Download all 10 best original screenplay and best adapted screenplays.
The Oscar nominations for best original screenplay and best adapted screenplay 2020 have been announced!
Reading screenplays is a great way to improve your writing style, dialogue, scenes and much more. With that in mind, here are the ten Oscar-nominated scripts that you can download and read right away.
There are five in the Best Original Screenplay category and five in the Best Adapted Screenplay category. Happy reading!
Best original screenplay #1: 1917 by Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns.
Unbelievably, this is Sam Mendes’ first official screenwriting credit. He drew inspiration from a story told to him when he was a child by his grandfather who served in World War I.
Mendes has said “It’s the story of a messenger who has a message to carry. And that’s all I can say. It lodged with me as a child, this story or this fragment and obviously I’ve enlarged it significantly. But it has that at its core.”
Best original screenplay #2: Knives Out by Rian Johnson.
We all have our own way of getting inspired to write, and on this script, Johnson immersed himself in classic whodunnit movies such as Death on the Nile, Gosford Park and Murder by Death.
He actually had the idea for the story way back in 2005 after completing Brick and interestingly both the title and working title (Morning Bell) are tracks from the album Amnesiac by Radiohead.
Best original screenplay #3: Marriage Story by Noah Baumbach.
This script is a great example of creating something positive out of personal pain. We don’t know if Baumbach found writing this script cathartic, but it is based on his own divorce from actress Jennifer Jason Leigh in 2013.
Furthermore, both Scarlett Johansson and Laura Dern have gone through divorces themselves and Adam Driver grew up in a broken home. All of which may have something to do with the great performances Baumbach captures on screen.
Best original screenplay #4: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino.
Ideas for movies can come from anywhere and Tarantino got the idea for this back in 2009 while working with an actor who had used the same stunt double for twenty years. Even so, he originally conceived the story as a novel and spent five years writing it as such before realizing it was better suited as a movie.
Unusually for Tarantino, he began this time with the climax and worked backward, having already created the main characters Cliff Booth and Rick Dalton.
[Screenplay not yet available]
Best original screenplay #5: Parasite by Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won.
Bong Joon-ho co-wrote the script with Han Jin-won and an obvious inspiration for it was the work of Alfred Hitchcock.
The story, about an unemployed couple who ingratiate themselves into the lives of their wealthy neighbors, contains two of his most well-known motifs—stairs and voyeurism and it went on to become the first-ever Korean film to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Best adapted screenplay #1: The Irishman by Steve Zaillian.
In an article for the Los Angeles Times, Zaillian writes how he approached turning the epic source material—Charles Brandt’s weighty biography on Frank Sheeran, I Heard You Paint Houses—into a screenplay.
In a nutshell, Zaillian stuck to William Goldman’s timeless advice to get into stories and scenes as late as possible: “Figure out what the thing is really about and cut as close to that bone as you can.”
Best adapted screenplay #2: Jojo Rabbit by Taika Waititi.
Waititi wrote the script back in 2011, in-between scripts for Boy and Things We Do in the Shadows. He described the writing process behind Jojo Rabbit at a Hollywood Reporter roundtable thus:
“Usually I start in various places, and often at the end. Then maybe a bit at the beginning. Then sort of figure it out. This one, I just went from the beginning all the way through in a linear fashion and I don’t know how it happened.” We hope that helped.
Best adapted screenplay #3: Joker by Todd Phillips and Scott Silver.
Having jumped through multiple hoops and finally got the go-ahead from Warner Bros., Phillips and Silver began writing the script in 2017, and it took about a year to complete.
While writing the pair drew inspiration from classic 70s and 80s dark character studies, such as Taxi Driver, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Raging Bull and, of course, The King of Comedy.
Best adapted screenplay #4: Little Women by Greta Gerwig.
We can’t emphasize the importance of research enough to budding screenwriters. Whether you’re writing an original script or an adaptation, it’s important to really immerse yourself in the world of your story.
For this script, Gerwig not only read books on Louisa May Alcott, her private letters and later novels, she also studied paintings and read poetry from the era. As well as rewatched movies with similar themes, such as Heaven’s Gate, Reds and Gigi.
Best adapted screenplay #5: Two Popes by Anthony McCarten.
McCarten was inspired to write the play that went on to become The Two Popes by the resignation of Pope Benedict—the first time this had happened in the church in 700 years. Expect this script to be just as successful at the Oscars as his other films: The Theory of Everything, Darkest Hour and Bohemian Rhapsody.
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Which scripts do you think deserve to win the best original screenplay and best adapted screenplay awards at this years’ Oscar ceremony? Are there any scripts you think should be in this list of best screenplay Oscars that didn’t make it? Let us know in the comments below!
Download and read 2019’s best screenplay nominations…
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[© Photo credits: Pixabay, Flickr]
