2023 Black List
All 76 scripts listed in order of votes received including loglines, plus a link where you can download the official list.
All 76 scripts listed in order of votes received including loglines, plus a link where you can download the official list.
Yesterday, the 2023 Black List was released to the public. Here is the list ranked by the number of mentions each script received along with loglines.
49
BAD BOY
Travis Braun
A rescue dog suspects his loving new owner is a serial killer.
47
STAKEHORSE
Justin Piasecki
A racetrack veterinarian who runs an off-the-books ER for criminals finds his practice and life in jeopardy when he’s recruited for his patient’s heist.
42
SPOILER
Jordan Rosenbloom
After passing on a hot new screenplay, a studio executive finds himself trapped as the protagonist inside the film and must regain control before the credits roll.
25
HEAD GAMES
Colin Liddle
A corporate spy poses as a personal chef to the disgraced founder of a neuroprosthetics firm in order to steal his seismic-shifting new invention from his secluded villa in Greece.
24
DIDIER
Jackson Kellard
The inspiring true story of international soccer icon Didier Drogba and his efforts to end a bloody civil war in his home country of Ivory Coast; not just with the skill of his feet, but also with the power of his voice.
21
HIGH CONCEPT
Alex Kavutskiy, Ryan Perez
In the early 2000s, two totally opposite best friends, Mike (an uptight lawyer) and BJ (a stoner slacker), awake one morning to find that they have swapped bodies, are stuck in a time loop, and are afflicted with many other high-concept comedy premises of that era. Drawing upon their knowledge of those type of movies, Mike & BJ must learn their lesson(s) and get their lives back to normal.
PATSY
Filipe Coutinho
The untold and unfiltered true story of legendary country singer Patsy Cline, from her humble beginnings in Virginia to her untimely death at the height of her fame.
20
FORBIDDEN FRUITS
Meredith Alloway, Lily Houghton
Free People employee Apple secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours with fellow fruits Cherry and Fig. But when new hire Pumpkin challenges their ‘girl boss’ ways, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.
RETURN TO SENDER
Russell Goldman
When a woman experiences delivery scams that grow increasingly personal and strange, she becomes hellbent on discovering her anonymous sender.
19
FIRST YOU HEAR THEM
Sean Harrigan
A group of twenty-somethings try the ‘perfect drug’ for the first time. It’s only when they come down from the euphoric high that the hauntings begin: First you hear them. Then you see them. Then they come for you.
FORAGERS
Sam Boyer
When the illegitimate daughter of a Portland billionaire goes missing, her loved ones turn to Juno and Andi, local homesteaders and members of The Foragers — a grassroots network of experts dedicated to finding the lost and bringing them home.
18
CAROUSEL
Rachel Lambert
A family doctor in East Cleveland juggles his personal life, as he reconnects with an old flame, deals with his teenage daughter’s problems, and selling his family’s medical practice.
HOT MESS
Shanrah Wakefield
Sandy was once a formidable investigative reporter until a bungled story destroyed her credibility and forced her into the soul-sucking world of tabloid gossip — now her days are spent covering hot mess celebrity Margot Ford. When a disillusioned Sandy is called to Fiji to follow Margot’s latest hijinks, she discovers a surprise about Margot’s real identity, which sends her on an adventure she never imagined, as the two must team up to take down a massive, sinister corporate plot with global implications, all taking place at a luxury island resort.
17
HIT ME, BABY
Kurt McLeod
After Liv, a world-class hitwoman, breaks up with her boyfriend, Martin, he puts out a massive contract on his own life to get her attention. What Martin doesn’t realize is that it’s an open contract with a 48-hour expiration, so now every assassin in the western hemisphere is coming after him. Liv makes a deal to keep him safe until the contract expires, if he pays her out the full bounty. With the clock ticking, the two must elude some of the world’s most prolific killers.
POLO
Nika Burnett
When a young woman returns home from the Navy, she joins a local water polo team and finds herself fighting a new battle.
THE NEST
Aaron Benjamin
Confined to “the nest,” a Secret Service Sniper gets a strange call on the radio from a deranged mastermind who’s holding his family hostage in a box suite during America’s biggest game — the Super Bowl.
WE GOT NEXT
Aaron Goldberg, Alex Goldberg, Michael Goldberg
The true story of how one daring executive beat the odds to launch the longest-running league in women’s sports: the WNBA.
16
10/24/02
Connor McKnight
On one rainy night in October, a man checks into the Mooncrest Motel. He never leaves. A real time, single-location thriller in the aftermath of a heist at Area 51.
