Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay

The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award (also known as an Oscar) for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material; writers with "written by", "screenplay" or "story" credits are all collectively recognized as recipients for each nomination.

Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
The 2024 recipient: Sean Baker
Presented by	Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)
First award	February 27, 1941; 84 years ago (1941-02-27) (for films released in 1940)
Most recent winner	Sean Baker Anora (2024)
Website	oscars.org

The category was created in 1940, and has always existed concurrently with the Best Adapted Screenplay category (conversely for films based on pre-existing intellectual properties); originally, it also co-existed with a third writing category, Best Story, which had been active since the original Academy Awards ceremony in 1929; this latter award was meant to reward specifically writers who originated a film's plot and characters rather than those who wrote the dialogue and final screenplay, although Best Story would later be merged into Best Original Screenplay in 1956.

Eligibility

Screenplays are eligible if they are not based on "previously published material". The Writer's Branch of the academy determines if a screenplay is adapted or original, based on possible sources in question, interviews given about the film and the film's publicity materials, and sometimes places screenplays in a different category than the Writers Guild of America. For the 75th Academy Awards, Gangs of New York was nominated as an original screenplay despite being based on the book The Gangs of New York because the writers based the film on the book's historical research but largely invented the characters and plot.^[1] For the 89th Academy Awards, Moonlight was campaigned as an original screenplay, being based on an unpublished play, but was ultimately placed in the adapted screenplay category, which it won.^[2] Similarly, Whiplash was considered an adapted screenplay at the 87th Academy Awards despite being written as an original screenplay because a scene from the script was produced as a proof-of-concept short film. However, 2008's Frozen River, which similarly had a proof-of-concept short film screened at film festivals, was nominated as an original screenplay.^[3]

Superlatives

Woody Allen has received the most Oscar nominations in this category with 16, winning three times: for Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters and Midnight in Paris

Woody Allen has the most nominations in this category with 16, and the most awards with 3 (for Annie Hall (1977), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and Midnight in Paris (2011)). Paddy Chayefsky and Billy Wilder have also won three screenwriting Oscars: Chayefsky won two for Original Screenplay (The Hospital and Network) and one for Adapted Screenplay (Marty), while Wilder won one for Adapted Screenplay (The Lost Weekend, shared with Charles Brackett), and two for Original Screenplay (Sunset Boulevard, shared with Brackett and D. M. Marshman Jr., and The Apartment, shared with I. A. L. Diamond)

Woody Allen also holds the record as the oldest winner (76) for Midnight in Paris.^[4] Ben Affleck is the youngest winner (25) for Good Will Hunting, co-written with Matt Damon (27).

Richard Schweizer was the first to win the award for a foreign-language film, Marie-Louise (French). Other winners for a non-English screenplay include Albert Lamorisse (The Red Balloon; French), Pietro Germi (Divorce Italian Style; Italian), Claude Lelouch (A Man and A Woman; French), Pedro Almodóvar (Talk to Her; Spanish), Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won (Parasite, Korean), and Justine Triet and Arthur Harari (Anatomy of a Fall, French). Lamorisse is the only person to win or even be nominated for Best Original Screenplay for a short film.^[5]

Frances Marion (The Big House) was the first woman to win for her original script, although she won Best Writing, which then included both original and adapted screenplays before a separate award for Best Original Screenplay was introduced. Muriel Box (The Seventh Veil) was the first woman to win in this category; she shared the award with her husband, Sydney Box. They are also the first of two married couples to win in this category; Earl W. Wallace and Pamela Wallace (Witness) are the others.

In 1996, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen became the only siblings to win in this category (for Fargo).^[6] Francis Ford Coppola (Patton, 1970)^[7] and Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, 2003) are the only father-daughter pair to win.^[8] Kenny and Keith Lucas are the only African-American siblings to receive a nomination in this category (Judas and the Black Messiah, 2020/21).^[9]

Frank Butler was nominated for two different films in the same year, both with a co-writer (1942): Road to Morocco, with Don Hartman, and Wake Island, with W.R. Burnett. Preston Sturges was nominated solo for two different films in the same year (1944): Hail the Conquering Hero and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. Oliver Stone achieved the same distinction in 1986, for Platoon and Salvador. Maurice Richlin and Stanley Shapiro were nominated in 1959 for both Operation Petticoat and Pillow Talk and won for the latter.

Jordan Peele became the first and only African-American to win in this category for 2017's Get Out.^[10]

Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won became the first Asian writers to win either Screenplay award, for 2019's Parasite.^[11][12] This was also the most recent of 10 occasions when Oscars in this category have been awarded to writers for both screenplay AND story on one film (sometimes they have been completely different, and sometimes the credited screenplay author also contributed to the story alongside at least one other credited scribe).

Winners and nominees

Winners are listed first in the colored row and denoted by double dagger (‡), followed by the other nominees.

