The Golden List of 2026
The Best Unproduced Screenplays of the Year
Features
01
INSIDE WATER
By Adeline Jackson
A seventeen-year-old water polo player from Fresno sees a college scholarship as her only way out, but as bullying, family struggles, and a charismatic coach’s manipulative mentorship close in, she must decide how much of herself she is willing to lose to succeed.
- Genre
- SPORTS, DRAMA, COMING OF AGE
- Country
- UNITED STATES
- Representation
- Peter Heller (Manager), Claire Best (AGENT)
02
THE BLACK ABBEY
By Michael Consiglio, Alex Klein
In 1890s Whitby, a storm delivers a dying stranger to a remote abbey. Inside, Benedictine monks confront a creeping sickness that warps flesh and faith. Isolation deepens, darkness spreads, and an ancient terror threatens to consume them all.
- Genre
- HORROR, DRAMA
- Country
- united states
- Representation
- NONE
03
LIL HOLMIES
By Delaina Waldron
Two little Black boys from broken homes will try to solve a mysterious murder in their neighborhood for a good price — Candy and Cakes.
- Genre
- MYSTERY, DRAMEDY
- Country
- united STATES
- Representation
- NONE
04
MOTHER ISSUES
By Arcy Hoffmann
After receiving a life-changing diagnosis, a single dad sets out to find his estranged mother, only to be derailed by his fiancée, his ex, his son, his friends, a private investigator, and everyone’s unresolved mother issues.
- Genre
- DRAMA, COMEDY
- Country
- UNITED STATES
- Representation
- NONE
05
SCRIPTED
By Dylan Halpin Hurley
In the world of pro wrestling, a prestigious family of pro wrestlers is torn apart when a championship match between an aunt and a niece turns into a violent fight that seems all too real.
- Genre
- Drama, SPORT
- Country
- IRELAND
- Representation
- none
06
COFFEE BOY
By Dan Siegelstein
After losing his coffee-shop job, a high school graduate takes a summer gig as a production assistant to earn money for college, where the brutal demands of a film set force him to grow up fast—and learn how to navigate the adults who run it.
- Genre
- COMEDY, DRAMA
- Country
- united states
- Representation
- NONE
07
COMO SON LAS COSAS
By Sofia Farrés
In 1990s Miami, a tyrannical Cuban housewife fights by any means necessary to keep her dysfunctional family wrapped around her acrylic-topped finger.
- Genre
- DRAMA, FAMILY
- Country
- United states
- Representation
- NONE
08
GHOST IN THE MACHINE
By Sam Collins
A computer scientist takes a lifetime position as the sole resident of an underground bunker carrying near perfect AI reconstructions of dead billionaires, but finds that the quest to create perfection may incur a heavy cost.
- Genre
- SCI-FI, THRILLER
- Country
- uNITED STATES
- Representation
- NONE
09
SAVING A CHRISTMAS CAROL
By Shirley Filardi Amitrano
When a ghostly blunder transports a modern woman into "A Christmas Carol," she meets and falls in love with young Ebenezer Scrooge, only to face Charles Dickens's wrath as she makes the heart wrenching choice between re-writing history for love or preserving the tale that keeps Christmas alive in every heart.
- Genre
- romance, comedy
- Country
- UNITED states
- Representation
- none
10
ECHO
By Daniel Elkayam
An impoverished young inventor finds himself the target of a mysterious conspiracy after he inadvertently creates a machine with the ability to send information back in time.
- Genre
- SCI-FI, DRAMA
- Country
- UNITED STATES
- Representation
- NONE
11
SAVING PRIVATE ROBIN
By Alex Whitover
When Christopher Robin enlists in WWI, Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends of the Hundred Acre Wood set off for the trenches to bring Christopher Robin home. An emotional and authentic spin on the classic war epic, inspired by the real-life experiences of A.A. Milne.
- Genre
- DRAMEDY, ACTION/ADVENTURE
- Country
- united states
- Representation
- Fourth Wall Management, Max Gonzalez
12
GOLDFISH THEORY
By Matthew Howie
After a classmate’s sudden death, a high schooler falls in with radical conspiracy theorists who blame it on an extraterrestrial threat they believe is secretly taking over Earth. As paranoia and reality blur, she must decide whether she’s uncovering a global invasion or losing herself to delusion.
- Genre
- PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR, SCI-FI, drama
- Country
- united KINGDOM
- Representation
- NONE
13
THE COMET
By Sandy Hoffman
After her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, a seventeen-year-old girl is sent back to the isolated county her mother fled, where her father has conditioned an entire town to mistake obedience, sacrifice, and death for mercy.
- Genre
- Psychological Horror, Folk Horror
- Country
- UNITED STATES
- Representation
- Tisha Morris, Legacy Arts Law
14
HAn
By Kim Putman
A Korean American adoptee moves back to South Korea to defend her birthright to the biggest inheritance in the country’s history.
- Genre
- DRAMA, courtroom, mystery
- Country
- united states
- Representation
- NONE
15
FINDING FRANZ
By Steven Brandsdorfer
Finding Franz is a historical comedy focusing on the improbable events and hard-to-believe circumstances surrounding the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Both a tragedy and a comedy of errors, Finding Franz follows would-be assassins, oblivious royals, and incompetent government officials, all responsible for one of history’s most buffoonish true stories.
