Franklin Leonard at TIFF

Franklin Leonard, film executive and founder of The Black List, a website dedicated to promoting the top unproduced screenplays of the year, took part in a Q&A presented at the TIFF Bell Lightbox as a guest of STUDIO, TIFF’s first year-round industry programme, to share insight on the ladder of success he climbed in the film industry at a young age and advice to screenwriters interested in doing the same.

“The Blacklist was really birthed from self-interest,” Leonard began, after finishing his story on how he ‘accidentally’ entered the film world, joking that it was basically due to the fact that he was a nerd, with time on his hands and didn’t quite know where he belonged.

Since the website launched in 2004, Leonard was working for Leonardo DiCaprio’s team at the time and remained anonymous, but now after much success, the young entrepreneur is proud of what he has accomplished and the legacy it has started to leave on the film industry.

“Over 250 films out of 600 scripts that have been on the list have been produced. Those movies have made over 16 billion dollars in worldwide box offices and been nominated for 140 Academy Awards, winning around 30 of them and three of the last five best pictures and seven of the last screenwriters,” he shared.

“I think it’s really important to state as plainly as possible, I don’t deserve credit for the success of the films. The success for those films goes to, rightfully, the people who made them – the writers, the directors and everyone down to props and assistants. What I’m really excited about and what I’m really proud of is the fact that The Black List plays a role in catalyzing those movies into existence by shining a very bright spotlight on people and writers in particular that have done really good work.”

After a brief tutorial on the quick and easy uploading process for screenwriters to use the site, Leonard took an hour to answer any questions anyone had from what The Black List looks for in an award-winning script to why there is such a large difference in ratio between men and women scriptwriters, which he took the opportunity to discuss in as much detail as he could.

The informative Q&A session was part of a TIFF industry series, which was a treat for many screenwriters, who so often lack resources to learn about their craft.