Preston Sturges was the inaugural winner, for The Great McGinty(1940)

Orson Welles co-won the award for Citizen Kane in 1942.

Herman J. Mankiewicz won for Citizen Kane (1941) alongside Orson Welles.

Billy Wilder won twice for Sunset Boulevard (1950) and The Apartment (1960)^[a].

Alan Jay Lerner won for An American in Paris (1951)

Budd Schulberg won for On the Waterfront (1954)

William Inge won for Splendor in the Grass (1961).

Claude Lelouch won for A Man and a Woman (1966)

Mel Brooks won for his comedy The Producers (1968).

William Goldman, winner in 1969 for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Francis Ford Coppola won for Patton (1970)^[b].

Paddy Chayefsky won twice for The Hospital (1971) and Network (1976)

Robert Towne won for Chinatown (1975).

Woody Allen won thrice for Annie Hall (1977), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and Midnight in Paris (2011). He has received sixteen nominations total, the most of any writer.^[c]

Steve Tesich won for Breaking Away (1979).

Bo Goldman won for Melvin and Howard (1980).

John Patrick Shanley won for Moonstruck (1987).

Callie Khouri won for Thelma & Louise (1991)

Neil Jordan won for The Crying Game in 1992.

Jane Campion won for The Piano in 1993.

Quentin Tarantino won twice for Pulp Fiction (1994), and Django Unchained (2012)

Christopher McQuarrie won for The Usual Suspects in 1995.

Writer-director pair the Coen brothers won for Fargo (1996)

Ben Affleck won for co-writing Good Will Hunting (1997)

Matt Damon won for co-writing Good Will Hunting (1997)

Tom Stoppard won for Shakespeare in Love (1998)

Alan Ball won for American Beauty (1999)

Cameron Crowe won for Almost Famous (2000)

Julian Fellowes won for Gosford Park (2001)

Pedro Almodóvar won for Talk to Her (2002)

Sofia Coppola won for 2003's Lost in Translation. Her father previously won for Patton.^[d].

Charlie Kaufman won for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Paul Haggis won for Crash (2005)

Michael Arndt won for Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Diablo Cody won for 2007's Juno.

Dustin Lance Black won for 2008's Milk.

Mark Boal won for 2009's The Hurt Locker.

Spike Jonze won for Her (2013).

Alejandro G. Iñárritu won for Birdman (2014).

Tom McCarthy won for Spotlight (2015).

Josh Singer won for co-writing Spotlight (2015)

Kenneth Lonergan won for Manchester by the Sea (2016).

Jordan Peele became the first African-American to win with Get Out (2017).

Bong Joon-ho won for Parasite (2019), co-written with Han Jin-won.

Emerald Fennell won for Promising Young Woman (2020).

Kenneth Branagh won for Belfast (2021)

Daniels won for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022).

Justine Triet co-won for Anatomy of a Fall (2023).

Arthur Harari co-won for Anatomy of a Fall (2023).

Sean Baker won for Anora (2024).

1940s

Year	Film	Nominee
1940 (13th) [13]	The Great McGinty	Preston Sturges‡
	Angels Over Broadway	Ben Hecht
	Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet	Norman Burnside, Heinz Herald & John Huston
	Foreign Correspondent	Charles Bennett & Joan Harrison
	The Great Dictator	Charlie Chaplin
1941 (14th) [14]	Citizen Kane	Herman J. Mankiewicz & Orson Welles‡
	The Devil and Miss Jones	Norman Krasna
	Sergeant York	Harry Chandlee, Abem Finkel, John Huston & Howard Koch
	Tall, Dark and Handsome	Karl Tunberg & Darrell Ware
	Tom, Dick and Harry	Paul Jarrico
1942 (15th) [15]	Woman of the Year	Ring Lardner Jr. & Michael Kanin‡
	One of Our Aircraft Is Missing	Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
	Road to Morocco	Frank Butler & Don Hartman
	Wake Island	W. R. Burnett & Frank Butler
	The War Against Mrs. Hadley	George Oppenheimer
1943 (16th) [16]	Princess O'Rourke	Norman Krasna‡
	Air Force	Dudley Nichols
	In Which We Serve	Noël Coward
	The North Star	Lillian Hellman
	So Proudly We Hail!	Allan Scott
1944 (17th) [17]	Wilson	Lamar Trotti‡
	Hail the Conquering Hero	Preston Sturges
	The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
	Two Girls and a Sailor	Richard Connell & Gladys Lehman
	Wing and a Prayer	Jerome Cady
1945 (18th) [18]	Marie-Louise	Richard Schweizer‡
	Dillinger	Philip Yordan
	Music for Millions	Myles Connolly
	Salty O'Rourke	Milton Holmes
	What Next, Corporal Hargrove?	Harry Kurnitz
1946 (19th) [19]	The Seventh Veil	Muriel & Sydney Box‡
	The Blue Dahlia	Raymond Chandler
	Children of Paradise	Jacques Prévert
	Notorious	Ben Hecht
	Road to Utopia	Melvin Frank & Norman Panama
1947 (20th) [20]	The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer	Sidney Sheldon‡
	Body and Soul	Abraham Polonsky
	A Double Life	Ruth Gordon & Garson Kanin
	Monsieur Verdoux	Charlie Chaplin
	Shoeshine	Sergio Amidei, Adolfo Franci, Cesare Giulio Viola & Cesare Zavattini
1948 (21st)	N/A [note 1][21]	—
1949 (22nd) [22]	Battleground	Robert Pirosh‡
	Jolson Sings Again	Sidney Buchman
	Paisan	Sergio Amidei, Federico Fellini, Alfred Hayes, Marcello Pagliero & Roberto Rossellini
	Passport to Pimlico	T. E. B. Clarke
	The Quiet One	Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb & Sidney Meyers

