The Best Screenplay and Writing

Academy Awards

The Category of Screenplay and Writing Awards:

See this site's 101 Greatest Film Screenplays of All-Time

One indicator of the types of screenplays that are nominated for awards is within the Best
Picture category. Through the 79th Academy Awards ceremony (through 2007), the vast
majority of films that have won the top prize have been adapted from other sources, while
about a fourth have been original screenplays:

• 43 of 80 Best Picture-winning films: adapted from novels, stories or short stories, or

remakes of other films (i.e., Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Rebecca (1940), Ben-
Hur (1959), The Departed (2006), No Country for Old Men (2007))
• 12 of 80 Best Picture-winning films: adapted from stage plays or stage musicals (i.e.,
You Can't Take It With You (1938), Hamlet (1948), West Side Story (1961), The
Sound of Music (1965))
• 1 of 80 Best Picture-winning films: adapted from an article ( On the Waterfront
(1954))
• 1 of 80 Best Picture-winning films: adapted from a TV show (Marty (1955))
• 1 of 80 Best Picture-winning films: adapted from various writings ( Lawrence of
Arabia (1962))
• 22 of 80 Best Picture-winning films: original screenplays (i.e., Going My Way (1944),
The Apartment (1960), Rocky (1976), Unforgiven (1992), Crash (2005))

There have been many writers who have unofficially worked on various nominated (and
winning) screenplays who are not included or credited for the screenplay. [Uncredited but
talented screenwriters include neophytes, called screenplay polishers, who make minor
rewrites to improve the dialogue or scene directions.] The Academy Awards include only
those who are officially nominated.

History of Changes in the Award:

See an entire detailed listing of Academy Award Script/Screenplay Winners from 1927/28 to the
Present on this site.

This awards category has varied considerably over the first 30 years of the awards ceremony,
but solidified itself by about 1970:

• in the first year of the Academy Awards, 1927/1928, there were only two writing
categories: Best Writing, Adaptation and Best Original Story; there was also a short-
lived category termed Best Title Writing, discontinued after this year at the end of the
silent era

• in the second and third years of the Academy Awards (1928/29 and 1929/30), there
was only a single writing award: Writing Achievement, with no distinction between
original works and adaptations. Only the titles of the nominated films were
announced. Writers were nominated for all of their work that year, rather than
 nominating the writer for a specific film

• in the next four ceremonies (1930/31, 1931/32, 1932/33, and 1934), the distinction
between original works and adaptations was resumed with two categories: Best
Writing, Adaptation and Best Original Story

• beginning in 1935, the term screenplay was first used as a nomination category
(replacing Best Writing, Adaptation - it was used to indicate an adaptation rather than
an original story), so now there were two categories: Best Original Story and Best
Screenplay (adaptation)

(Because of these rules, The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936) remains the only film to
win its two writing nominations in one ceremony for the same screenwriters (Pierre
Collings and Sheridan Gibney), for both Best Original Story and Best Screenplay
(adaptation). Collings and Gibney are the only screenwriters to win two Oscars each
for their work on a single film.)

• in 1940, the Academy started a new category - Best Original Screenplay, in addition
to the other two categories: Best Original Story and Best Screenplay (adaptation).
Best Original Story was intended to give credit to the authors of performance works
(not novels) that films were based on. Therefore, oftentimes, the source and its
adaptation would earn nominations - and Oscars.

(Besides The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936) with more than one writing Oscar, Here
Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) was the first to win two writing Oscars, followed by Going
My Way (1944) and Miracle on 34th Street (1947). But in these other three cases,
the script authors were different people from the writers credited with the screenplay.)

• in 1942, the titles for the three awards were: Best Screenplay (adaptation), Best
Original Screenplay, and Best Original Motion Picture Story

• in 1948, the award went back to only two awards: Best Motion Picture Story (original
screenplay) and Best Screenplay (adaptation); the Best Original Screenplay category
was dropped

• in 1949, the award was expanded back to three nebulous categories: Best Motion
Picture Story, Best Screenplay (adaptation) and Best Story and Screenplay (the new
name for the Best Original Screenplay category)

• in 1956, there were again three nominees, retaining Best Motion Picture Story and
two other renamed categories: Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original
Screenplay

