Submit to The Grey List

The Grey List is a curated list spotlighting forty high-quality, production-ready screenplays from writers over the age of 40. The goal of the list is simple and straightforward – to spotlight outstanding stories from amazing writers, while drawing attention to the ongoing issue of ageism in Hollywood. We believe that writers with more life experiences bring something unique and valuable to their scripts and/or a writers’ room and hope this list will help prove that creativity has no expiration date.

No. The Grey List is not a screenwriting content; it is a curated list. There is no fee charged to be considered for placement, and there is no prize money associated with placement.

The only criteria is that the screenplays be production-ready quality and the writer be at least forty years old.

The Grey List is genre agnostic and accepts both features and pilots.

No. While some screenplays on The Grey List may feature characters over the age of forty, it is not a requirement. The only age requirement associated with The Grey List is that the writer must be at least forty years old.

No. While it is unlikely that all global regions will be represented on The Grey List, the list is meant for an international audience and does not solely focus on writers based in the United States.

The Grey List is released on an annual basis.

While the mission of The Grey List is focused on pushing back against ageism in Hollywood, diversity of all kinds is equally important. The Grey List is curated with this in mind; to ensure that other historically underrepresented groups, such as POC, LGBTQIA+, AAPI, and disabled writers, are included.

There are several ways a script may come to our attention. First, there is an open submission window (normally this occurs around October/November). During the submission window anyone can nominate a script for The Grey List. The Grey List also reaches out to industry professionals requesting their nominations for the best scripts they’ve read from writers over 40 over the past year.

Once the submission window closes, scripts are ranked based on the number of nominations received. In this way, we attempt to ensure that there is a consensus among the screenwriting community as to which scripts should be featured in The Grey List. All submitted scripts are evaluated by a dedicated team of volunteers with experience either within the entertainment industry or as script readers for other organizations. Every script is read blind (no name or identifying information on the title page) by a member of our team and is graded on a Green (Yes), Yellow (Unsure), or Red (No) scale. Scripts receiving a “Red” rating are removed from consideration. Scripts receiving a “Green” rating move onto the second phase of consideration. Script receiving a “Yellow” rating are passed along to a second member of the team for an additional evaluation. The second reader must then give either a Green or Red rating. Once all scripts have been reviewed, The Grey List team works together to build the final list, taking factors such as, but not limited to, quality, market readiness, other accolades (placements/wins in contests, scores on The Black List website, endorsements from current industry professionals, etc.) and list diversity into account. It is worth noting that significantly more screenplays are received than can be featured in The Grey List, and not every writer who submits or is nominated will be featured. This is not an indication of the quality of the writing, but rather the limited number of scripts which can be featured and a desire to ensure diversity of writers. Finally, the selection process will undoubtedly change as The Grey List continues to grow and evolve but we are committed to ensuring that the process always be transparent and clearly stated.

Notifications will be sent out to selected writers on a rolling basis through the end of January 2027. Due to the volume of submissions, only those chosen to be featured in The Grey List will be notified.

As always, The Grey List is officially released on the last Tuesday in February.

When the list is officially announced, you can find all forty screenplays and writer profiles under The List tab on this site. The list will also be available in PDF format, which will be emailed to anyone who has signed up for updates or via download on The Grey List website.

All screenplays featured on The Grey List will have a “Get The Script” hyperlink which will take interested parties to either the full script PDF or to another destination of the writer’s choice (Coverfly, their manager/agent, etc.).