Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay

The Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay is one of the annual awards given out by Film Independent, a non-profit organization dedicated to independent film and independent filmmakers. It was first presented in 1985 with Horton Foote being the first winner of the awards for The Trip to Bountiful.

Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay
Awarded for	Best Screenplay
Country	United States
Presented by	Film Independent
First award	1985
Currently held by	Jesse Eisenberg for A Real Pain (2024)
Website	www.filmindependent.org

The category includes both original and adapted screenplays. Despite the creation of the Best First Screenplay category in 1994, first screenplays are also eligible to compete for this award.

Alexander Payne is the most awarded writer in the category with three wins, followed by Neal Jimenez, Gus Van Sant and Jim Taylor with two wins each. Sofia Coppola was the first female writer to win the award.

Winners and nominees

Oliver Stone won for Platoon.

Gus Van Sant has won the award twice, for Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho, the former with Daniel Yost.

Charles Burnett won for To Sleep with Anger.

1980s

Year	Film	Recipient(s)
1985 [1][2]	The Trip to Bountiful	Horton Foote
	After Hours	Joseph Minion
	Blood Simple	Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
	Smooth Talk	Tom Cole
1986	Platoon	Oliver Stone
	Blue Velvet	David Lynch
	A Great Wall	Peter Wang and Shirley Sun
	Salvador	Oliver Stone and Richard Boyle
	Stand by Me	Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans
1987	River's Edge	Neal Jimenez
	Anna	Agnieszka Holland
	The Dead	Tony Huston
	Matewan	John Sayles
	Swimming to Cambodia	Spalding Gray
1988	Stand and Deliver	Ramón Menéndez and Tom Musca
	Five Corners	John Patrick Shanley
	Hairspray	John Waters
	The Moderns	Alan Rudolph and Jon Bradshaw
	Patti Rocks	John Jenkins, Karen Landry, David Burton Morris, and Chris Mulkey
1989	Drugstore Cowboy	Gus Van Sant and Daniel Yost
	84 Charlie Mopic	Patrick Sheane Duncan
	Heathers	Daniel Waters
	Miracle Mile	Steve De Jarnatt
	Mystery Train	Jim Jarmusch

1990s

Robert Altman won for Shortcuts with Frank Barhydt.

Christopher McQuarrie won for The Usual Suspects.

Kevin Smith won for Chasing Amy.

Alexander Payne has won this award thrice, for Election, Sideways and The Descendants, the former two with Jim Taylor and the latter with Nat Faxon and Jim Rash.

Kenneth Lonergan won for You Can Count on Me.

Year	Film	Recipient(s)
1990	To Sleep with Anger	Charles Burnett
	Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer	John McNaughton and Richard Fire
	Metropolitan	Whit Stillman
	The Plot Against Harry	Michael Roemer
	Pump Up the Volume	Allan Moyle
1991	My Own Private Idaho	Gus Van Sant
	Hangin' with the Homeboys	Joseph Vásquez
	Kafka	Lem Dobbs
	Mindwalk	Floyd Byars and Fritjof Capra
	The Rapture	Michael Tolkin
1992	The Waterdance	Neal Jimenez
	Gas Food Lodging	Allison Anders
	Light Sleeper	Paul Schrader
	A Midnight Clear	Keith Gordon
	One False Move	Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson
1993	Short Cuts	Robert Altman and Frank Barhydt
	Combination Platter	Edwin Baker and Tony Chan
	Household Saints	Nancy Savoca and Richard Guay
	Ruby in Paradise	Victor Nuñez
	The Wedding Banquet	Ang Lee, Neil Peng, and James Schamus
1994	Pulp Fiction	Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary
	Bullets Over Broadway	Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath
	Eat Drink Man Woman	Hui-Ling Wang, James Schamus, and Ang Lee
	Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle	Alan Rudolph and Randy Sue Coburn
	Red Rock West	John Dahl and Rick Dahl
1995	The Usual Suspects	Christopher McQuarrie
	Leaving Las Vegas	Mike Figgis
	Living in Oblivion	Tom DiCillo
	Safe	Todd Haynes
	The Secret of Roan Inish	John Sayles
1996	Fargo	Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
	Dead Man	Jim Jarmusch
	Flirting with Disaster	David O. Russell
	The Funeral	Nicholas St. John
	Lone Star	John Sayles
1997	Chasing Amy	Kevin Smith
	The Apostle	Robert Duvall
	Touch	Paul Schrader
	Ulee's Gold	Victor Nuñez
	Waiting for Guffman	Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy
1998	The Opposite of Sex	Don Roos
	Affliction	Paul Schrader
	Blind Faith	Frank Military
	Gods and Monsters	Bill Condon
	The Spanish Prisoner	David Mamet
1999	Election	Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor
	Dogma	Kevin Smith
	Guinevere	Audrey Wells
	The Limey	Lem Dobbs
	SLC Punk!	James Merendino

2000s

Christopher Nolan won for Memento.

Mike White won for The Good Girl.

Sofia Coppola won for Lost in Translation.

Jason Reitman won for Thank You for Smoking.

Tamara Jenkins won for The Savages.