• in 1957, the modern division of the award into "original" and "adapted" screenplays
was finally implemented - with only two renamed categories: Best Screenplay -
Based on Material From Another Medium (Adapted Screenplay) and Best Story and
Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Original Screenplay); the category of Best
Motion Picture Story was discarded by being merged into the other categories

• in 1969, the category of Best Story and Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
was renamed: Best Story and Screenplay - Based on Factual Material or Material Not
Previously Published or Produced

• since then, the category names for the writing awards have been simplified to
 Adapted Screenplay and Original Screenplay

Currently, there are two basic categories of writing awards:

• Writing, Adapted Screenplay: awarded to the writer of a screenplay adapted from

another source (novel or play usually)
• Writing, Original Screenplay: awarded to the writer of a script not based on
previously published material

Top Academy Award Screenwriting Nominations and Winners:

Woody Allen (13) and Billy Wilder (12) have been nominated the most for any screenwriting
category. Four individuals have been awarded with three (3) screenwriting Oscars: Billy
Wilder, Charles Brackett, Francis Ford Coppola, and Paddy Chayefsky.
 Top Screenwriting Oscar Winners: Overall

Billy Wilder

Wins:
The Lost Weekend (1945) - (Best Screenplay -
adaptation)
Sunset Boulevard (1950) - (Best Story and
Screenplay - original)
The Apartment (1960) - (Best Original Story and
Billy Wilder Screenplay)

12 nominations Nominated For:

3 wins Ninotchka (1939) - (Best Screenplay - adaptation)
Hold Back the Dawn (1941) - (Best Screenplay -
adaptation)
Ball of Fire (1941) - (Best Original Story)
Double Indemnity (1944) - (Best Screenplay -
adaptation)
A Foreign Affair (1948) - (Best Screenplay -
adaptation)
The Big Carnival (1951), aka Ace in the Hole -
(Best Story and Screenplay - original)
Sabrina (1954) - (Best Screenplay - adaptation)
Some Like It Hot (1959) - (Best Adapted
Screenplay)
The Fortune Cookie (1966) - (Best Original
Screenplay)

Note: Wilder had 7 Adapted Screenplay nominations,

4 Original Screenplay nominations, and one Best
Original Story nomination. Billy Wilder, Francis Ford
Coppola, Charles Brackett and Paddy Chayefsky
share the Academy Award record for Oscar writing
wins (3) in all categories.

Together, Wilder and Charles Brackett are

responsible for a total of 14 screenplay nominations.
They co-share 5 screenplay nominations (from 1939-
1950) and two wins: The Lost Weekend (1945) and
Sunset Boulevard (1950).

Woody Allen

Wins:
Annie Hall (1977)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

Nominated For:
Interiors (1978)
Manhattan (1979)
Woody Allen
Broadway Danny Rose (1984)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
14 nominations Radio Days (1987)
2 wins Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
Alice (1990)
 The Best Screenplay and Writing
Academy Awards

Other Leading Contenders for Most Writing Nominations and Wins:

• Ben Hecht: (6 Nominations, 2 Wins)

Oscar wins: Underworld (1927/28), The Scoundrel (1935)
Nominations: Viva Villa! (1934), Wuthering Heights (1939), Angels Over
Broadway (1940), Notorious (1946)

• Carl Foreman: (6 Nominations, 1 Win)

Oscar win: The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Nominations: Champion (1949), The Men (1950), High Noon (1952), The Guns of
Navarone (1961), Young Winston (1972)

• Oliver Stone: (6 Nominations, 1 Win)

Oscar win: Midnight Express (1978)
Nominations: Platoon (1986), Salvador (1986), Born on the Fourth of July (1989),
JFK (1991), Nixon (1995)

• Robert Benton: (5 Nominations, 2 Wins)

Oscar wins: Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), Places in the Heart (1984)
Nominations: Bonnie and Clyde (1967), The Late Show (1977), Nobody's Fool
(1994)

• Joseph L. Mankiewicz: (5 Nominations, 2 Wins)

Oscar wins: A Letter to Three Wives (1949), All About Eve (1950)
Nominations: Skippy (1930/31), No Way Out (1950), The Barefoot Contessa
(1954)

• Michael Wilson: (5 Nominations, 2 Wins)

Oscar wins: A Place in the Sun (1951), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) +
Nominations: 5 Fingers (1952), Friendly Persuasion (1956), Lawrence of Arabia
(1962) +
(+ Wilson was posthumously given his Oscar nominated credit - and in the case of
The Bridge of the River Kwai (1957), his Oscar (in 1985) - due to his blacklisting and
working on each screenplay anonymously. The credited and awarded screenwriter,
Pierre Boule, could not speak or write English.)

• George Seaton: (4 Nominations, 2 Wins)

Oscar wins: Miracle on 34th Street (1947), The Country Girl (1954)
Nominations: The Song of Bernadette (1943), Airport (1970)

• Stanley Shapiro: (4 Nominations, 1 Win)

Oscar wins: Pillow Talk (1959)
Nominations: Operation Petticoat (1959), Lover Come Back (1961), That Touch of
Mink (1962)

• Melvin Frank: (4 Nominations, 0 Wins)

Nominations: The Road to Utopia (1946), Knock on Wood (1954), The Facts of
 Life (1960), A Touch of Class (1973)

• Edward Anhalt: (3 Nominations, 2 Wins)

Oscar wins: Panic in the Streets (1950), Becket (1964)
Nominations: The Sniper (1952)

• Dalton Trumbo: (3 Nominations, 2 Wins)

Oscar wins: Roman Holiday (1953), The Brave One (1956)+
Nominations: Kitty Foyle (1940)
(+ Trumbo wrote The Brave One (1956) under the pseudonym Robert Rich due to
blacklisting, and received his award shortly before his death in 1976.)

• Frances Marion: (3 Nominations, 2 Wins)

Oscar wins: The Big House (1929/30), The Champ (1931/32)
Nominations: The Prizefighter and the Lady (1932/33)

• Waldo Salt: (3 Nominations, 2 Wins)

Oscar wins: Midnight Cowboy (1969), Coming Home (1978)
Nominations: Serpico (1973)

• Alvin Sargent: (3 Nominations, 2 Wins)

Oscar wins: Julia (1977), Ordinary People (1980)
Nominations: Paper Moon (1973)

• Ruth Prawer Jhabvala: (3 Nominations, 2 Wins)

Oscar wins: A Room with a View (1985), Howards End (1992)
Nominations: The Remains of the Day (1993)

• Alan Jay Lerner: (3 Nominations, 2 Wins)

Oscar wins: An American in Paris (1951), Gigi (1958)
Nominations: My Fair Lady (1964)

• Robert Bolt: (3 Nominations, 2 Wins)

Oscar wins: Doctor Zhivago (1965), A Man for All Seasons (1966)
Nominations: Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

• Frank Cavett: (3 Nominations, 2 Wins)

Oscar wins: Going My Way (1944), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
Nominations: Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman (1947)

• Horton Foote: (3 Nominations, 2 Wins)

Oscar wins: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Tender Mercies (1983)
Nominations: The Trip to Bountiful (1985)

• Bo Goldman: (3 Nominations, 2 Wins)

Oscar wins: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Melvin and Howard (1980)
Nominations: Scent of a Woman (1992)

Writers with Triple Wins for the Same Film:

A few writers/directors have accomplished the 'hat trick' of triple Oscar wins as producer-
director-writer:
 • Leo McCarey for Going My Way (1944)
• Billy Wilder for The Apartment (1960)
• Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather, Part 2 (1974)
• James L. Brooks for Terms of Endearment (1983)
• Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Other Mosts:

• Toy Story (1995), nominated for Best Original Screenplay, had the most
screenwriters (7) attached to an Oscar screenplay nominee

• Three films are tied for the most screenwriters (4) attached to an Oscar screenplay
winner
- Pygmalion (1938) (a winner in two categories: Best Adapted Screenplay and Best
Screenplay)
- Mrs. Miniver (1942) (for Best Screenplay)
- Pillow Talk (1959) (for Best Story and Screenplay)

Trivia for Academy Award Writing Nominations and Wins: Firsts

• Because of confused Academy rules, Bess Meredyth (for A Woman of Affairs

(1928/29) and Wonder of Women (1928/29)) and Josephine Lovett (for Our
Dancing Daughters (1928/29)) were the first women to receive a screenplay
"nomination", but they were not officially nominated

