Category of film award
The Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay adapted from previously established material. The most frequently adapted media are novels, but other adapted narrative formats include stage plays, musicals, short stories, TV series, and even other films and film characters. All sequels are also considered adaptations by this standard (based on the story and characters set forth in the original film).
Prior to its current name, this award had been known as the Academy Award for Best Screenplay Based On Material From Another Medium.[1] [2]
See also the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay , the corresponding award for scripts with original stories.
Superlatives
The first person to win twice in this category was Joseph L. Mankiewicz , who won the award in two consecutive years, 1949 and 1950. Others to win twice in this category include: George Seaton , Robert Bolt (who also won in consecutive years), Francis Ford Coppola , Mario Puzo , Alvin Sargent , Ruth Prawer Jhabvala , Michael Wilson , Alexander Payne and Christopher Hampton . Payne won both awards as part of a writing team, with Jim Taylor for Sideways and Jim Rash and Nat Faxon for The Descendants . Michael Wilson was blacklisted at the time of his second Oscar, so the award was given to a front (novelist Pierre Boulle ). However, the Academy officially recognized him as the winner several years later.[3]
Billy Wilder , Charles Brackett , Paddy Chayefsky , Francis Ford Coppola , Horton Foote , William Goldman , Robert Benton , Bo Goldman , Waldo Salt , and the Coen brothers have won Oscars for both original and adapted screenplays.
Frances Marion (The Big House ) was the first woman to win in the category.
Pierre Collings and Sheridan Gibney (The Story of Louis Pasteur ) were the first to win for adapting their own work.
Philip G. Epstein and Julius J. Epstein (Casablanca ) are the first siblings to win in this category. James Goldman (The Lion in Winter ) and William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men ) are the first siblings to win for separate films. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men ) are the third winning siblings.
Mario Puzo is the one of two writers whose work has been adapted and resulted in two wins. Puzo's novel The Godfather resulted in wins in 1972 and 1974 for himself and Francis Ford Coppola . The other is E. M. Forster , whose novels A Room with a View and Howards End resulted in wins for Ruth Prawer Jhabvala .
Larry McMurtry is the only person who has won for adapting someone else's work (Brokeback Mountain ), and whose own work has been adapted by someone else, resulting in a win (Terms of Endearment ).
William Monahan (The Departed ) and Sian Heder (CODA ) are the only people who have won this award by using another full-length feature film as the credited source of the adaptation.
Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ) are the only married couple to win.
Geoffrey S. Fletcher (Precious ) and John Ridley (12 Years a Slave ) are the only African-Americans to win solo in this category; Fletcher is also the first African-American to win in any writing category. Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight ) are the first African-American writing duo to win; Spike Lee and Kevin Willmott (BlacKkKlansman ) are the second, although their co-writers, David Rabinowitz and Charlie Wachtel, are both white.
James Ivory (Call Me by Your Name ) is the oldest person to receive the award at age 89. Charlie Wachtel (BlacKkKlansman ) is the youngest at age 32.
Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit ) is the first person of Māori descent to receive the award.
Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility ) is the only winner who has also won for acting.[4] Winners Billy Bob Thornton (Sling Blade ) and John Huston (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre ) have been nominated for acting but not won.
Charles Schnee (The Bad and the Beautiful ), Billy Bob Thornton (Sling Blade ), and Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters ) are the only winners whose films were not nominated for Best Picture .
Notable nominees
Noted novelists and playwrights nominated in this category include: George Bernard Shaw (who shared an award for an adaptation of his play Pygmalion ), Graham Greene , Tennessee Williams , Vladimir Nabokov , James Hilton , Dashiell Hammett , Raymond Chandler , Lillian Hellman , Irwin Shaw , James Agee , Norman Corwin , S. J. Perelman , Terence Rattigan , John Osborne , Robert Bolt , Harold Pinter , David Mamet , Larry McMurtry , Arthur Miller , John Irving , David Hare , Tony Kushner , August Wilson and Florian Zeller .
Ted Elliott , Roger S. H. Schulman , Joe Stillman & Terry Rossio , writers of Shrek and Michael Arndt , John Lasseter , Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich , writers of Toy Story 3 , are as of 2020, the only writers to be nominated for an animated film.[5] [6]
Scott Frank , James Mangold & Michael Green , writers of Logan , are the first writers to be nominated for a film based on superhero comic books (the X-Men ).[7] [8]
Winners and nominees
Winners are listed first in colored row, followed by the other nominees.
1920s
1930s
Year
Film
Nominees
Source Material
1929 -30 (3rd) [note 3]
The Big House
Frances Marion
– (original)
All Quiet on the Western Front
Screenplay: George Abbott ; Adaption: Maxwell Anderson & Del Andrews ; Dialogue: Anderson
The novel by Erich Maria Remarque
Disraeli
Julien Josephson
The play by Louis N. Parker
The Divorcee
John Meehan
The novel Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott
Street of Chance
Howard Estabrook
A story by Oliver H.P. Garrett
1930 -31 (4th) [note 1]
Cimarron
Howard Estabrook
The novel by Edna Ferber
The Criminal Code
Seton I. Miller & Fred Niblo Jr.
