Looking for scripts to practice acting? Here are some movie script databases that might have what you’re looking for.
You can find film scripts on IMSDb, Script Slug, Simply Scripts, Screenplays for You, The Daily Script, The Script Savant, Moviepedia, No Film School, and the BBC Script Library (which also has a separate section for children’s programmes). For individual scene scripts, check out The Actor’s Place.
Below, you can find descriptions of the resources above, as well as some tips for navigating them if you’re specifically looking for scripts for kids or teens. Finally, there is an additional resource you may also be interested in.
1. IMSDb (The Internet Movie Script Database)
IMSDb https://imsdb.com/ has a large collection of movie scripts that you can filter by genre. If you’re looking for scripts for kids or teens, check out the Family genre. Once you find the title of the script you want, just click on it, and then click the button under the Movie Release Date, as shown in the image below.
2. Script Slug
Script Slug https://www.scriptslug.com/ is another script database for films, and when you search you can see the film posters. When you go to the home page, scroll down to see the beginning of the list of films. You can either use the search bar or you can click the “Browse” button, as shown below, to narrow down your search by categories. For example, in addition to searching through the Family genre, you can also look through “Disney” or “Pixar” movies to find scripts that might be suitable for kids. Also, when you’ve clicked on a script you like, you can look through the Related Scripts section below it to see what else you might like.
3. Screenplays for You
Screenplays for You https://sfy.ru/scripts also has a database of movie screenplays (scripts). These scripts are only organized alphabetically and have no images, but an advantage of this database is that it loads quickly and, also, when you click on a film, it has a link to the film’s IMDb page so you can learn more about it. Then, on the IMDb page, you may find information such as the synopsis, reviews, trailer, and, if you’re interested, the “Parents guide” (in the Storyline section, at the bottom), which may contain information to help you decide whether the script may be suitable for kids or teens.
4. The Daily Script
The Daily Script https://www.dailyscript.com/movie.html has a collection of both movie and TV show scripts. There is no search filter, but they provide a Google-powered search bar, which you can use it to find films potentially even by phrase if you don’t remember the film title (just type in the phrase in quotation marks). They also provide the IMDb link for the film and tell you whether the script is in a pdf, html (web), or doc format. When looking through the list of films, keep in mind that the first page is just half of the scripts they have (those are just the scripts starting from letters A to M). For the remainder of the scripts, see the second page (with scripts starting with letters N to Z): https://www.dailyscript.com/movie_n-z.html
5. Simply Scripts
Simply Scripts https://www.simplyscripts.com/ has a collection of scripts for films, TV shows, musicals, and more (you can find the options on the top menu, as shown in the image below). Here is the link for the movie scrips: https://www.simplyscripts.com/movie-screenplays.html It also has a sidebar with some search tools, including a place where you can search by genre (e.g., Family, Animation, Adventure, etc.).
6. The Script Savant
The Script Savant https://thescriptsavant.com/ has PDF scripts for movies and TV shows. They are divided into two lists: one alphabetically from A to M https://thescriptsavant.com/free-movie-screenplays-am/ and another alphabetically from N to Z https://thescriptsavant.com/free-movie-screenplays-nz/ No search filtering tools are given, but an advantage is that clicking leads you instantly to the PDF of the script rather than to an intermediate page, helping you save time in case you already know what you want.
7. BBC Script Library
The BBC Script Library https://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/ has scripts for BBC’s films, TV comedies, TV dramas, radio comedies, radio dramas, and children’s shows as well. Although the selection isn’t very large, it is one of very few script collections that has a separate section for children’s shows. Note: typically only one or a couple of episodes of a certain show are available.
8. Moviepedia
Moviepedia includes a movie scripts section https://movies.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Transcripts Just click on the letter that the movie starts with and look for it in the list that appears. The list is mostly limited to kids’ and family films, as well as superhero movies, but one of the advantages of this collection is that it includes some newer films that are more difficult to find elsewhere.
9. No Film School
No Film School has an article https://nofilmschool.com/academy-award-best-screenplay-downloads with scripts for Oscar-nominated films from the past 20 years. They are organized by year and separated into nominees and winners.
10. The Actor’s Place
If you’re interested in the script for only one scene instead of a whole movie, check out the scripts collection at The Actor’s Place https://theactorsplace.org/product-category/scripts/ A big advantage of this collection is that it has a number of unique filtering features, even including a filter for type of cast, no profanity, as well as other filters. The scenes are from both films and TV series, and you can see their film posters as well as a brief description of what the scene is about.
BONUS: TV Writing
By the way, if you’re interested in TV show scripts, check out TV Writing: https://sites.google.com/site/tvwriting/ It doesn’t have every single episode for TV shows, but the ones it does have are in proper script format (as opposed to name-less dialogue-only transcripts). To navigate the website, using the menu along the top, where shows are divided into UK telly (i.e., TV), US dramas, US comedies, and US animation. You can also use the search function on the top right.
Next steps
Now that you know where to find scripts, you may be interested in the following topics:
- How actors read scripts
- How famous actors memorize lines
- Acting exercises you can us when you have a script
If you’re new to acting and would like to learn more, check out the article about good acting vs. bad acting, take a look at the acting books below, and come check out our virtual acting workshops where you can put the above scripts to practice.