• Elliott Clawson was nominated (but not officially) for four films in one ceremony, in
1928/29 (for The Cop; The Leatherneck; Sal of Singapore; and Skyscraper)

• Frances Marion, a renowned and respected scriptwriter, was the first woman to win a
solo writing Oscar - Best Screenplay for The Big House (1929/30). This win also
gave her the distinction of being the first woman to write a Best Picture nominee. She
duplicated this feat and became the first screenwriter to win two screenwriting Oscars
with her Best Original Story win for The Champ (1931/32). She was nominated only
one other time - without a win, for Best Original Screenplay for The Prizefighter and
the Lady (1932/33). [She scripted screenplays from the silent era into the late 30s,
for films such as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917), Anne of Green Gables
(1919), Pollyanna (1920), Stella Dallas (1925), The Scarlet Letter (1926), Anna
Christie (1931), Dinner at Eight (1933), Camille (1936), and The Good Earth (1937).]

• Sarah Y. Mason became the first woman to be a co-winner of a screenplay award,

Best Screenplay Adaptation for Little Women (1932/33). [Her co-winner was Victor
Heerman.]

• Paul Green and Sonya Levien were the first screenwriters to be nominated for a
musical script (State Fair (1932))

• Both Casey Robinson and Gregory Rogers were the first and only write-in candidates
for screenwriting (in the same year) that were not official nominees, for Captain
Blood (1935) and G-Men (1935) respectively

• Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett became the first screenwriters to be nominated
 for a sequel, After the Thin Man (1936). [Its predecessor, The Thin Man (1934), was
also nominated for Best Screenplay Adaptation, and written by the same duo.]

• Joan Harrison became the first screenwriter to be nominated in two different

categories in the same year: Rebecca (1940) (Best Screenplay) and Foreign
Correspondent (1940) (Best Original Screenplay). Both films were directed by Alfred
Hitchcock

• Emeric Pressburger became the first (and only) screenwriter to be nominated in

three different screenwriting categories in a single year: Best Original Story (The
Invaders (1942) aka The 49th Parallel (win)), Best Original Screenplay (One of Our
Aircraft is Missing (1942)), and Best Screenplay - Adapted (also for The Invaders
(1942))

• George Froeschel, Claudine West and Arthur Wimperis were the first trio of
screenwriters to be nominated in the same year in the same category (Best
Screenplay), for Mrs. Miniver (1942) (with James Hilton, with whom they won) and
for Random Harvest (1942)

• Benjamin Glazer became the first screenwriter to win Best Screenplay for two
different screenplay catagories: Best Adapted Screenplay (Seventh Heaven
(1927/28), the first screenplay adaptation Oscar ever awarded) and Best Original
Story (Arise, My Love (1940))

• Divorce - Italian Style (1962) was the first foreign language film to win a screenplay
Oscar. Ugo Pirro was the first foreign language screenwriter to have two nominations
in two categories in the same ceremony: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1971)
(Screenplay - Original) and Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)
(Screenplay - Adapted)

• Emma Thompson became the only individual to have won an Academy Award for
both acting (Best Actress for Howards End (1992)) and screenwriting (Best Adapted
Screenplay for Sense and Sensibility (1995))

• In 2007, four female scriptwriters (all first-time nominees) were nominated for
individual screenplay honors:

Original Screenplay nomination: Diablo Cody for Juno, Tamara

Jenkins for The Savages, and Nancy Oliver for Lars and the Real
Girl
Adapted Screenplay nomination: Sarah Polley for Away From Her

The Best Screenplay and Writing

Academy Awards

Writers with Most Best Picture Nominations and Wins:

Billy Wilder holds the record for writing more Best Picture nominees (7) than anyone else.
Wilder's nominated and winning (marked with *) Best Picture films were:

• Ninotchka (1939)
 • Hold Back the Dawn (1941)
• Double Indemnity (1944)
• The Lost Weekend (1945)*+
• Sunset Boulevard (1950)+
• Witness for the Prosecution (1957) - NOT screenplay-nominated
• The Apartment (1960)*+

+ - won Best Screenplay

Francis Ford Coppola and Alan Jay Lerner both hold the record for writing more Best Picture
winners (3) than anyone else. Their nominated and winning (marked with *) Best Picture films
were:

Francis Ford Coppola:

• Patton (1970)*+
• The Godfather (1972)*+
• The Conversation (1974)
• The Godfather: Part II (1974)*+
• Apocalypse Now (1979)
• The Godfather: Part III (1990)

Alan Jay Lerner:

• An American in Paris (1951)*+

• Gigi (1958)*+
• My Fair Lady (1964)*

+ - won Best Screenplay

Best Picture Screenplay Writing Trivia:

Anita Loos was the second woman to receive the sole screenplay credit for a Best Picture
nominee with San Francisco (1936). Her play Gigi would later become the basis for the Best
Picture-winning Gigi (1958). Joan Harrison became the first woman to co-author a Best
Picture winner - Rebecca (1940) - with Robert E. Sherwood. [She also co-wrote Best Picture
nominee Foreign Correspondent (1940) that same year (also a Hitchcock film.)] No woman has
ever had the solo screenplay credit of a Best Picture winner. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala has the
most solo screenplay credits (3) for a Best Picture nominee by a woman.

Wang Hui-Ling and Tsai Kuo Jung are the only Asian screenwriters (assisted by executive
producer James Schamus) to write a Best Picture nominee - Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon (2000).

George Bernard Shaw was the only Nobel Prize winner to receive a Best Screenplay Oscar,
for Pygmalion (1938) -- based on his own 1912 stage play of the same name.

Robert Riskin became the first writer to author two Best Picture winners with You Can't Take
It with You (1938) - his previous Best Picture winner was It Happened One Night (1934).
With My Fair Lady (1964), Alan Jay Lerner became the first writer to pen nominated
screenplays for three Best Picture winners - his two wins were An American in Paris (1951)
and Gigi (1958). His feat of three Best Picture winning screenplays has only been matched
by Francis Ford Coppola.

Paul Haggis became the first screenwriter to have written two consecutive Best Pictures (with
a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Crash (2005) and a nomination for Best Adapted
Screenplay for Million Dollar Baby (2004) (which lost to Sideways (2004))).

Dudley Nichols was the first Oscar winner to refuse an Academy Award - for his screenplay
credit on The Informer (1935). He was boycotting the awards as a member of the Screen
Writers Guild. (Two years later, after the Academy accepted the guilds and ended its support
for union-busting activities, Nichols accepted his award.)

Woody Allen holds the record for most screenplay nominations (14, and all in the Best
Original Screenplay category), but has only had two film screenplays for a Best Picture
nominee - Annie Hall (1977) (which won Best Picture) and Hannah and Her Sisters
(1986). Both pictures gave Allen a Best Original Screenplay Oscar - his only two wins.

David Lean's two screenplays nominated for Best Picture were an incredible 38 years apart -
Great Expectations (1946) and A Passage to India (1984).

Laurence Olivier's adaptation of Best Picture winner Hamlet (1948) was uncredited, making
William Shakespeare the "official" writer of the film. Joseph L. Mankiewicz similarly gave
credit for his screenplay of Julius Caesar (1953) to Shakespeare. Neither Olivier, Mankiewicz
nor Shakespeare were given Best Screenplay nominations. Romeo and Juliet (1968) was the
first Best Picture nominee directly adapted from Shakespeare that did not credit The Bard
with the screenplay.

Frances Walsh, Philppa Boyens, and Peter Jackson's three screenplays that became Best
Picture nominees were all from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. [Oddly, Stephen Sinclair was
only involved with The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002).]

Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich co-wrote the most Best Picture nominees (6) as a
writing duo, including The Thin Man (1934)*, After the Thin Man (1936)*, It's a Wonderful
Life (1946), Father of the Bride (1950)*, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)*, and The
Diary of Anne Frank (1959). [Screenplay nominees are marked with *.]

All of Mario Puzo's screenplays for Best Picture nominees were from the Godfather trilogy.
Goodfellas (1990) was the SOLE screenplay by Martin Scorsese to be nominated for Best
Picture.

Best Picture champs usually win one of the two screenplay awards - approximately two-thirds
have done so since 1950.

Best Picture Winners: Not Nominated for Best Screenplay Award

• Wings (1927/28)
• The Broadway Melody (1928/29)
• Grand Hotel (1931/32)
• Calvacade (1932/33)
• Hamlet (1948)
• The Sound Of Music (1965)
 • Titanic (1997)

Best Picture Winners: Did Not Win Either a Best Screenplay Award or Best Director Award

• Wings (1927/28)
• The Broadway Melody (1928/29)
• Grand Hotel (1931/32)
• Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
• The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
• Rebecca (1940)
• Hamlet (1948)
• All the King's Men (1949)
• Gladiator (2000)
• Chicago (2002)

Best Picture Winners: Won a Best Screenplay Award, But Did Not Win Best Director

• Cimarron (1930/31)
• The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
• An American in Paris (1951)
• The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
• Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
• In the Heat of the Night (1967)
• The Godfather (1972)
• Chariots of Fire (1981)
• Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
• Shakespeare in Love (1998)
• Crash (2005)

Best Picture Winners: Won Best Director, But Did Not Win a Best Screenplay Award

• All Quiet on the Western Front (1929/30)

• Cavalcade (1932/33)
• You Can't Take it With You (1938)
• How Green Was My Valley (1941)
• Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
• Ben-Hur (1959)
• West Side Story (1961)
• Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
• My Fair Lady (1964)
• The Sound of Music (1965)
• Oliver! (1968)
• Rocky (1976)
• The Deer Hunter (1978)
• Platoon (1986)
• Unforgiven (1992)
• Braveheart (1995)
• The English Patient (1996)
• Titanic (1997)
 • Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Blacklisted-Related Screenwriters:

Ring Lardner Jr.'s screenplay of M*A*S*H (1970) bears little resemblance to the final film, but
was the sole screenplay credit, winning the Best Screenplay Adaptation Oscar, widely seen
as an "apology" for being blacklisted. Philip Dunne was given credit for The Robe (1953) as a
front for blacklisted Albert Maltz. Ian McLellan Hunter was given credit for Roman Holiday
(1953) as a front of blacklisted Dalton Trumbo. Michael Wilson's work on Friendly
Persuasion (1956), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) (along with Carl Foreman) and
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) went uncredited due to blacklisting, but each film earned an Oscar
nominations for Best Screenplay Adaptation. All blacklisted writers were later officially re-
credited for their work, and given their respective awards (often posthumously).

