1940s
Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay
The Academy Award for Writing
Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best script not based upon
previously published material. Before 1940 there was an Academy Award for Best
Story for writing. For 1940 it and the award in this article were separated into
two awards. Beginning with the Oscars for 1957 the two categories were combined
to honour only the screenplay.
1940 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 Citizen Kane - Herman 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 Woman of the Year - Michael Kanin, Ring Lardner Jr
One of Our Aircraft Is Missing - Micheal Powell, Emeric Pressburger
The Road to Morocco - Frank Butler, Don Hartman
Wake Island - W. R. Burnett, Frank Butler
The War Against Mrs. Hadley - George Oppenheimer
1943 Princess O'Rourke - Norman Krasna
Air Force - Dudley Nichols
In Which We Serve - Noel Coward
The North Star - Lillian Hellman
So Proudly We Hail - Alan Scott
1944 Wilson - Lamar Trotti
Hail the Conquering Hero - Preston Surges
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek - Preston Surges
Two Girls and a Sailor - Richard Connell, Glays Lehman
Wing and a Prayer - Jerome Cady
1945 Marie-Louise - Richard Schweizer
Dillinger - Philp Yordon
Music for Millions - Myles Connolly
Salty O'Rourke - Milton Holmes
What Next, Corporal Hargrove? - Harry Kurnitz
1946 The Seventh Veil - Muriel Box, Sydney Box
The Blue Dahlia - Raymond Chandler
Children of Paradise - Jacques Prévert
Notorius - Ben Hecht
The Road to Utopia - Norman Panama, Melvin Frank
1947 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, C. G. Viola, Cesare Zavattini
1948 none given
1949 Battleground - Robert Pirosh
Jolson Sings Again - Sidney Buchman
Paisà - Alfred Hayes, Federico Fellini, Sergio Amidei, Marcello Pagliero,
Roberto Rossellini
Passport To Pimlico - T. E. B. Clarke
The Quiet One - Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb, Sidney Meyers
1950 Sunset Boulevard - Charles Brackett,
D.M. Marshman, 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 An American in Paris - Alan Jay Lerner
The Big Carnival - Billy Wilder, Lesser Samuels, Walter Newman
David and Bathsheba - Philip Dunne
Go for Broke! - Robert Pirosh
The Well - Clarence Greene, Russell Rouse
1952 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 Titanic - Charles Brackett, Richard Breen, Walter Reisch
The Band Wagon - Betty Comden, Adolph Green
The Desert Rats - Richard Murphy
The Naked Spur - Sam Rolfe, Harold Jack Bloom
Take the High Ground - Millard Kaufman
1954 On the Waterfront - Budd Schulberg
The Barefoot Contessa - Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Genevieve - William Rose
The Glenn Miller Story - Valentine Davies, Oscar Brodney
Knock on Wood - Norman Panama, Melvin Frank
1955 Interrupted Melody - Sonya Levien, William Ludwig
The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell - Milton Sperling, Emmet Lavery
It's Always Fair Weather - Betty Comden, Adolph Green
Mr. Hulot's Holiday - Jacques Tati, Henri Marquet
The Seven Little Foys - Melville Shavelson, Jack Rose
1956 The Red Balloon - Albert Lamorisse
The Bold and the Brave - Robert Lewin
Julie - Andrew L. Stone
La Strada - Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli
The Lady Killers - William Rose
1957 Designing Women - George Wells
Funny Face - Leonard Gershe
Man of a Thousand Faces - Ralph Wheelwright, R. Wright Campbell, Ivan Goff, Ben
Roberts
The Tin Star - Barney Slater, Joel Kane, Dudley Nichols
Vitelloni - Frederico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli
1958 The Defiant Ones - Nathan Douglas, Harold Jacob Smith
The Goddess - Paddy Chayefsky
The Houseboat - Melville Shavelson, Jack Rose
The Sheepman - James Edward Grant, William Bowers
Teacher's Pet - Fay Kanin, Michael Kanin
1959 Pillow Talk - Clarence Greene, Maurice Richlin, Russell Rouse, Stanley
Shapiro
The 400 Blows - François Truffaut, Marcel Moussy
North by Northwest - Ernest Lehman
Operation Petticoat - Paul King, Joseph Stone, Stanely Shapiro, Maurice Richlin
Wild Strawberries - Ingmar Bergman
1960 The Apartment - I.A.L. Diamond, Billy
Wilder
The Angry Silence - Richard Gregson, Michael Craig, Bryan Forbes
The Facts of Life - Norman Panama, Melvin Frank
Hiroshima Mon Amour - Marguerite Duras
Never on Sunday - Jules Dassin
1961 Splendor in the Grass - William Inge
Ballad of a Soldier - Valentin Yoshov, Grigori Chukhrai
La Dolce Vita - Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, Brunello Rondi
General Della Rovere - Sergio Amidei, Diego Fabbi, Indro Montanelli
Lover Come Back - Stanley Shapiro, Paul Henning
1962 Divorce, Italian Style - Ennio de Concini, Pietro Germi, Alfredo
Giannetti
Freud - Charles Kaufman, Wolfgang Reinhardt
Last Year at Marienbad - Alain Robbe-Grillet
That Touch of Mink - Stanley Shapiro, Nate Monaster
Through a Glass Darkly - Ingmar Bergman
1963 How the West Was Won - James Webb
8½ - Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, Brunello Rondi
America, America - Elia Kazan
The Four Days of Naples - Carlo Bernari, Pasquale Festa Campanile, Massimo
Franciosa, Nanni Loy, Vasco Pratolini
Love with the Proper Stranger - Arnold Schulman
1964 Father Goose - Peter Stone, Frank Tarloff
A Hard Day's Night - Alun Owen
One Potato, Two Potato - Raphael Hayes, Orville H. Hampton
The Organizer - Age Monicelli, Scarpelli Monicelli, Mario Monicelli
That Man from Rio - Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Ariane Mnouchkine, Daniel Boulanger,
Philippe de Broca
1965 Darling - Frederic Raphael
Casanova '70 - Age Monicelli, Scarpelli Monicelli, Mario Monicelli, Tonino
Guerra, Giorgio Salvioni, Suso Cecchi D'Amico
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines - Jack Davies, Ken Annakin
The Train - Franklin Coen, Frank Davis
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg - Jacques Demy
1966 A Man and a Woman - Claude Lelouch, Pierre Uytterhoeven
Blowup - Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra, Edward Bond
The Fortune Cookie - Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond
Khartoum - Robert Ardrey
The Naked Prey - Clinkt Johnston, Don Peters
1967 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner - William Rose
Bonnie and Clyde - David Newman, Robert Benton
Divorce, American Style - Robert Kaufman, Norman Lear
La Guerre Est Finie - Jorge Semprún
Two for the Road - Frederic Raphael
1968 The Producers - Mel Brooks
2001: A Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke
The Battle of Algiers - Franco Solinas, Gillo Pontecorvo
Faces - John Cassavetes
Hot Millions - Iro Wallach, Peter Ustinov
1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - William Goldman
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice - Paul Mazursky, Larry Tucker
The Damned - Nicola Badalucco, Enrico Medioli, Luchino Visconti
Easy Rider - Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Terry Southern
The Wild Bunch - Walon Green, Roy N. Sickner, Sam Peckinpah
1970 Patton - Francis Ford Coppola, Edmund
North
Five Easy Pieces - Adrien Joyce, Bob Rafelson
Joe - Norman Wexler
Love Story - Enrich Segal
My Night at Maud's - Éric Rohmer
1971 The Hospital - Paddy Chayefsky