Year	Film	Recipient(s)
2000 [3]	You Can Count on Me	Kenneth Lonergan
	Chuck & Buck	Mike White
	Love & Sex	Valerie Breiman
	Two Family House	Raymond De Felitta
	Waking the Dead	Robert Dillon
2001 [4]	Memento	Christopher Nolan
	The Believer	Henry Bean
	In the Bedroom	Robert Festinger and Todd Field
	Monster's Ball	Milo Addica and Will Rokos
	Waking Life	Richard Linklater
2002 [5]	The Good Girl	Mike White
	Lovely & Amazing	Nicole Holofcener
	Roger Dodger	Dylan Kidd
	Thirteen Conversations About One Thing	Jill Sprecher and Karen Sprecher
	Tully	Hilary Birmingham and Matt Drake
2003 [6]	Lost in Translation	Sofia Coppola
	American Splendor	Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini
	A Mighty Wind	Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy (...and the cast)
	Pieces of April	Peter Hedges
	Shattered Glass	Billy Ray
2004 [7]	Sideways	Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor
	Baadasssss!	Mario Van Peebles and Dennis Haggerty
	Before Sunset	Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, and Julie Delpy
	The Door in the Floor	Tod Williams
	Kinsey	Bill Condon
2005 [8]	Capote	Dan Futterman
	Nine Lives	Rodrigo García
	The Squid and the Whale	Noah Baumbach
	The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada	Guillermo Arriaga
	The War Within	Ayad Akhtar, Joseph Castelo, and Tom Glynn
2006 [9]	Thank You for Smoking	Jason Reitman
	Friends with Money	Nicole Holofcener
	The Illusionist	Neil Burger
	The Painted Veil	Ron Nyswaner
	Sorry, Haters	Jeff Stanzler
2007 [10]	The Savages	Tamara Jenkins
	The Diving Bell and the Butterfly	Ronald Harwood
	Starting Out in the Evening	Fred Parnes and Andrew Wagner
	Waitress	Adrienne Shelly
	Year of the Dog	Mike White
2008 [11]	Vicky Cristina Barcelona	Woody Allen
	Sangre de Mi Sangre	Christopher Zalla
	Savage Grace	Howard A. Rodman
	Sugar	Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck
	Synecdoche, New York	Charlie Kaufman
2009 [12]	(500) Days of Summer	Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber
	Adventureland	Greg Mottola
	The Last Station	Michael Hoffman
	The Messenger	Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman
	The Vicious Kind	Lee Toland Krieger

2010s

John Ridley won for 12 Years a Slave.

Dan Gilroy won for Nightcrawler.

Barry Jenkins won for Moonlight.

Greta Gerwig won for Lady Bird.

Year	Film	Recipient(s)
2010 [13]	The Kids Are All Right	Stuart Blumberg and Lisa Cholodenko
	Life During Wartime	Todd Solondz
	Please Give	Nicole Holofcener
	Rabbit Hole	David Lindsay-Abaire
	Winter's Bone	Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini
2011 [14]	The Descendants	Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash
	The Artist	Michel Hazanavicius
	Beginners	Mike Mills
	Footnote	Joseph Cedar
	Win Win	Tom McCarthy
2012 [15]	Silver Linings Playbook	David O. Russell
	Keep the Lights On	Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias
	Moonrise Kingdom	Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
	Ruby Sparks	Zoe Kazan
	Seven Psychopaths	Martin McDonagh
2013 [16]	12 Years a Slave	John Ridley
	Before Midnight	Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, and Julie Delpy
	Blue Jasmine	Woody Allen
	Enough Said	Nicole Holofcener
	The Spectacular Now	Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber
2014 [17]	Nightcrawler	Dan Gilroy
	Big Eyes	Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski
	Love Is Strange	Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias
	A Most Violent Year	J. C. Chandor
	Only Lovers Left Alive	Jim Jarmusch
2015 [18]	Spotlight	Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer
	Anomalisa	Charlie Kaufman
	Bone Tomahawk	S. Craig Zahler
	Carol	Phyllis Nagy
	The End of the Tour	Donald Margulies
2016 [19]	Moonlight	Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney
	20th Century Women	Mike Mills
	Hell or High Water	Taylor Sheridan
	Little Men	Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias
	Manchester by the Sea	Kenneth Lonergan
2017 [20]	Lady Bird	Greta Gerwig
	Beatriz at Dinner	Mike White
	Get Out	Jordan Peele
	The Lovers	Azazel Jacobs
	Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri	Martin McDonagh
2018 [21]	Can You Ever Forgive Me?	Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty
	Colette	Richard Glatzer, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, and Wash Westmoreland
	First Reformed	Paul Schrader
	Private Life	Tamara Jenkins
	Sorry to Bother You	Boots Riley
2019 [22]	Marriage Story	Noah Baumbach
	Clemency	Chinonye Chukwu
	High Flying Bird	Tarell Alvin McCraney
	To Dust	Jason Begue and Shawn Snyder
	Uncut Gems	Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie

2020s

Emerald Fennell won for Promising Young Woman.

Year	Film	Recipient(s)
2020 [23]	Promising Young Woman	Emerald Fennell
	Bad Education	Mike Makowsky
	The Half of It	Alice Wu
	Minari	Lee Isaac Chung
	Never Rarely Sometimes Always	Eliza Hittman
2021 [24]	The Lost Daughter	Maggie Gyllenhaal
	C'mon C'mon	Mike Mills
	Swan Song	Todd Stephens
	Together Together	Nikole Beckwith
	Zola	Janicza Bravo and Jeremy O. Harris
2022 [25]	Everything Everywhere All at Once	Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
	After Yang	Kogonada
	Catherine Called Birdy	Lena Dunham
	Tár	Todd Field
	Women Talking	Sarah Polley
2023 [26]	American Fiction	Cord Jefferson
	Birth/Rebirth	Laura Moss and Brendan J. O'Brien
	Bottoms	Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott
	The Holdovers	David Hemingson
	Past Lives	Celine Song
2024 [27]	A Real Pain	Jesse Eisenberg
	A Different Man	Aaron Schimberg
	Heretic	Scott Beck and Bryan Woods
	I Saw the TV Glow	Jane Schoenbrun
	My Old Ass	Megan Park

See also

• Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay
• BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay
• BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
• Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
• Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
• Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Original Screenplay
• Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
• Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay
• Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay