Earlier this week, the Writers Guild of America released its list of the 101 Greatest Screenplays Of The 21st Century (So Far).
Taking the top spot was Jordan Peele's script for the 2017 horror Get Out.
Aaron Mendelsohn, chair of WGAW's Publicity and Marketing Committee, said “As voted upon by the members of the Writers Guilds West and East, the list of the 101 Greatest Screenplays of the 21st Century (so far) is both a celebration of the great writers and screenplays of the last 21 years and a study of how writing for the screen has evolved and diversified since the 20th Century... Plus, it's a great conversation- and argument- starter.”
There's certainly some interesting choices on here and what I would personally consider to be some glaring omissions.
The full list can be found here, but here are some of the more interesting facts and figures:
The Top 10 films are:
- Get Out (2017) by Jordan Peele
- Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004) by Charlie Kaufman
- The Social Network (2010) by Aaron Sorkin
- Parasite (2019) by Bong Joon Ho and Han Jim Won
- No Country For Old Men (2007) by Joel and Ethan Coen
- Moonlight (2016) by Barry Jenkins
- There Will Be Blood (2007) by Paul Thomas Anderson
- Inglourious Basterds (2009) by Quentin Tarantino
- Almost Famous (2000) by Cameron Crowe
- Memento (2000) by Christopher Nolan
Of the 101 screenplays, 63 were original screenplays, whilst 38 were adapted or based on existing source material.
The most prolific writer on the list is Christopher Nolan, who has written (or co-written) four scripts: Memento (2000, #10); The Prestige (2006, #82); The Dark Knight (2008, #26), and Inception (2010, #37)
Quentin Tarantino, Joel and Ethan Coen, Alfonso Cuarón, and Paul Thomas Anderson all have three films included in the list.
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| Bridesmaids (2011, Annie Mumulo & Kristen Wiig), Brokeback Mountain (2005, co-written by Diana Ossana), Lady Bird (2017, Greta Gerwig), Lost In Translation (2003, Sofia Coppola), and Promising Young Woman (2020, Emerald Fennell) are the five highest-placed screenplays by women. |
Of the 101 screenplays, 20 of them were written (or co-written) by women, with Bridesmaids (2011, #12) as the highest-ranking female-written film. A further three films- Adaptation. (2002, #11), Children Of Men (2006, #18), and Jojo Rabbit (2019, #28)- were adapted by male screenwriters from source material written by women.
Nine animated films made the list, with Inside Out (2015, #29) being the highest-ranked animated film.
29 films on the list have won a Best Screenplay Oscar (16 for Best Original, 13 for Best Adapted). A further 51 have been nominated for one of the awards (35 for Best Original, 16 for Best Adapted), meaning 80 of the 101 films have had Academy recognition.
Although I do think the list is missing several very strong screenplays: personally, I'd add the following screenplays to the mix:
- Moulin Rouge! (2001, written by Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce)
- Gosford Park (2001, written by Julian Fellowes)
- The Hours (2002, written by David Hare)
- Frost/Nixon (2008, written by Peter Morgan)
- Black Swan (2010, written by Mark Heyman, Andrés Heinz, and John McLaughlin)
- August: Osage County (2013, written by Tracy Letts)
- Blue Jasmine (2013, written by Woody Allen)
- Love, Simon (2018, written by Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker)
- Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018, written by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty)
But what about you? Have the WGA come up with a good list, or are they wide off the mark? What would you put on your own list of the 101 Greatest Screenplays Of The 21st Century (So Far)? Let us know in the comments below.