The play by Martin Flavin
Holiday
Horace Jackson
The play by Philip Barry
Little Caesar
Screenplay: Francis Edward Faragoh ; Continuity: Robert N. Lee
The novel by W. R. Burnett
Skippy
Joseph L. Mankiewicz & Sam Mintz
The comic strip by Percy Crosby
1931 -32 (5th) [note 1]
Bad Girl
Edwin J. Burke
The novel and play by Viña Delmar
Arrowsmith
Sidney Howard
The novel by Sinclair Lewis
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Percy Heath & Samuel Hoffenstein
The novel by Robert Louis Stevenson
1932 -33 (6th) [note 1]
Little Women
Victor Heerman & Sarah Y. Mason
The novel by Louisa May Alcott
Lady for a Day
Robert Riskin
The story Madame la Gimp by Damon Runyon
State Fair
Paul Green & Sonya Levien
The novel by Phil Stong
1934 (7th) [note 1]
It Happened One Night
Robert Riskin
The story Night Bus by Samuel Hopkins Adams
The Thin Man
Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett
The novel by Dashiell Hammett
Viva Villa!
Ben Hecht
The book by Edgecumb Pinchon & O. B. Stade
1935 (8th) [note 4] [note 5]
The Informer
Dudley Nichols [note 6] [9]
The novel by Liam O'Flaherty
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
Screenplay: Achmed Abdullah , John L. Balderston & Waldemar Young ; Adaption: Grover Jones & William Slavens McNutt
The novel by Francis Yeats-Brown
Mutiny on the Bounty
Jules Furthman , Talbot Jennings & Carey Wilson
The novel by James Norman Hall & Charles Nordhoff
1936 (9th)
The Story of Louis Pasteur
Pierre Collings & Sheridan Gibney
(original)
After the Thin Man
Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett
A story by Dashiell Hammett
Dodsworth
Sidney Howard
The play by Howard & novel by Sinclair Lewis
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Robert Riskin
The story Opera Hat by Bud Kelland
My Man Godfrey
Eric S. Hatch & Morrie Ryskind
The story 1101 Park Avenue by Hatch
1937 (10th)
The Life of Emile Zola
Heinz Herald, Geza Herczeg & Norman Reilly Raine
The book Zola and His Time by Matthew Josephson
The Awful Truth
Viña Delmar
The play by Arthur Richman
Captains Courageous
Marc Connelly , Dale Van Every & John Lee Mahin
The novel by Rudyard Kipling
Stage Door
Morrie Ryskind & Anthony Veiller
The play by Edna Ferber & George S. Kaufman
A Star Is Born
Alan Campbell , Robert Carson & Dorothy Parker
A story by William A. Wellman & Carson
1938 (11th)
Pygmalion
Screenplay & Dialogue: George Bernard Shaw ; Adaptation: Ian Dalrymple , Cecil Arthur Lewis & W. P. Lipscomb
The play by Shaw
Boys Town
John Meehan & Dore Schary
A story by Schary & Eleanore Griffin
The Citadel
Dalrymple, Betty Hill & Spig Wead
The novel by A. J. Cronin
Four Daughters
Lenore Coffee & Julius J. Epstein
The short story Sister Act by Fannie Hurst
You Can't Take It with You
Robert Riskin
The play by George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart
1939 (12th)
Gone with the Wind
Sidney Howard (p.r. )
The novel by Margaret Mitchell
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Holt Marvell , R. C. Sherriff & Claudine West
The novel by James Hilton
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Sidney Buchman
A story by Lewis R. Foster
Ninotchka
Charles Brackett , Walter Reisch & Billy Wilder
A story by Melchior Lengyel
Wuthering Heights
Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur
The novel by Emily Brontë
1940s
Year
Film
Nominees
Source Material
1940 (13th)
The Philadelphia Story
Donald Ogden Stewart
The play by Philip Barry
The Grapes of Wrath
Nunnally Johnson
The novel by John Steinbeck
Kitty Foyle
Dalton Trumbo
The novel by Christopher Morley
The Long Voyage Home
Dudley Nichols
The short plays The Moon of the Caribees , In the Zone , Bound East for Cardiff & The Long Voyage Home by Eugene O'Neill
Rebecca
Joan Harrison & Robert E. Sherwood
The novel by Daphne du Maurier
1941 (14th)
Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Sidney Buchman & Seton I. Miller
The play Heaven Can Wait by Harry Segall
Hold Back the Dawn
Charles Brackett & Billy Wilder
The story Memo to a Movie Producer by Ketti Frings
How Green Was My Valley
Philip Dunne
The novel by Richard Llewellyn
The Little Foxes
Lillian Hellman
The play by Hellman
The Maltese Falcon
John Huston
The novel by Dashiell Hammett
1942 (15th)
Mrs. Miniver
George Froeschel , James Hilton , Claudine West & Arthur Wimperis