- Genre
- Comedy, Dark Comedy
- Country
- united STATES
- Representation
- none
TV Pilots
01
KEY WEST FREE
By Davey Gold
To avenge her daughter’s needless death under U.S. sanctions, a Cuban sleeper agent running a free medical clinic in Key West manipulates a ruthless local dealer into fronting a cartel for Havana, betraying her Hippocratic oath to trigger DEA scrutiny and a violent South Florida turf war.
- Genre
- CRIME, DRAMA
- Country
- United states
- Representation
- NONE
02
THE CAREGIVER
By Jeremy Walton
A debt to an assassin ring motivates a desperate hospice nurse to turn terminally ill patients into killers.
- Genre
- THRILLER, DRAMA
- Country
- UNITED STATES
- Representation
- NONE
03
DOT ORG
By Dan Gunderman
Forever losing the battle of work/life balance, the new Director of Development at a buzzy NYC nonprofit must raise gobs of cash from wealthy donors, navigate her tricky colleagues, and translate the technobabble of the CEO, who happens to be her sister’s ex-husband.
- Genre
- COMEDY, SATIRE
- Country
- UNITED STATES / UNITED KINGDOM
- Representation
- NONE
04
THE OLIGARCH
By Sergei Alexander
When the Russia-Ukraine war triggers unprecedented Western sanctions, billionaire Dmitry Ivanov watches his empire crumble overnight. His wealth, influence and allies vanish as he fights to protect his fortune, family and place in high society - while remaining bound to the Kremlin.
- Genre
- DRAMA, POLITICAL
- Country
- UNITED KINGDOM
- Representation
- NONE
05
THE PLAYPEN
By Grace Roden
A down-and-out actress is mysteriously cast as the love interest in a confidential project: a media heiress’s personally tailored, immersive soap opera to be performed in perpetuity at an isolated estate. She soon discovers that the fantasy she’s been hired to inhabit must keep reality at bay, or the consequences could be far more sinister than she imagined.
- Genre
- DRAMA, COMEDY, THRILLER
- Country
- united STATES
- Representation
- none
06
AVARICE
By Conor Ibrahiem
Scarred by the '47 Partition, a savvy Pakistani immigrant arrives in 1966 Bradford with one mission: dismantle the British Empire from within — one masterstroke at a time.
- Genre
- DRAMA, THRILLER
- Country
- united KINGDOM
- Representation
- NONE
07
DEATHMATES
By Aspen Valentim
In a world where each person is linked to a deathmate, someone whose death leads to your own, Mason must protect a notorious criminal in order to survive. As they evade a corrupt government and uncover a dark conspiracy, Mason faces a battle between his own moral compass and the dangerous bond forming between him and the fugitive, spiraling into raw, undeniable devotion.
- Genre
- TEEN DRAMA, THRILLER
- Country
- AUSTRALIA
- Representation
- NONE
08
JUDAS GOAT
By Brendan O'Malley
A hardened mercenary is sent to a politically turbulent island nation to eradicate a quarter of a million goats in order to protect a native species of turtle.
- Genre
- ACTION, COMEDY
- Country
- united states
- Representation
- NONE
09
ALL SAINTSMEN
By Michael Sosnowski
At an elite Catholic all-boys school near the U.S.–Mexico border, a closeted trans girl born into a powerful cartel dynasty plots her escape—until a family enforcer discovers her secret and a dangerously obsessive classmate threatens to expose the criminal empire she’s desperate to leave behind.
- Genre
- DRAMA, COMING OF AGE, CRIME THRILLER
- Country
- united states
- Representation
- NONE
Shorts
01
BUTCHER
By Michele Love Santoro
A traveling physician, after a brutal day of turning away patients due to state restrictions, gets an unexpected after-hours visit.
- Genre
- POLITICAL, DRAMA
- Country
- UNITED STATES
- Representation
- NONE
02
THE FAMILY WAY
By Rebecca Jean-Carroll
After being attacked, a devout Catholic newlywed from Northern Ireland travels to England in 1968 to risk a backstreet abortion, but her hot-headed husband’s obsession with revenge threatens to awaken her own fury and push her towards devastating consequences.
- Genre
- DRAMA, HISTORICAL
- Country
- united KINGDOM
- Representation
- NONE
03
RESULT UNKNOWN
By Linda Rönn
From expectation to pregnancy loss, a couple struggles to share their grief as the due date approaches.
- Genre
- DRAMA, SOCIAL
- Country
- united states
- Representation
- NONE
04
PRODIGAL DAUGHTER
By Daryelle Chery
A 20-something battling OCD must reconcile her life upon learning she’s pregnant. Teaming up with her estranged sister, they work together to salvage Christmas and their relationship.
- Genre
- DRAMA, FAMILY
- Country
- UNITED STATES
- Representation
- none
06
FILOTIMO
By Jessica Pappas, Allison Burnett
A nine-year-old American girl, visiting her Greek grandfather on the island of Patmos, learns of her ancestor's heroism during the Nazi occupation and is introduced to the ancient, elusive concept of "Filotimo."
- Genre
- DRAMA, SOCIAL
- Country
- UNITED STATES
- Representation
- NONE
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