1950s

Year	Film	Nominees
1950 (23rd) [23]	Sunset Boulevard	Charles Brackett, D. M. Marshman Jr. & Billy Wilder‡
	Adam's Rib	Ruth Gordon & Garson Kanin
	Caged	Virginia Kellogg & Bernard C. Schoenfeld
	The Men	Carl Foreman
	No Way Out	Joseph L. Mankiewicz & Lesser Samuels
1951 (24th) [24]	An American in Paris	Alan Jay Lerner‡
	Ace in the Hole	Walter Newman, Lesser Samuels & Billy Wilder
	David and Bathsheba	Philip Dunne
	Go for Broke!	Robert Pirosh
	The Well	Clarence Greene & Russell Rouse
1952 (25th) [25]	The Lavender Hill Mob	T. E. B. Clarke‡
	The Atomic City	Sydney Boehm
	Breaking the Sound Barrier	Terence Rattigan
	Pat and Mike	Ruth Gordon & Garson Kanin
	Viva Zapata!	John Steinbeck
1953 (26th) [26]	Titanic	Charles Brackett, Richard L. Breen & Walter Reisch‡
	The Band Wagon	Betty Comden & Adolph Green
	The Desert Rats	Richard Murphy
	The Naked Spur	Harold Jack Bloom & Sam Rolfe
	Take the High Ground!	Millard Kaufman
1954 (27th) [27]	On the Waterfront	Budd Schulberg‡
	The Barefoot Contessa	Joseph L. Mankiewicz
	Genevieve	William Rose
	The Glenn Miller Story	Oscar Brodney & Valentine Davies
	Knock on Wood	Melvin Frank & Norman Panama
1955 (28th) [28]	Interrupted Melody	Sonya Levien & William Ludwig‡
	The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell	Emmet Lavery & Milton Sperling
	It's Always Fair Weather	Betty Comden & Adolph Green
	Mr. Hulot's Holiday	Henri Marquet & Jacques Tati
	The Seven Little Foys	Melville Shavelson & Jack Rose
1956 (29th) [29]	The Red Balloon	Albert Lamorisse‡
	The Bold and the Brave	Robert Lewin
	Julie	Andrew L. Stone
	La Strada	Federico Fellini & Tullio Pinelli
	The Ladykillers	William Rose
1957 (30th) [30]	Designing Woman	George Wells‡
	Funny Face	Leonard Gershe
	Man of a Thousand Faces	Screenplay: Robert Campbell, Ivan Goff & Ben Roberts; Story: Ralph Wheelwright
	The Tin Star	Screenplay: Dudley Nichols; Story: Joel Kane & Barney Slater
	I Vitelloni	Screenplay: Federico Fellini & Ennio Flaiano; Story: Fellini, Flaiano & Tullio Pinelli
1958 (31st) [31]	The Defiant Ones	Nedrick Young & Harold Jacob Smith‡ [note 2]
	The Goddess	Paddy Chayefsky
	Houseboat	Melville Shavelson & Jack Rose
	The Sheepman	Screenplay: William Bowers & James Edward Grant; Story: Grant
	Teacher's Pet	Fay Kanin & Michael Kanin
1959 (32nd) [32]	Pillow Talk	Screenplay: Stanley Shapiro & Maurice Richlin; Story: Clarence Greene & Russell Rouse‡
	The 400 Blows	Marcel Moussy & François Truffaut
	North by Northwest	Ernest Lehman
	Operation Petticoat	Screenplay: Shapiro & Richlin; Story: Paul King & Joseph Stone
	Wild Strawberries	Ingmar Bergman

1960s

Year	Film	Nominees
1960 (33rd) [33]	The Apartment	I. A. L. Diamond & Billy Wilder‡
	The Angry Silence	Screenplay: Bryan Forbes; Story: Michael Craig & Richard Gregson
	The Facts of Life	Melvin Frank & Norman Panama
	Hiroshima, Mon Amour	Marguerite Duras
	Never on Sunday	Jules Dassin
1961 (34th) [34]	Splendor in the Grass	William Inge‡
	Ballad of a Soldier	Grigory Chukhray & Valentin Yezhov
	General Della Rovere	Sergio Amidei, Diego Fabbi & Indro Montanelli
	La Dolce Vita	Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli & Brunello Rondi
	Lover Come Back	Paul Henning & Stanley Shapiro
1962 (35th) [35]	Divorce Italian Style	Ennio De Concini, Pietro Germi & Alfredo Giannetti‡
	Freud	Screenplay: Charles Kaufman & Wolfgang Reinhardt; Story: Kaufman
	Last Year at Marienbad	Alain Robbe-Grillet
	That Touch of Mink	Nate Monaster & Stanley Shapiro
	Through a Glass Darkly	Ingmar Bergman
1963 (36th) [36]	How the West Was Won	James R. Webb‡
	America America	Elia Kazan
	8½	Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli & Brunello Rondi
	The Four Days of Naples	Screenplay: Carlo Bernari, Pasquale Festa Campanile, Massimo Franciosa & Nanni Loy; Story: Campanile, Franciosa, Loy & Vasco Pratolini
	Love with the Proper Stranger	Arnold Schulman
1964 (37th) [37]	Father Goose	Screenplay: Peter Stone & Frank Tarloff; Story: S. H. Barnett ‡
	A Hard Day's Night	Alun Owen
	One Potato, Two Potato	Screenplay: Orville H. Hampton; Story: Raphael Hayes
	The Organizer	Age, Mario Monicelli & Furio Scarpelli
	That Man from Rio	Daniel Boulanger, Philippe de Broca, Ariane Mnouchkine & Jean-Paul Rappeneau
1965 (38th) [38]	Darling	Frederic Raphael‡
	Casanova 70	Age, Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Tonino Guerra, Mario Monicelli, Giorgio Salvioni & Furio Scarpelli
	Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines	Ken Annakin & Jack Davies
	The Train	Franklin Coen & Frank Davis
	The Umbrellas of Cherbourg	Jacques Demy
1966 (39th) [39]	A Man and a Woman	Screenplay: Claude Lelouch & Pierre Uytterhoeven; Story: Lelouch ‡
	Blowup	Screenplay: Michelangelo Antonioni, Edward Bond & Tonino Guerra; Story: Antonioni
	The Fortune Cookie	I. A. L. Diamond & Billy Wilder
	Khartoum	Robert Ardrey
	The Naked Prey	Clint Johnston & Don Peters
1967 (40th) [40]	Guess Who's Coming to Dinner	William Rose‡
	Bonnie and Clyde	Robert Benton & David Newman
	Divorce American Style	Screenplay: Norman Lear; Story: Robert Kaufman
	La Guerre Est Finie	Jorge Semprún
	Two for the Road	Frederic Raphael
1968 (41st) [41]	The Producers	Mel Brooks‡
	The Battle of Algiers	Gillo Pontecorvo & Franco Solinas
	Faces	John Cassavetes
	Hot Millions	Peter Ustinov & Ira Wallach
	2001: A Space Odyssey	Arthur C. Clarke & Stanley Kubrick
1969 (42nd) [42]	Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid	William Goldman‡
	Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice	Paul Mazursky & Larry Tucker
	The Damned	Screenplay: Nicola Badalucco, Enrico Medioli & Luchino Visconti; Story: Badalucco
	Easy Rider	Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper & Terry Southern
	The Wild Bunch	Screenplay: Walon Green & Sam Peckinpah; Story: Green & Roy N. Sickner