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion - Elio Petri, Ugo Pirro
Klute - Andy and Dave Lewis
Summer of '42 - Herman Raucher
Sunday Bloody Sunday - Penelope Gilliatt
1972 The Candidate - Jeremy Larner
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie - Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carrière
Lady Sings the Blues - Terrence McCloy, Chris Clark, Suzanne de Passe
Murmur of the Heart - Louis Malle
Young Winston - Carl Foreman
1973 The Sting - David Ward
American Graffiti - George Lucas, Gloria Katz, Willard Huyck
Cries and Whispers - Ingmar Bergman
Save the Tiger - Steve Shagan
A Touch of Class - Melvin Frank, Jack Rose
1974 Chinatown - Robert Towne
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore - Robert Getchell
The Conversation - Francis Ford Coppola
Day for Night - François Truffaut, Jean-Louis Richard, Suzanne Schiffman
Harry and Tonto - Paul Mazursky, Josh Greenfeld
1975 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 Network - Paddy Chayefsky
Cousin, cousine - Jean-Charles Tacchella, Daniele Thompson
The Front - Walter Bernstein
Rocky - Sylvester Stallone
Seven Beauties - Lina Wertmüller
1977 Annie Hall - Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman
The Goodbye Girl - Neil Simon
The Late Show - Robert Benton
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope - George Lucas
The Turning Point - Arthur Laurents
1978 Coming Home - Robert Jones, Waldo Salt
Autumn Sonata - Ingmar Bergman
The Deer Hunter - Michael Cimino, Deric Washburn, Louis Garfinkle, Quinn K.
Redeker
Interiors - Woody Allen
An Unmarried Woman - Paul Mazursky
1979 Breaking Away - Steve Tesich
All That Jazz - Robert Alan Aurthur, Bob Fosse
...And Justice for All - Valerie Curtin, Barry Levinson
The China Syndrome - Mike Gray, T.S. Cook, James Bridges
Manhattan - Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman
1980 Melvin and Howard - Bo Goldman
Brubaker - W. D. Richter, Arthur Ross
Fame - Christopher Gore
Mon oncle d'Amérique - Jean Gruault, Henri Laborit
Private Benjamin - Nancy Meyers, Charles Shyer, Harvey Miller
1981 Chariots of Fire - Colin Welland
Absence of Malice - Kurt Luedtke
Arthur - Steve Gordon
Atlantic City - John Guare
Reds - Warren Beatty, Trevor Griffiths
1982 Gandhi - John Briley
Diner - Barry Levinson
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - Melissa Mathison
An Officer and a Gentleman - Douglas Day Stewart
Tootsie - Larry Gelbart, Murray Schisgal, Don McGuire
1983 Tender Mercies - Horton Foote
The Big Chill - Lawrence Kasdan, Barbara Benedek
Fanny and Alexander - Ingmar Bergman
Silkwood - Nora Ephron, Alice Arlen
WarGames - Lawrence Lasker, Walter F. Parkes
1984 Places in the Heart - Robert Benton
Beverly Hills Cop - Daniel Petrie, Jr., Danilo Bach
Broadway Danny Rose - Woody Allen
El Norte - Gregory Nava, Anna Thomas
Splash - Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel, Bruce Jay Friedman, Brian Grazer
1985 Witness - William Kelley, Pamela Wallace, Earl Wallace
Back to the Future - Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale
Brazil - Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, Charles McKeown
The Official Story - Luis Puenzo, Aida Bortnik
The Purple Rose of Cairo - Woody Allen
1986 Hannah and Her Sisters - Woody Allen
Crocodile Dundee - Paul Hogan, Ken Shadie, John Cornell
My Beautiful Laundrette - Hanif Kureishi
Platoon - Oliver Stone
Salvador - Oliver Stone, Richard Boyle
1987 Moonstruck - John Patrick Shanley
Au revoir, les enfants - Louis Malle
Broadcast News - James L. Brooks
Hope and Glory - John Boorman
