By Ken Miyamoto from ScreenCraft · January 1, 2024
2023 has been a landmark year for captivating and innovative screenwriting. From the unique and empowering cinematic adaptation of the Barbie toy line in Barbie to the visceral look back on a historical figure that changed the world — for better or worse — in Oppenheimer, 2023 has offered some of the best movies we’ve seen in a long time. With the superhero genre coming to a stall after a nearly fifteen-year reign and legacy sequels not making the box office impact studios hoped for, we saw the rise of the original screenplay and some outstanding adaptations.
Here we present some of the most compelling, innovative, and entertaining scripts of 2023 that have captivated and entertained audiences and garnered critical acclaim. These screenplays — from box office hits to smaller indie fare to discover — showcase the talents of seasoned writers and emerging voices in the industry.
To celebrate 2023, here we offer 29 great scripts from the year!
Read More: Year in Review: The Best TV Series Scripts of 2022
Logline: Barbie suffers a crisis that leads her to question her world and her existence.
Screenplay By: Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach
Directed By: Greta Gerwig
Logline: A biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb.
Screenplay By: Christopher Nolan
Directed By: Christopher Nolan
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Logline: A cranky history teacher at a remote prep school is forced to remain on campus over the holidays with a troubled student who has no place to go.
Screenplay By: David Gordon Green
Directed By: Alexander Payne
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Logline: After a fateful near-miss, an assassin battles his employers and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal.
Screenplay By: Andrew Kevin Walker
Directed By: David Fincher
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Logline: When oil is discovered in 1920s Oklahoma under Osage Nation land, the Osage people are murdered one by one – until the FBI steps in to unravel the mystery.
Screenplay By: Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese
Directed By: Martin Scorsese
Logline: A student at Oxford University finds himself drawn into the world of a charming and aristocratic classmate, who invites him to his eccentric family’s sprawling estate for a summer never to be forgotten.
Screenplay By: Emerald Fennell
Directed By: Emerald Fennell
Logline: Following a writer on his world-famous fictional play about a grieving father who travels with his tech-obsessed family to a small rural Asteroid City to compete in a junior stargazing event, only to have his worldview disrupted forever.
Screenplay By: Wes Anderson
Directed By: Wes Anderson
Logline: Follows the history of sports marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro, and how he led Nike in its pursuit of the greatest athlete in the history of basketball, Michael Jordan.
Screenplay By: Alex Convery
Directed By: Ben Affleck
Logline: John Wick uncovers a path to defeating The High Table. But before he can earn his freedom, Wick must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances across the globe and forces that turn old friends into foes.
Screenplay By: Shay Hatten, Michael Finch
Directed By: Chad Stahelski
Logline: Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple buckles under pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past.
Screenplay By: Samy Burch
Directed By: Todd Haynes
Logline: A woman is suspected of her husband’s murder, and their blind son faces a moral dilemma as the main witness.
Screenplay By: Justine Triet, Arthur Harari
Directed By: Justine Triet
Logline: When teenage Priscilla Beaulieu meets Elvis Presley, the man who is already a meteoric rock-and-roll superstar becomes someone entirely unexpected in private moments: a thrilling crush, an ally in loneliness, a vulnerable best friend.
Screenplay By: Sofia Coppola
Directed By: Sofia Coppola
Logline: With dreams of opening a shop in a city renowned for its chocolate, a young and poor Willy Wonka discovers that the industry is run by a cartel of greedy chocolatiers.
Screenplay By: Simon Rich, Simon Farnaby
Directed By: Paul King
Logline: Miles Morales catapults across the multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. When the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles must redefine what it means to be a hero.
Screenplay By: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Directed By: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson
Logline: Sylvia is a social worker who leads a simple and structured life. This is blown open when Saul follows her home from their high school reunion. Their surprise encounter will profoundly impact both of them as they open the door to the past.
Screenplay By: Dario Scardapane
Directed By: Martin Campbell
Logline: The remarkable true story of athlete Diana Nyad who, at the age of 60 and with the help of her best friend and coach, commits to achieving her life-long dream: a 110-mile open ocean swim from Cuba to Florida.