1970s

Year	Film	Nominees
1970 (43rd) [43]	Patton	Francis Ford Coppola & Edmund H. North‡
	Five Easy Pieces	Screenplay: Carole Eastman; Story: Eastman & Bob Rafelson
	Joe	Norman Wexler
	Love Story	Erich Segal
	My Night at Maud's	Éric Rohmer
1971 (44th) [44]	The Hospital	Paddy Chayefsky‡
	Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion	Elio Petri & Ugo Pirro
	Klute	Andy & David Lewis
	Summer of '42	Herman Raucher
	Sunday Bloody Sunday	Penelope Gilliatt
1972 (45th) [45]	The Candidate	Jeremy Larner‡
	The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie	Screenplay & Story: Luis Buñuel; Collaboration: Jean-Claude Carrière
	Lady Sings the Blues	Chris Clark, Suzanne de Passe & Terrence McCloy
	Murmur of the Heart	Louis Malle
	Young Winston	Carl Foreman
1973 (46th) [46]	The Sting	David S. Ward‡
	American Graffiti	Willard Huyck, George Lucas & Gloria Katz
	Cries and Whispers	Ingmar Bergman
	Save the Tiger	Steve Shagan
	A Touch of Class	Melvin Frank & Jack Rose
1974 (47th) [47]	Chinatown	Robert Towne‡
	Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore	Robert Getchell
	The Conversation	Francis Ford Coppola
	Day for Night	Jean-Louis Richard, Suzanne Schiffman & François Truffaut
	Harry and Tonto	Josh Greenfeld & Paul Mazursky
1975 (48th) [48]	Dog Day Afternoon	Frank Pierson‡
	Amarcord	Federico Fellini & Tonino Guerra
	And Now My Love	Claude Lelouch & Pierre Uytterhoeven
	Lies My Father Told Me	Ted Allan
	Shampoo	Robert Towne & Warren Beatty
1976 (49th) [49]	Network	Paddy Chayefsky‡
	Cousin, Cousine	Screenplay & Story: Jean-Charles Tacchella; Adaptation: Daniele Thompson
	The Front	Walter Bernstein
	Rocky	Sylvester Stallone
	Seven Beauties	Lina Wertmüller
1977 (50th) [50]	Annie Hall	Woody Allen & Marshall Brickman
	The Goodbye Girl	Neil Simon
	The Late Show	Robert Benton
	Star Wars	George Lucas
	The Turning Point	Arthur Laurents
1978 (51st) [51]	Coming Home	Screenplay: Robert C. Jones‡ & Waldo Salt; Story: Nancy Dowd ‡
	Autumn Sonata	Ingmar Bergman
	The Deer Hunter	Screenplay: Deric Washburn; Story: Michael Cimino, Louis Garfinkle, Quinn Redeker & Washburn
	Interiors	Woody Allen
	An Unmarried Woman	Paul Mazursky
1979 (52nd) [52]	Breaking Away	Steve Tesich‡
	All That Jazz	Robert Alan Aurthur & Bob Fosse
	...And Justice for All.	Valerie Curtin & Barry Levinson
	The China Syndrome	James Bridges, T. S. Cook & Mike Gray
	Manhattan	Woody Allen & Marshall Brickman

1980s

Year	Film	Nominees
1980 (53rd) [53]	Melvin and Howard	Bo Goldman‡
	Brubaker	Screenplay: W. D. Richter; Story: Richter & Arthur A. Ross
	Fame	Christopher Gore
	Mon oncle d'Amérique	Jean Gruault
	Private Benjamin	Nancy Meyers, Harvey Miller & Charles Shyer
1981 (54th) [54]	Chariots of Fire	Colin Welland‡
	Absence of Malice	Kurt Luedtke
	Arthur	Steve Gordon
	Atlantic City	John Guare
	Reds	Trevor Griffiths & Warren Beatty
1982 (55th) [55]	Gandhi	John Briley‡
	Diner	Barry Levinson
	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	Melissa Mathison
	An Officer and a Gentleman	Douglas Day Stewart
	Tootsie	Screenplay: Larry Gelbart & Murray Schisgal; Story: Gelbart & Don McGuire
1983 (56th) [56]	Tender Mercies	Horton Foote‡
	The Big Chill	Barbara Benedek & Lawrence Kasdan
	Fanny and Alexander	Ingmar Bergman
	Silkwood	Alice Arlen & Nora Ephron
	WarGames	Lawrence Lasker & Walter Parkes
1984 (57th) [57]	Places in the Heart	Robert Benton‡
	Beverly Hills Cop	Screenplay: Daniel Petrie Jr.; Story: Danilo Bach & Petrie
	Broadway Danny Rose	Woody Allen
	El Norte	Gregory Nava & Anna Thomas
	Splash	Screenplay: Bruce Jay Friedman, Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel; Story: Friedman & Brian Grazer
1985 (58th) [58]	Witness	Screenplay: William Kelley & Earl W. Wallace; Story: Kelley, E. Wallace & Pamela Wallace ‡
	Back to the Future	Bob Gale & Robert Zemeckis
	Brazil	Terry Gilliam, Charles McKeown & Tom Stoppard
	The Official Story	Aída Bortnik & Luis Puenzo
	The Purple Rose of Cairo	Woody Allen
1986 (59th) [59]	Hannah and Her Sisters	Woody Allen‡
	Crocodile Dundee	Screenplay: John Cornell, Paul Hogan & Ken Shadie; Story: Hogan
	My Beautiful Laundrette	Hanif Kureishi
	Platoon	Oliver Stone
	Salvador	Richard Boyle & Stone
1987 (60th) [60]	Moonstruck	John Patrick Shanley‡
	Au Revoir Les Enfants (Goodbye, Children)	Louis Malle
	Broadcast News	James L. Brooks
	Hope and Glory	John Boorman
	Radio Days	Woody Allen
1988 (61st) [61]	Rain Man	Screenplay: Ronald Bass & Barry Morrow; Story: Morrow ‡
	Big	Gary Ross & Anne Spielberg
	Bull Durham	Ron Shelton
	A Fish Called Wanda	Screenplay: John Cleese; Story: Cleese & Charles Crichton
	Running on Empty	Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal
1989 (62nd) [62]	Dead Poets Society	Tom Schulman‡
	Crimes and Misdemeanors	Woody Allen
	Do the Right Thing	Spike Lee
	Sex, Lies, and Videotape	Steven Soderbergh
	When Harry Met Sally...	Nora Ephron

