The Black List for Screenwriters

If you’ve been writing screenplays for any length of time, you’ve probably heard of The Black List.

Chances are you might also not really understand what it is – or think you do, but don’t.

That’s very understandable, because it’s two very different things with the same name run by the same company.

Both are of potential interest and value, but have little to do with each other.

Let me explain…

The Annual List

The Black List started as a way for “development executives” (the people you ultimately want to impress with a script, who work for production companies, studios, etc.) to rank what they think were the best unproduced scripts they read that year.

That list still exists. And every year you can find out which scripts were voted in, on their website. Here’s 2024’s list.

You’ll note that the list includes the logline for each script. This gives a good sense of the kinds of projects, ideas and genres that are making it far enough in Hollywood to be read (and liked) by development execs. They’re not always the perfect logline that completely sells and explains the project and weren’t necessarily created by the writer, but they give you a sense of the concept.

You’ll also see the names and company names of the writer’s manager and agent.

That’s right – this list consists almost entirely of scripts from writers who have already broken into the industry in the sense that they have both a manager and an agent.

(In fact, it’s the managers on this list and others inspired by it that I considered legit enough to be on the list of managers I provided here.)

There’s no way to directly try to get on this original Black List, to apply to be on it. You generally have to have representatives (managers/agents) who are able to circulate your script all around Hollywood.

Chances are those reps developed it with you, gave you feedback on multiple drafts, worked with you for years on various projects, and made it their goal to get you on this list. Because it is a big feather in the cap of both writers and reps.

It’s almost like the Academy Awards for screenplays that haven’t been made into movies yet. The best of the best, in the opinion of the professionals.

Or at least the most memorable and/or fun for them to read. That doesn’t necessarily mean they have a great potential to sell or be produced. But it’s almost as good, in that the writers got important fans within the industry from these scripts, who will want to work with them.

(For a fun critical analysis of the loglines and scripts that make the list, check out Carson Reeves’ Script Shadow site.)

What value is this to writers who haven’t broken in yet?

The main value of this list to writers who haven’t yet secured managers or agents let alone gotten development execs across Hollywood to read their scripts is this:

It can tell you what’s popular. What’s working. What sells, even if they haven’t sold yet. Because many of them soon will. (And many of them have gone on to become movies you’ve seen.)

Not only can you read the loglines, but sometimes actual PDF’s of the scripts become available online, particularly on the R/Screenwriting subreddit on Reddit. (You might search something like “black list script pdfs.”) Then you can actually read the full scripts and get a sense of the kind of material that is impressing the industry these days and considered really good by those who matter.

This is no small thing, because there tends to be a big gulf and disconnect between what aspiring professional screenwriters think commercially viable scripts (and concepts for same) look like and what they actually do.

So it can be a real education.

The Coverage Service

Some time after the list had been going a while, the folks at The Black List came up with a second “product,” if you will, perhaps confusingly given the exact same name, and on the same website.

This second “Black List” is a place where any writer at any level can register, pay to “host” their scripts online, and pay for written evaluations. 

For the latter, anonymous professional readers will read their script and provide a brief analysis indicating how they think the script would be received by the industry in terms of potential strengths and weaknesses. With an overall numerical score from 1-10.

Scores of 8 or above (especially multiple 8+’s) unlock some special benefits, most notably circulation to the network of industry professionals who pay attention to such things. And some really do. For instance, manager John Zaozirny at Bellevue Productions has written about using this as a filter to find scripts worth reading from writers he doesn’t know, sometimes leading to signing them.

The problem is that it’s rare and difficult to get 8’s or above. And to get them consistently. And sometimes the same script will receive very different scores and feedback from different readers. Some writers get frustrated by this. And by continuing to spend money on the hope of getting those magic 8’s.

So is it worth doing?

I think it can be, with the rare script that has the potential to achieve that. Which the writer, perhaps too close to it, often doesn’t really have a clear sense of. 

Another coverage service called SpecScout (affiliated with Slated, which is involved in independent financing and networking between professionals and projects) does a similar service, only they offer three reads at once with arguably more substantive and longer feedback. I’ve often recommended them, and full disclosure, know one of the founders and have collaborated with them in the past.

I have found their coverage anecdotally more useful to work from than The Black List. But their marketing reach and visibility (in terms of high scoring scripts getting real industry attention) is seemingly lower. But if a script does really well there consistently, it might be a sign that it’s ready for The Black List’s service.

I’ve blogged in the past about these coverage services and also competitions, and would say the hard truth is that the pro screenwriting world is an almost lottery-like tournament where only a very tiny percentage of scripts at any given time do really really well to the point where they could lead to sale, production or professional steps forward for the writer (like securing reps).

Every writer has to decide for themselves how much time, money and energy to put into their writing and trying to advance it, and what is worth doing, on a particular script or with a particular service. There’s no one answer for all.

My intent here is to simply illuminate how these things work as I notice there is quite a bit of confusion out there, especially around the “two Black Lists.”

Feel free to comment with your (respectful and constructive, please) experience with any of this below, so others will get a broader perspective on the pros and cons.