The Best Screenplay and Writing

Academy Awards - Winners

Year Adapted Screenplay Original Screenplay

The Departed Little Miss Sunshine
2006
William Monahan Michael Arndt
Brokeback Mountain Crash
2005
Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana Paul Haggis, Robert Moresco
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless
Sideways Mind
2004
Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry and
Pierre Bismuth
The Lord of the Rings: The
Return of the King Lost in Translation
2003
Frances Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Sofia Coppola
Peter Jackson
The Pianist Talk To Her (Hable con ella)
2002
Ronald Harwood Pedro Almodóvar
 Screenplay Based on Material Screenplay
Year Previously Produced or Written Directly for the Screen -
Published - Adapted Original
A Beautiful Mind Gosford Park
2001
Akiva Goldsman Julian Fellows
Traffic Almost Famous
2000
Stephen Gaghan Cameron Crowe
The Cider House Rules American Beauty
1999
John Irving Alan Ball
Gods And Monsters Shakespeare In Love
1998
Bill Condon Marc Norman & Tom Stoppard
L.A. Confidential Good Will Hunting
1997
Brian Helgeland & Curtis Hanson Ben Affleck & Matt Damon
Sling Blade Fargo
1996
Billy Bob Thornton Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
Sense And Sensibility The Usual Suspects
1995
Emma Thompson Christopher McQuarrie
Forrest Gump Pulp Fiction
1994
Eric Roth Quentin Tarantino & Roger Avery
Schindler's List The Piano
1993
Steven Zaillian Jane Campion
Howards End The Crying Game
1992
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Neil Jordan
The Silence Of The Lambs Thelma & Louise
1991
Ted Tally Callie Khouri
 Screenplay Screenplay
Year Based on Material from Another Written Directly for the Screen -
Medium - Adapted Original
Dances With Wolves Ghost
1990
Michael Blake Bruce Joel Rubin
Driving Miss Daisy Dead Poets Society
1989
Alfred Uhry Tom Schulman
Dangerous Liaisons Rain Man
1988
Christopher Hampton Ronald Bass & Barry Morrow
The Last Emperor
Moonstruck
1987 Mark Peploe & Bernardo
John Patrick Shanley
Bertolucci
A Room With A View Hannah And Her Sisters
1986
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Woody Allen
Witness
Out Of Africa
1985 Earl W. Wallace, William Kelley &
Kurt Luedtke
Pamela Wallace
Amadeus Places In The Heart
1984
Peter Shaffer Robert Benton
Terms Of Endearment Tender Mercies
1983
James L. Brooks Horton Foote
Missing Gandhi
1982
Costa-Gavras & Donald Stewart John Briley
On Golden Pond Chariots Of Fire
1981
Ernest Thompson Colin Welland
Ordinary People Melvin And Howard
1980
Alvin Sargent Bo Goldman
Kramer Vs. Kramer Breaking Away
1979
Robert Benton Steve Tesich
Coming Home
Midnight Express
1978 Nancy Dowd, Waldo Salt & Robert C.
Oliver Stone
Jones
Julia Annie Hall
1977
Alvin Sargent Woody Allen & Marshall Brickman
All The President's Men Network
1976
William Goldman Paddy Chayefsky
Screenplay Adapted from Other
Year Original Screenplay
Material
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's
Dog Day Afternoon
1975 Nest
Frank Pierson
Lawrence Hauben & Bo Goldman
The Godfather Part II
Chinatown
1974 Francis Ford Coppola & Mario
Robert Towne
Puzo
 Story and Screenplay--Based on
Screenplay--
Factual Material or Material Not
Year Based on Material From Another
Previously Published or Produced
Medium - Adapted
- Original
The Exorcist The Sting
1973
William Peter Blatty David S. Ward
The Godfather
The Candidate
1972 Mario Puzo & Francis Ford
Jeremy Larner
Coppola
The French Connection Hospital
1971
Ernest Tidyman Paddy Chayefsky
Patton
M*A*S*H
1970 Francis Ford Coppola & Edmund H.
Ring Lardner, Jr.
North
Midnight Cowboy Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid
1969
Waldo Salt William Goldman
 Screenplay-- Story and Screenplay--
Year Based on Material from Another Written Directly For the Screen -
Medium - Adapted Original
The Lion In Winter The Producers
1968
James Goldman Mel Brooks
In The Heat Of The Night Guess Who's Coming To Dinner
1967
Stirling Silliphant William Rose
A Man And A Woman
A Man For All Seasons
1966 Claude Lelouch & Pierre
Robert Bolt
Uytterhoeven
Doctor Zhivago Darling
1965
Robert Bolt Frederic Raphael
Father Goose
Becket
1964 S. H. Barnett, Peter Stone & Frank
Edward Anhalt
Tarloff
Tom Jones How The West Was Won
1963
John Osborne James R. Webb
Divorce - Italian Style
To Kill A Mockingbird
1962 Ennio de Concini, Alfredo Giannetti &
Horton Foote
Pietro Germi
Judgment At Nuremberg Splendor In The Grass
1961
Abby Mann William Inge
Elmer Gantry The Apartment
1960
Richard Brooks Billy Wilder & I. A. L. Diamond
Pillow Talk
Room At The Top
1959 Russell Rouse, Clarence Greene
Neil Paterson
Stanley Shapiro & Maurice Richlin
Gigi The Defiant Ones
1958
Alan Jay Lerner Nedrick Young, Harold Jacob Smith
The Bridge On The River Kwai
Pierre Boulle [front], Michael
Wilson & Carl Foreman (both Designing Woman
1957
blacklisted at the time, with no George Wells
screen credit; awarded Oscars
posthumously in 1984)