Radio Days - Woody Allen
1988 Rain Man - Ronald Bass, Barry Morrow
Big - Gary Ross, Anne Spielberg
Bull Durham - Ron Shelton
A Fish Called Wanda - John Cleese, Charles Crichton
Running on Empty - Naomi Foner
1989 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
1990 Ghost - Bruce Rubin
Alice - Woody Allen
Avalon - Barry Levinson
Green Card - Peter Weir
Metropolitan - Whit Stillman
1991 Thelma and Louise - Callie Khouri
Boyz N the Hood - John Singleton
Bugsy - James Toback
The Fisher King - Richard LaGravenese
Grand Canyon - Lawrence Kasdan, Meg Kasdan
1992 The Crying Game - Neil Jordan
Husbands and Wives - Woody Allen
Lorenzo's Oil - George Miller, Nick Enright
Passion Fish - John Sayles
Unforgiven - David Peoples
1993 The Piano - Jane Campion
Dave - Gary Ross
In the Line of Fire - Jeff Maguire
Philadelphia - Ron Nyswaner
Sleepless in Seattle - Nora Ephron, David S. Ward, Jeff Arch
1994 Pulp Fiction - Roger Avary, Quentin Tarantino
Bullets Over Broadway - Woody Allen, Douglas McGrath
Four Weddings and a Funeral - Richard Curtis
Heavenly Creatures - Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson
Red - Krzysztof Piesiewicz, Krzysztof Kieślowski
1995 The Usual Suspects - Christopher McQuarrie
Braveheart - Randall Wallace
Mighty Aphrodite - Woody Allen
Nixon - Stephen J. Rivele, Christopher Wilkinson, Oliver Stone
Toy Story - Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow, John Lasseter,
Peter Docter, Joe Ranft
1996 Fargo - Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Jerry Maguire - Cameron Crowe
Lone Star - John Sayles
Secrets & Lies - Mike Leigh
Shine - Jan Sardi, Scott Hicks
1997 Good Will Hunting - Ben Affleck, Matt Damon
As Good as It Gets - Mark Andrus, James L. Brooks
Boogie Nights - Paul Thomas Anderson
Deconstructing Harry - Woody Allen
The Full Monty - Simon Beaufoy
1998 Shakespeare in Love - Marc Norman, Tom Stoppard
Bulworth - Warren Beatty, Jeremy Pikser
Life Is Beautiful - Vincenzo Cerami, Roberto Benigni
Saving Private Ryan - Robert Rodat
The Truman Show - Andrew Niccol
1999 American Beauty - Alan Ball
Being John Malkovich - Charlie Kaufman
Magnolia - Paul Thomas Anderson
The Sixth Sense - M. Night Shyamalan
Topsy-Turvy - Mike Leigh
2000 Almost Famous - Cameron Crowe
Billy Elliot - Lee Hall
Erin Brockovich - Susannah Grant
Gladiator - David Franzoni, John Logan, William Nicholson
You Can Count on Me - Kenneth Lonergan
2001 Gosford Park - Julian Fellowes
Amélie - Guillaume Laurant, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Memento - Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan
Monster's Ball - Milo Addica, Will Rokos
The Royal Tenenbaums - Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson
2002 Hable con ella (Talk to Her) - Pedro Almodóvar
Far from Heaven - Todd Haynes
Gangs of New York - Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian, Kenneth Lonergan
My Big Fat Greek Wedding - Nia Vardalos
Y tu mamá también - Carlos Cuarón, Alfonso Cuarón
2003 Lost in Translation - Sofia Coppola
The Barbarian Invasions - Denys Arcand
Dirty Pretty Things - Steven Knight
Finding Nemo - Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson, David Reynolds
In America - Jim Sheridan, Naomi Sheridan, Kirsten Sheridan
2004 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry,
Pierre Bismuth
The Aviator - John Logan
Hotel Rwanda - Keir Pearson, Terry George
The Incredibles - Brad Bird
Vera Drake - Mike Leigh
2005 Crash - Paul Haggis, Robert Moresco
Syriana - Stephen Gaghan
Good Night, and Good Luck. - George Clooney, Grant Heslov
Match Point - Woody Allen
The Squid and the Whale - Noah Baumbach