hunters. Thinking about adapting a book? Look at Hamnet to see how Chloé Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell turned a beloved novel into a deeply emotional screenplay.
No matter what genre you’re into, reading great scripts is a practical, easy way to find inspiration and pick up a new trick or two (yes, even if you’ve been writing for decades).
Below are links to this year’s Oscar-nominated screenplays, along with a few other standouts from this past year. Winners are marked with **. Click, download, and start reading (no red carpet required).
Best Picture Nominees:
BUGONIA (Focus Features)— Screenplay by Will Tracy, based on the 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet! by Jang Joon-hwan
F1 (Apple Studios) — Screenplay by Ehren Kruger
FRANKENSTEIN (Netflix) — Screenplay by Guillermo del Toro, based on the novel by Mary Shelley
HAMNET (Focus Features) — Screenplay by Chloé Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell, based on the 2020 novel by O'Farrell.
MARTY SUPREME (A24) — Screenplay by Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER** (Warner Bros. Pictures) — Screenplay by Paul Thomas Anderson, inspired by the 1990 novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon *screenplay not yet available online
THE SECRET AGENT (Neon) — Screenplay by Kleber Mendonça Filho
SENTIMENTAL VALUE (Neon) — Screenplay by Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier
SINNERS (Warner Bros. Pictures) — Screenplay by Ryan Coogler
TRAIN DREAMS (Netflix) — Screenplay by Clint Bailey and Greg Kwedar, based on the book by Denis Johnson
Writing (Original screenplay) Nominees:
BLUE MOON (Sony Pictures)— Screenplay by Robert Kaplow
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (Neon) — Screenplay by Jafar Panahi, with script collaborators Nader Saïvar, Shadmehr Rastin, Mehdi Mahmoudian
MARTY SUPREME (A24) — Screenplay by Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
SENTIMENTAL VALUE (Neon)— Screenplay by Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier
SINNERS** (Warner Bros. Pictures) — Screenplay by Ryan Coogler
Writing (Adapted screenplay) Nominees:
BUGONIA (Focus Features)— Screenplay by Will Tracy, based on the 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet! by Jang Joon-hwan
FRANKENSTEIN (Netflix) — Screenplay by Guillermo del Toro, based on the novel by Mary Shelley
HAMNET (Focus Features) — Screenplay by Chloé Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell, based on the 2020 novel by O'Farrell.
ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER** (Warner Bros. Pictures) — Screenplay by Paul Thomas Anderson, inspired by the 1990 novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon *script not yet available online
TRAIN DREAMS (Netflix) — Screenplay by Clint Bailey and Greg Kwedar, based on the novel by Denis Johnson
Best Animated Feature Nominees:
ARCO (Neon) — Screenplay by Ugo Bienvenu and Félix de Givry *script not yet available online
ELIO (Disney/Pixar) — Screenplay by Julia Cho, Mark Hammer and Mike Jones; Story by Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi and Julia Cho *script not yet available online
KPOP DEMON HUNTERS** (Netflix) — Screenplay by Danya Jimenez & Hannah McMechan; and Maggie Kang; and Chris Appelhans
LITTLE AMÉLIE OR THE CHARACTER OF RAIN (GKIDS) — Screenplay by Liane-Cho Han, Aude Py, Maïlys Vallade, Eddine Noël *script not yet available online
ZOOTOPIA 2 (Disney) — Screenplay by Jared Bush
Screenplays for other notable 2025/2026 films:
AFTER THE HUNT (Amazon/MGM) — Screenplay by Nora Garrett
EDDINGTON (A24) — Screenplay by Ari Aster
FRIENDSHIP (A24) — Screenplay by Andrew DeYoung
HEDDA (Amazon/MGM) — Screenplay by Nia DaCosta, based on the play Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen
IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU (A24) — Screenplay by Mary Bronstein
SORRY, BABY (A24) — Screenplay by Eva Victor
THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE (Searchlight Pictures) — Screenplay by Mona Fastvold & Brady Corbet
What screenplays inspire you? Let me know @CaroleKirsch!
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