THE PROFIT
Andrew Ferguson
The astonishing true story of how an unknown, evangelical Christian immigrant, Bill Hwang, suffered the greatest loss of wealth in American history, gambling away his $35 billion fortune and jeopardizing the entire financial system in under forty eight hours.
15
BETTER HALF
Gaelyn Golde
A codependent woman unravels when her best friend gets a boyfriend.
14
FISTMAS
Jack Waz
In order to propose to the girl of his dreams, a lovestruck guy must first survive her hometown’s annual Christmas fighting tournament.
LOVE AND WAR AND GUERNICA
Sam Zvibelman
Against the backdrop of a present-day, war torn, America, Love and War and Guernica is a dark comedy about Neil Mudd, a reporter for the Union who is suffering from writer’s block ever since his break-up, and his engaging with a mysterious horse following him through war torn Los Feliz, California. When the Union recruits Neil for a top secret mission, he and the horse go on an epic journey that, emotionally, serves as a metaphor for the war going on inside Neil’s heart.
THE GETAWAY
Mario Kyprianou, Becky Leigh
A couple on the brink of divorce sets off on a romantic getaway to save their marriage, but when they find that they have inexplicably traveled back in time, they decide to team up to stop their younger selves from ever getting married.
13
RUNNER
Tommy White, Miles Hubley
High end courier, Hank Malone, has three hours to transport a liver from LAX to a Santa Barbara hospital for immediate transplant surgery. The recipient? A dying seven-year-old girl with the rarest blood type on the planet. If only the head of the Southland’s most dangerous crime syndicate didn’t need the organ too.
THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
Charlie Polinger
A grotesquely hilarious dark comedy based on Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death.”
TOXOPLASMOSIS
Andrew Nunnelly
The classic story of boy meets girl, boy loses girl… boy forms unexpected bromance with girl’s cat, who may actually be an intergalactic emissary sent to save humanity from itself.
U.P.S.E.T
Ben Bolea
Two border cops in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula find themselves in the crosshairs of Canadian biker gangs, international drug cartels, and shady government agents after intercepting a drug deal gone bad — all the day after an awkward one-night stand.
UNT. MISSING CHILD
Brenna Galvin
A mom-fluencer’s life unravels when her child goes missing and an unexpected discovery mires the investigation in a battle of perception. With buried secrets exposed, our mom is forced to take matters into her own hands, turning a simple missing person’s case into a story with twists that even the internet wouldn’t believe.
12
DICKENS VS. ANDERSEN
Henry Oscar Thaler
Clumsy, awkward Hans Christian Andersen invites himself over to the country home of his idol, Charles Dickens… and overstays his welcome.
OUR HOUSE
Will Youmans
When she wins an essay competition, Leila Moseley is brought to Capitol Hill to be honored by the United States Congress, but her luck runs out when the ceremony intersects with a violent insurrection, and she must team up with a group of aides, interns, and nepo babies to battle for survival against a legion of protesters and a secret society.
OUR MAN IN MIAMI
Ozzy Inguanzo
A Miami construction contractor transforms into a notorious sports agent when he hatches a high-stakes scheme to steal Fidel Castro’s most prized assets — Cuban baseball players — for the New York Yankees. Based on the wild true story.
THE GREAT PRETENDER
Kirill Baru, Eric Zimmerman
When Tom Hanks, the nicest guy in Hollywood (and someone who looks a lot like him), gets kidnapped, his doppelgänger must step in to save him. In a world of make-believe, it’s hard to know who to trust.
THE PEASANT
Will Dunn
In the 14th Century, a lone shepherd rages against a company of mercenary knights after they ransack his peaceful peasant community, proving that he is more than he seems.
THE PENTESTER
Jesse Quiñones
When a pentester with a perfect track record for breaching his clients’ security systems takes an unusually high-paying job, his success proves to be in vain as he finds himself in the middle of a deadly conspiracy where the only way out is forward.
11
BACKCOUNTRY
Kevin Sheridan
Once the future of extreme skiing, Brooks Provence is approached to ski the mountain that nearly ended his life two decades ago — this time alongside a young skier on the brink of stardom. But when disaster falls, Brooks must overcome his past and accomplish the impossible in order to save the lives of those he loves most.
BLOOD RUSH
Andrew Ferguson
In response to a mysterious rise in Miami gang violence, a meticulous FBI agent gets recruited by a covert operations unit, only to discover the enemy they are fighting may not be human.