The Best Screenplay and Writing

Academy Awards - Winners

Year Adapted Screenplay Motion Picture Story Original Screenplay

Around The World In
80 Days The Brave One
The Red Balloon
1956 James Poe, John Dalton Trumbo
Albert Lamorisse
Farrow (Robert Rich [alias])
& S. J. Perelman
 Screenplay - Story & Screenplay -
Year Motion Picture Story
Adaptation Original
Interrupted Melody
Marty Love Me or Leave Me
1955 William Ludwig, Sonya
Paddy Chayefsky Daniel Fuchs
Levien
The Country Girl Broken Lance On The Waterfront
1954
George Seaton Philip Yordan Budd Schulberg
Titanic
Roman Holiday
From Here To Eternity Charles Brackett,
1953 Dalton Trumbo (Ian
Daniel Taradash Walter Reisch
McLellan Hunter [alias])
& Richard Breen
The Greatest Show On
The Bad and the Earth
The Lavender Hill Mob
1952 Beautiful Frederic M. Frank,
T. E. B. Clarke
Charles Schnee Theodore St. John, Frank
Cavett
A Place In The Sun Seven Days To Noon
An American In Paris
1951 Michael Wilson & Paul Dehn & James
Alan Jay Lerner
Harry Brown Bernard
Sunset Boulevard
Panic In The Streets
All About Eve Charles Brackett, Billy
1950 Edna Anhalt & Edward
Joseph L. Mankiewicz Wilder
Anhalt
& D. M. Marshman, Jr.
A Letter To Three
The Stratton Story Battleground
1949 Wives
Douglas Morrow Robert Pirosh
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Year Screenplay - Adaptation Motion Picture Story
The Treasure Of The Sierra
The Search
1948 Madre
Richard Schweizer & David Wechsler
John Huston
Screenplay -
Year Motion Picture Story Original Screenplay
Adaptation
Miracle on 34th The Bachelor And The
Miracle On 34th Street
1947 Street Bobby-Soxer
Valentine Davies
George Seaton Sidney Sheldon
 Screenplay - Original Motion Picture
Year Original Screenplay
Adaptation Story
The Best Years of The Seventh Veil
Vacation From Marriage
1946 Our Lives Muriel Box & Sydney
Clemence Dane
Robert E. Sherwood Box
The Lost Weekend The House On 92nd
Marie-Louise
1945 Charles Brackett, Billy Street
Richard Schweizer
Wilder Charles G. Booth
Going My Way
Going My Way Wilson
1944 Frank Butler, Frank
Leo McCarey Lamar Trotti
Cavett
Casablanca
Julius J. Epstein, The Human Comedy Princess O'Rourke
1943
Philip G. Epstein, William Saroyan Norman Krasna
Howard Koch
Mrs. Miniver
Arthur Wimperis, The Invaders Woman Of The Year
1942 George Froeschel, (aka 49th Parallel) Ring Lardner, Jr. &
James Hilton & Emeric Pressburger Michael Kanin
Claudine West
Here Comes Mr.
Citizen Kane
Jordan Here Comes Mr. Jordan
1941 Herman J. Mankiewicz
Sidney Buchman & Harry Segall
& Orson Welles
Seton I. Miller
Screenplay -
Year Original Story Original Screenplay
Adaptation
The Philadelphia
Arise, My Love
Story The Great McGinty
1940 Benjamin Glazer & John
Donald Ogden Preston Sturges
S. Toldy
Stewart
Year Screenplay - Adaptation Original Story
Gone With The Wind Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
1939
Sidney Howard Lewis R. Foster
Pygmalion
Cecil Lewis, W. P. Lipscomb,
Boys Town
1938 & Ian Dalrymple
Dore Schary & Eleanore Griffin
George Bernard Shaw
(Screenplay)
The Life Of Emile Zola
Norman Reilly Raine, Heinz A Star Is Born
1937
Herald, William A. Wellman & Robert Carson
& Geza Herczeg
The Story Of Louis Pasteur The Story Of Louis Pasteur
1936
Pierre Collings & Sheridan Gibney Pierre Collings & Sheridan Gibney
The Informer The Scoundrel
1935
Dudley Nichols Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur
 Year Writing - Adaptation Original Story
It Happened One Night Manhattan Melodrama
1934
Robert Riskin Arthur Caesar
Little Women
One Way Passage
1932/33 Vistor Heerman & Sarah Y.
Robert Lord
Mason
Bad Girl The Champ
1931/32
Edwin Burke Frances Marion
Cimarron The Dawn Patrol
1930/31
Howard Estabrook John Monk Saunders
Year Writing Achievement - Screenplay
The Big House
1929/30
Frances Marion
The Patriot
1928/29
Hans Kraly
Year Adaptation Original Story Title Writing
7th Heaven Underworld
1927/28 Joseph Farnham
Benjamin Glazer Ben Hecht