Screenplay By: Julia Cox
Directed By: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin
Logline: A hapless family man finds his life turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams. When his nighttime appearances take a nightmarish turn, Paul is forced to navigate his newfound stardom.
Screenplay By: Kristoffer Borgli
Directed By: Kristoffer Borgli
Logline: When her family moves from the city to the suburbs, 11-year-old Margaret navigates new friends, feelings, and the beginning of adolescence.
Screenplay By: Kelly Fremon Craig
Directed By: Kelly Fremon Craig
Logline: David vs. Goliath tale about everyday people who flipped the script on Wall Street and got rich by turning GameStop (the video game store) into the world’s hottest company.
Screenplay By: Rebecca Angelo, Lauren Schuker Blum
Directed By: Craig Gillespie
Logline: Adonis has been thriving in both his career and family life, but when a childhood friend and former boxing prodigy resurfaces, the face-off is more than just a fight.
Screenplay By: Keenan Coogler, Zach Baylin
Directed By: Michael B. Jordan
Logline: A biopic about Jose Hernandez and his path from a farm worker to becoming an engineer and an astronaut. A tale of perseverance, community, and sacrifice to accomplish a seemingly impossible dream.
Screenplay By: Bettina Gilois, Hernán Jiménez, Alejandra Márquez Abella
Directed By: Alejandra Márquez Abella
Logline: Peter has his busy life with new partner Beth and their baby thrown into disarray when his ex-wife Kate turns up with their teenage son, Nicholas.
Screenplay By: Florian Zeller, Christopher Hampton
Directed By: Florian Zeller
Logline: While vacationing, a girl and her parents are taken hostage by armed strangers who demand that the family make a choice to avert the apocalypse.
Screenplay By: M. Night Shyamalan, Steve Desmond, Michael Sherman
Directed By: M. Night Shyamalan
Logline: Teacher Carla Nowak decides to get involved when one of her students is suspected of theft. Caught between her ideals and the school system, the consequences of her actions threaten to break her.
Screenplay By: Johannes Duncker, Ilker Çatak
Directed By: Ilker Çatak
Logline: Explores the incredible growth and tragic collapse of the world’s first smartphone and how it smashed huge enterprises before surrendering to Silicon Valley’s fiercely competitive companies.
Screenplay By: Matthew Johnson, Matthew Miller, Jacquie McNich, Sean Silcoff
Directed By: Matthew Johnson
Logline: A single mom at war with her son is trying to find a hobby for him. One day, she rescues a guitar from a dumpster.
Screenplay By: John Carney
Directed By: John Carney
Logline: When an occupying alien species’ bureaucratic rule and advanced technology leaves most of Earth impoverished and unemployed, two teenagers hatch a risky plan to ensure their families’ futures.
Screenplay By: Cory Finley, M.T. Anderson
Directed By: Cory Finley
Logline: A young Iranian mother and her six-year-old daughter find refuge in an Australian women’s shelter during the two weeks of the Iranian New Year (Nowruz).
Screenplay By: Noora Niasari
Directed By: Noora Niasari
Logline: This love story chronicles the lifelong relationship of conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein and actress Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein.
Screenplay By: Bradley Cooper
Directed By: Bradley Cooper, Josh Singer
Read More: 50 Best Movies of 2022 According to Rotten Tomatoes
Ken Miyamoto has worked in the film industry for nearly two decades, most notably as a studio liaison for Sony Studios and then as a script reader and story analyst for Sony Pictures.
He has many studio meetings under his belt as a produced screenwriter, meeting with the likes of Sony, Dreamworks, Universal, Disney, Warner Brothers, as well as many production and management companies. He has had a previous development deal with Lionsgate, as well as multiple writing assignments, including the produced miniseries Blackout, starring Anne Heche, Sean Patrick Flanery, Billy Zane, James Brolin, Haylie Duff, Brian Bloom, Eric La Salle, and Bruce Boxleitner, the feature thriller Hunter’s Creed, and many Lifetime thrillers. Follow Ken on Twitter @KenMovies and Instagram @KenMovies76
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