1990s

Year	Film	Nominees
1990 (63rd) [63]	Ghost	Bruce Joel Rubin‡
	Alice	Woody Allen
	Avalon	Barry Levinson
	Green Card	Peter Weir
	Metropolitan	Whit Stillman
1991 (64th) [64]	Thelma & Louise	Callie Khouri‡
	Boyz n the Hood	John Singleton
	Bugsy	James Toback
	The Fisher King	Richard LaGravenese
	Grand Canyon	Lawrence Kasdan & Meg Kasdan
1992 (65th) [65]	The Crying Game	Neil Jordan‡
	Husbands and Wives	Woody Allen
	Lorenzo's Oil	Nick Enright & George Miller
	Passion Fish	John Sayles
	Unforgiven	David Peoples
1993 (66th) [66]	The Piano	Jane Campion‡
	Dave	Gary Ross
	In the Line of Fire	Jeff Maguire
	Philadelphia	Ron Nyswaner
	Sleepless in Seattle	Screenplay: Jeff Arch, Nora Ephron & David S. Ward; Story: Arch
1994 (67th) [67]	Pulp Fiction	Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino; Story: Roger Avary & Tarantino ‡
	Bullets Over Broadway	Woody Allen & Douglas McGrath
	Four Weddings and a Funeral	Richard Curtis
	Heavenly Creatures	Peter Jackson & Frances Walsh
	Three Colours: Red	Krzysztof Kieślowski & Krzysztof Piesiewicz
1995 (68th) [68]	The Usual Suspects	Christopher McQuarrie‡
	Braveheart	Randall Wallace
	Mighty Aphrodite	Woody Allen
	Nixon	Stephen J. Rivele, Oliver Stone & Christopher Wilkinson
	Toy Story	Screenplay: Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow, Andrew Stanton & Joss Whedon; Story: Pete Docter, John Lasseter, Joe Ranft & Stanton
1996 (69th) [69]	Fargo	Coen Brothers‡
	Jerry Maguire	Cameron Crowe
	Lone Star	John Sayles
	Secrets & Lies	Mike Leigh
	Shine	Screenplay: Jan Sardi; Story: Scott Hicks
1997 (70th) [70]	Good Will Hunting	Ben Affleck & Matt Damon‡
	As Good as It Gets	Screenplay: Mark Andrus & James L. Brooks; Story: Andrus
	Boogie Nights	Paul Thomas Anderson
	Deconstructing Harry	Woody Allen
	The Full Monty	Simon Beaufoy
1998 (71st) [71]	Shakespeare in Love	Marc Norman & Tom Stoppard‡
	Bulworth	Screenplay: Warren Beatty & Jeremy Pikser; Story: Beatty
	Life Is Beautiful	Roberto Benigni & Vincenzo Cerami
	Saving Private Ryan	Robert Rodat
	The Truman Show	Andrew Niccol
1999 (72nd) [72]	American Beauty	Alan Ball‡
	Being John Malkovich	Charlie Kaufman
	Magnolia	Paul Thomas Anderson
	The Sixth Sense	M. Night Shyamalan
	Topsy-Turvy	Mike Leigh

2000s

Year	Film	Nominees
2000 (73rd) [73]	Almost Famous	Cameron Crowe‡
	Billy Elliot	Lee Hall
	Erin Brockovich	Susannah Grant
	Gladiator	Screenplay: David Franzoni, John Logan & William Nicholson; Story: Franzoni
	You Can Count on Me	Kenneth Lonergan
2001 (74th) [74]	Gosford Park	Julian Fellowes‡
	Amélie	Screenplay: Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Guillaume Laurant; Dialogue: Laurant
	Memento	Screenplay: Christopher Nolan; Story: Jonathan Nolan
	Monster's Ball	Milo Addica & Will Rokos
	The Royal Tenenbaums	Wes Anderson & Owen Wilson
2002 (75th) [75]	Talk to Her	Pedro Almodóvar‡
	Far from Heaven	Todd Haynes
	Gangs of New York	Screenplay: Jay Cocks, Kenneth Lonergan & Steven Zaillian; Story: Cocks
	My Big Fat Greek Wedding	Nia Vardalos
	Y Tu Mamá También	Alfonso & Carlos Cuarón
2003 (76th) [76]	Lost in Translation	Sofia Coppola‡
	The Barbarian Invasions	Denys Arcand
	Dirty Pretty Things	Steven Knight
	Finding Nemo	Screenplay: Bob Peterson, David Reynolds & Andrew Stanton; Story: Stanton
	In America	Jim, Kirsten & Naomi Sheridan
2004 (77th) [77]	Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind	Screenplay: Charlie Kaufman; Story: Pierre Bismuth, Michel Gondry & Kaufman ‡
	The Aviator	John Logan
	Hotel Rwanda	Terry George & Keir Pearson
	The Incredibles	Brad Bird
	Vera Drake	Mike Leigh
2005 (78th) [78]	Crash	Screenplay: Paul Haggis & Bobby Moresco; Story: Haggis ‡
	Good Night, and Good Luck	George Clooney & Grant Heslov
	Match Point	Woody Allen
	The Squid and the Whale	Noah Baumbach
	Syriana	Stephen Gaghan
2006 (79th) [79]	Little Miss Sunshine	Michael Arndt‡
	Babel	Guillermo Arriaga
	Letters from Iwo Jima	Screenplay: Iris Yamashita; Story: Paul Haggis & Yamashita
	Pan's Labyrinth	Guillermo del Toro
	The Queen	Peter Morgan
2007 (80th) [80]	Juno	Diablo Cody‡
	Lars and the Real Girl	Nancy Oliver
	Michael Clayton	Tony Gilroy
	Ratatouille	Screenplay: Brad Bird; Story: Bird, Jim Capobianco & Jan Pinkava
	The Savages	Tamara Jenkins
2008 (81st) [81]	Milk	Dustin Lance Black‡
	Frozen River	Courtney Hunt
	Happy-Go-Lucky	Mike Leigh
	In Bruges	Martin McDonagh
	WALL-E	Screenplay: Jim Reardon & Andrew Stanton; Story: Pete Docter & Stanton
2009 (82nd) [82]	The Hurt Locker	Mark Boal‡
	Inglourious Basterds	Quentin Tarantino
	The Messenger	Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
	A Serious Man	Coen Brothers
	Up	Screenplay: Pete Docter & Bob Peterson; Story: Docter, Peterson & Tom McCarthy

2010s

Year	Film	Nominees
2010 (83rd) [83]	The King's Speech	David Seidler‡
	Another Year	Mike Leigh
	The Fighter	Screenplay: Eric Johnson, Scott Silver & Paul Tamasy; Story: Keith Dorrington, Johnson & Tamasy
	Inception	Christopher Nolan
	The Kids Are All Right	Stuart Blumberg & Lisa Cholodenko
2011 (84th) [84]	Midnight in Paris	Woody Allen‡
	The Artist	Michel Hazanavicius
	Bridesmaids	Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig
	Margin Call	J. C. Chandor
	A Separation	Asghar Farhadi
2012 (85th) [85]	Django Unchained	Quentin Tarantino‡
	Amour	Michael Haneke
	Flight	John Gatins
	Moonrise Kingdom	Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola
	Zero Dark Thirty	Mark Boal
2013 (86th) [86]	Her	Spike Jonze‡
	American Hustle	David O. Russell & Eric Warren Singer
	Blue Jasmine	Woody Allen
	Dallas Buyers Club	Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack
	Nebraska	Bob Nelson
2014 (87th) [87]	Birdman	Armando Bo, Alexander Dinelaris Jr., Nicolás Giacobone & Alejandro G. Iñárritu‡
	Boyhood	Richard Linklater
	Foxcatcher	E. Max Frye & Dan Futterman
	The Grand Budapest Hotel	Screenplay: Wes Anderson; Story: Anderson & Hugo Guinness
	Nightcrawler	Dan Gilroy
2015 (88th) [88]	Spotlight	Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy‡
	Bridge of Spies	Matt Charman & Coen Brothers
	Ex Machina	Alex Garland
	Inside Out	Screenplay: Josh Cooley, Pete Docter & Meg LeFauve; Story: Ronnie del Carmen & Docter
	Straight Outta Compton	Screenplay: Andrea Berloff & Jonathan Herman; Story: Berloff, S. Leigh Savidge & Alan Wenkus
2016 (89th) [89]	Manchester by the Sea	Kenneth Lonergan‡
	Hell or High Water	Taylor Sheridan
	La La Land	Damien Chazelle
	The Lobster	Efthimis Filippou & Yorgos Lanthimos
	20th Century Women	Mike Mills
2017 (90th) [90]	Get Out	Jordan Peele‡
	The Big Sick	Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani
	Lady Bird	Greta Gerwig
	The Shape of Water	Screenplay: Guillermo del Toro & Vanessa Taylor; Story: del Toro
	Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri	Martin McDonagh
2018 (91st) [91]	Green Book	Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly & Nick Vallelonga‡
	The Favourite	Deborah Davis & Tony McNamara
	First Reformed	Paul Schrader
	Roma	Alfonso Cuarón
	Vice	Adam McKay
2019 (92nd) [92]	Parasite	Screenplay: Bong Joon-ho & Han Jin-won; Story: Bong‡
	Knives Out	Rian Johnson
	Marriage Story	Noah Baumbach
	1917	Sam Mendes & Krysty Wilson-Cairns
	Once Upon a Time in Hollywood	Quentin Tarantino

2020s

Year	Film	Nominees
2020/21 (93rd) [93] [note 3]	Promising Young Woman	Emerald Fennell‡
	Judas and the Black Messiah	Screenplay: Will Berson & Shaka King; Story: Berson, King, Keith & Kenny Lucas
	Minari	Lee Isaac Chung
	Sound of Metal	Screenplay: Abraham & Darius Marder; Story: Derek Cianfrance & D. Marder
	The Trial of the Chicago 7	Aaron Sorkin
2021 (94th) [94]	Belfast	Kenneth Branagh‡
	Don't Look Up	Screenplay: Adam McKay; Story: McKay & David Sirota
	King Richard	Zach Baylin
	Licorice Pizza	Paul Thomas Anderson
	The Worst Person in the World	Joachim Trier & Eskil Vogt
2022 (95th)	Everything Everywhere All at Once	Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert‡
	The Banshees of Inisherin	Martin McDonagh
	The Fabelmans	Tony Kushner & Steven Spielberg
	Tár	Todd Field
	Triangle of Sadness	Ruben Östlund
2023 (96th)	Anatomy of a Fall	Arthur Harari & Justine Triet‡
	The Holdovers	David Hemingson
	Maestro	Bradley Cooper & Josh Singer
	May December	Screenplay: Samy Burch; Story: Burch & Alex Mechanik
	Past Lives	Celine Song
2024 (97th)	Anora	Sean Baker‡
	The Brutalist	Brady Corbet & Mona Fastvold
	A Real Pain	Jesse Eisenberg
	September 5	Moritz Binder & Tim Fehlbaum; Co-written by Alex David
	The Substance	Coralie Fargeat

Multiple wins and nominations

Multiple wins Wins Screenwriter 3 Woody Allen 2 Charles Brackett Paddy Chayefsky Quentin Tarantino Billy Wilder

Multiple nominations Nominations Screenwriter 16 Woody Allen 6 Federico Fellini 5 Ingmar Bergman Mike Leigh 4 Pete Docter Melvin Frank Tullio Pinelli Stanley Shapiro Quentin Tarantino Billy Wilder 3 Sergio Amidei Paul Thomas Anderson Wes Anderson Warren Beatty Robert Benton Paddy Chayefsky Ethan Coen Joel Coen Nora Ephron Ennio Flaiano Ruth Gordon Tonino Guerra Garson Kanin Barry Levinson Kenneth Lonergan Paul Mazursky Martin McDonagh Norman Panama Jack Rose William Rose Andrew Stanton Oliver Stone Preston Sturges 2 Noah Baumbach Brad Bird Mark Boal Charles Brackett Marshall Brickman James L. Brooks Frank Butler Charlie Chaplin T. E. B. Clarke Betty Comden Francis Ford Coppola Cameron Crowe Alfonso Cuarón Guillermo del Toro I. A. L. Diamond Carl Foreman Adolph Green Clarence Greene Paul Haggis Ben Hecht John Huston Agenore Incrocci Michael Kanin Lawrence Kasdan Charlie Kaufman Norman Krasna Claude Lelouch John Logan George Lucas Louis Malle Joseph L. Mankiewicz Tom McCarthy Adam McKay Mario Monicelli Dudley Nichols Christopher Nolan Bob Peterson Robert Pirosh Frederic Raphael Brunello Rondi Gary Ross Russell Rouse John Sayles Lesser Samuels Furio Scarpelli Melville Shavelson Josh Singer Tom Stoppard Robert Towne François Truffaut Pierre Uytterhoeven David S. Ward

Age superlatives

Record	Writer	Film	Age (in years)	Ref.
Oldest winner	Woody Allen	Midnight in Paris	76	[95]
Oldest nominee	Charles Crichton	A Fish Called Wanda	78
Youngest winner	Ben Affleck	Good Will Hunting	25	[96]
Youngest nominee	John Singleton	Boyz n the Hood	24	[97]

See also

• Academy Award for Best Story
• Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay
• BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay
• Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay
• Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Screenplay
• List of Big Five Academy Award winners and nominees
• List of Academy Award–nominated films
• Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay

Notes

1. Best Original Screenplay was consolidated in 1948 for a singular Best Screenplay award. The winner was The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, adapted from the novel of same name.
2. In 1958, Nedrick Young was blacklisted and writing under the pseudonym Nathan E. Douglas. The Academy's Board of Governors voted in 1993 to restore Young's nomination and award.
3. The eligibility period for the 93rd ceremony was extended through to February 28, 2021, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.