LAST RESORT
Laura Stoltz
When a grieving woman takes a trip to a posh, Icelandic resort designed to assist its guests with ending their lives, she meets people who finally force her to accept the things she cannot explain.
SEA DOGS
Josh Woolf
After two down-on-their-luck lobster fishermen botch a hijacking attempt on the high seas, they are forced to confront the consequences of their actions as they struggle to navigate a world they no longer recognize.
THE CROWD
Jack Heller
In a claustrophobic race against time, a woman must unravel the mystery behind a malevolent crowd before she succumbs to their relentless pursuit.
THE FINAL SCORE
Will Hettinger
Two FBI agents are pitted against a crew of bank robbers — and each other — as they grapple with order and chaos inside their own department and home lives.
THE LIGHT AT THE END
Arun Croll
When a solar event fills the sky with endless light that kills everything it touches, a young woman must find a way to escape the house where she is trapped with a doomsday cultist.
THE WOLF IN CHIEFS CLOTHING
Adam Christopher Best
A lovable loser from a family of criminals becomes the Kansas City Chiefs’ most famous superfan. His newfound status is expensive, so he teams up with his imaginary friend — an anthropomorphic version of the team’s wolf mascot — and goes on a bank-robbing spree.
WHAT’S MY AGE AGAIN
Jackson Kellard
The true story of Kansas teenager Jack Bergeson’s meteoric rise and fall after he discovered a loophole in the state’s constitution that allowed him to run for governor, inciting a statewide youth movement that changed politics forever.
10
CHAPERONES
Sarah Rothschild
A single dad tries to bond with his teenage daughter by chaperoning her field trip, only to have to save the world (and possibly her virginity) when an ancient evil is unleashed.
PERSONAL BEST
Ryan Hoang Williams
Based on the true story of James Hogue, a talented student and long-distance runner who was admitted to Princeton University under the false identity of “Alexi Indris-Santana” — an orphaned, self-educated, teenage ranch hand.
THE LAST TOWER
Aaron Sala
When a disaster strikes, a family is trapped in their high-rise Miami hotel. With danger closing in fast, they’re left with only one way to go: Up.
UNDYING
Ben Ketai
A woman, suffocated by motherhood, has an affair with a man she hasn’t seen since high school… only to discover he has been dead for years.
9
BEYOND THE GRAVE
Maximiliano Hernández
Three people at different points of the immigrant experience come together when the mother of a 10-year-old musical prodigy is arrested in an ICE raid.
BLASPHEMOUS
Luke Piotrowski
An inexperienced priest and a charismatic possessed woman form a dark and dangerous bond while on the run from sinister forces within the Catholic church.
BOY FALLS FROM SKY
Hunter Toro
An anxious playwright finds himself tangled in a web of deceit, injury, and intellectual property as he adapts his first Broadway musical, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Inspired by a true story.
DIE FAST
Julian Meiojas
Following a severe, soon to be fatal, brain injury during a violent attack, an NYPD sergeant embarks on a harrowing journey of vengeance, which leaves her only a few hours of adrenaline-bursting consciousness to hunt down those who took her daughter and killed her husband before she dies.
DOWN CAME THE RAIN
Katie Found
When a woman gives birth to a spider, she begins to question her unraveling reality and the psychological and arachnid horrors of postpartum motherhood.
IF I HAD YOUR FACE
Ran Ran Wang
When Jo’s best friend, Rina starts dating a white man, she begins transforming into something different: a white woman. Through it all, Jo can’t seem to convince anyone that there is cause for concern. But when three unidentifiable white women turn up dead, Jo realizes that they had all been Asian women who dated the same man, and now that he has Rina in his sights, it’s up to Jo to save her before she becomes his next victim.
IMMUNE
Daniel Persitz
The story of Dr. Maurice Hilleman, the brilliant father of modern vaccines, who by deftly negotiating corporate politics, prevented a deadly pandemic and created the groundbreaking vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox and many others that still save eight million lives a year worldwide.
KAZAN
Chris Parizo
The story of the tumultuous relationship between Arthur Miller and Elia Kazan — born out of the success of DEATH OF A SALESMAN and destroyed when Elia Kazan named names to the House Committee on Un-American Activities, resulting in two of the greatest works of the 20th century: THE CRUCIBLE and ON THE WATERFRONT.
PALETTE
Zach Strauss
A woman who discovers she is suffering from severe synesthesia gets recruited into the secretive, cult-like industry of color design by a mysterious corporation but then uncovers the bloody, dark, and twisted reality of what it really takes to make the world’s next great hues.
THE NOWHERE GAME
Alex Pototsky
Two young women are kidnapped, brought deep into the woods, given a head start, and then hunted down by their sadistic captor all for the pleasure of the online fans of “The Nowhere Game.”
8
FEROCIOUS
Marc Bloom
A team of financially desperate hotel employees embark on a deadly treasure hunt to recover priceless diamonds from a wrecked yacht in the middle of “The Red Triangle,” the world’s most dangerous hunting ground for great white sharks.
LURE
Nick Tassoni
When a park ranger ventures into the wilderness to find a missing hiker before a storm, she finds herself lured into the woods by a dangerous, unearthly predator mimicking her dead daughter.
ROSES
Evan Twohy
A married man takes his girlfriend on a romantic getaway to a villa. There is a swimming pool.
SUNDOWN
Nick Hurwitch
Monsters that roam in daylight keep a small, rural family confined to a nocturnal lifestyle. But when their son starts to question the monsters’ existence, his parents must see how far they’re willing to go to keep him safe.
THE ADULTS IN THE ROOM
Jake Disch
On November 1, 2022, FTX was valued at $32 billion. On November 11, 2022, it filed for bankruptcy. This is the incredible true story of the meteoric rise and catastrophic fall of FTX and its enigmatic founder, Sam Bankman-Fried.
THE STRATFORD WIFE
Sarah E Sinclair
Anne Hathaway, a rebellious woman who has a way with words, weds William Shakespeare, an aspiring actor ten years her junior. They form a plan to sell her plays anonymously. But when William travels to London, Anne is stunned to learn he takes all the credit for himself, leaving her to forever live in the shadow of the greatest playwright to ever live.
WOODWORK
Abiel Bruhn
While settling his mother’s estate, awkward loner James reunites with his long-lost brother Rob who oozes wealth, charm, and confidence — but the chance encounter leads to a twisted game of wits and violence.
7
8 HABITS OF HIGHLY MURDEROUS PEOPLE
Michael Boyle
Psychologist Dr. Martin Park specializes in working with clients trying to curtail extreme violent urges. However, when a series of brutally murdered bodies are discovered in his small New England hometown, it’s up to Martin to figure out which of his patients is responsible.
AMERICAN DREAMS
Tricia Lee
In the not-so-distant future, an Asian-American woman works at a company where you can hire people to write your dreams. When one of her clients mysteriously dies, she realizes that those who have the power to write your dreams, also have the power to write your nightmares.
BLOW UP THE CHAT
Amos Vernon, Nunzio Randazzo
When their embarrassing, sometimes filthy, possibly cancellable group chat falls into the wrong hands, a group of dudes must go on a madcap scavenger hunt around town to appease a mysterious blackmailer.
BOXMAN
Adam Yorke
After a botched bank heist leaves nineteen people locked inside a state-of-the- art vault, the FBI recruits the world’s foremost box-man from federal prison so he can break them out before they suffocate inside.
DISPLACEMENT
Chiara Atik
What’s worse than a cruise? Being a twenty seven year old single woman chaperoning your ninety something grandparents on one, right after a crippling break-up.
HARNESS
Leigh Janiak
In the violent world of underground horse racing, a wannabe female jockey and her trainer brother-in-law become entangled in an illicit relationship full of blood, sweat, and sex that pushes the limits of their bodies and the law.
MOLEPEOPLE
Nathan Elston
When an unhoused teen turns up brutally murdered, his estranged brother searches for answers in the underworld of New York City and uncovers a series of horrifying crimes hiding deep in the abandoned subway systems.
OLD TIME HOCKEY
Kevin Jakubowski
A forty-three-year-old snowplow driver decides to get his high school hockey team back together to play a state championship game.
PEOPLE WALK DOGS LATE AT NIGHT IN THE SUBURBS
Drake Wootton
A charming high school math teacher — about to be a father — comes up with a plan to course correct his life after having an affair with his student.
PLEASE COME BACK
Mike George
A young couple who perform rituals to raise people from the dead get more than they bargained for when they attempt to re-animate a young girl who doesn’t remember how she died.
PROPEL
Jeremy Marwick:
A commercial diver fights to survive after a boating accident leaves her for dead underwater.
I will have stats and analysis of this year’s Black List later on this week, but what trends do YOU see? It’s an interesting way to interpret what Hollywood movers and shakers are interested in at present.
Also this: It’s the return of the Black List Word Cloud Logline Challenge! Be on the lookout for that — with prizes!
For more on the Black List:
You may download the official 2023 Annual Black List here.