The character Mrs. Miniver from the newspaper columns by Jan Struther
49th Parallel
Rodney Ackland & Emeric Pressburger
A story by Pressburger
The Pride of the Yankees
Herman J. Mankiewicz & Jo Swerling
A story by Paul Gallico
Random Harvest
Froeschel, West & Wimperis
The novel by Hilton
The Talk of the Town
Sidney Buchman & Irwin Shaw
A story by Sidney Harmon
1943 (16th)
Casablanca
Philip G. Epstein , Julius J. Epstein & Howard Koch
The play Everybody Comes to Rick's by Joan Alison & Murray Burnett
Holy Matrimony
Nunnally Johnson
The novel Buried Alive by Arnold Bennett
The More the Merrier
Richard Flournoy, Lewis R. Foster , Frank Ross & Robert W. Russell
A story by Ross & Russell
The Song of Bernadette
George Seaton
The novel by Franz Werfel
Watch on the Rhine
Dashiell Hammett
The play by Lillian Hellman
1944 (17th)
Going My Way
Frank Butler & Frank Cavett
A story by Leo McCarey
Double Indemnity
Raymond Chandler & Billy Wilder
The novel Double Indemnity in Three of a Kind by James M. Cain
Gaslight
John L. Balderston , Walter Reisch & John Van Druten
The play Angel Street by Patrick Hamilton
Laura
Jay Dratler , Samuel Hoffenstein & Elizabeth Reinhardt
The novel by Vera Caspary
Meet Me in St. Louis
Irving Brecher & Fred F. Finklehoffe
The novel by Sally Benson
1945 (18th) [10]
The Lost Weekend
Charles Brackett & Billy Wilder
The novel by Charles R. Jackson
G. I. Joe
Leopold Atlas, Guy Endore & Philip Stevenson
The books Brave Men & Here Is Your War by Ernie Pyle
Mildred Pierce
Ranald MacDougall
The novel by James M. Cain
Pride of the Marines
Albert Maltz
The book Al Schmid, Marine by Roger Butterfield
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Frank Davis & Tess Slesinger (p.n. )
The novel by Betty Smith
1946 (19th)
The Best Years of Our Lives
Robert E. Sherwood
The novel Glory for Me by MacKinlay Kantor
Anna and the King of Siam
Sally Benson & Talbot Jennings
The novel by Margaret Landon
Brief Encounter
Anthony Havelock-Allan , David Lean & Ronald Neame
The play Still Life by Noël Coward
The Killers
Anthony Veiller
The short story by Ernest Hemingway
Rome, Open City
Sergio Amidei & Federico Fellini
A story by Amidei & Alberto Consiglio
1947 (20th)
Miracle on 34th Street
George Seaton
A story by Valentine Davies
Boomerang
Richard Murphy
The Reader's Digest article by Anthony Abbot
Crossfire
John Paxton
The novel The Brick Foxhole by Richard Brooks
Gentleman's Agreement
Moss Hart
The novel by Laura Z. Hobson
Great Expectations
David Lean , Anthony Havelock-Allan , & Ronald Neame
The novel by Charles Dickens
1948 (21st)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
John Huston
The novel by B. Traven
A Foreign Affair
Charles Brackett , Richard L. Breen & Billy Wilder
A story by David Shaw
Johnny Belinda
Allen Vincent & Irma von Cube
The play by Elmer Blaney Harris
The Search
Richard Schweizer & David Wechsler [de ]
– (original screenplay)
The Snake Pit
Millen Brand & Frank Partos
The novel by Mary Jane Ward
1949 (22nd)
A Letter to Three Wives
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
The novel Letter to Five Wives by John Klempner
All the King's Men
Robert Rossen
The novel by Robert Penn Warren
The Bicycle Thief
Cesare Zavattini
The novel Bicycle Thief by Luigi Bartolini
Champion
Carl Foreman
The short story by Ring Lardner
The Fallen Idol
Graham Greene
The short story by Greene
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
Year
Film
Nominees
Source Material
2000 (73rd)
Traffic
Stephen Gaghan
The teleplay Traffik by Simon Moore
Chocolat
Robert Nelson Jacobs
The novel by Joanne Harris
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Wang Hui-ling , James Schamus & Kuo Jung Tsai
The novel by Wang Dulu
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Joel and Ethan Coen
The epic poem The Odyssey by Homer
Wonder Boys
Steve Kloves
The book by Michael Chabon
2001 (74th)
A Beautiful Mind
Akiva Goldsman
The book by Sylvia Nasar
Ghost World
Daniel Clowes & Terry Zwigoff
The graphic novel by Clowes
In the Bedroom
Rob Festinger & Todd Field
The short story Killings by Andre Dubus
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Philippa Boyens , Peter Jackson & Fran Walsh
The novel The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
Shrek
Ted Elliott , Roger S. H. Schulman , Joe Stillman & Terry Rossio
The book by William Steig
2002 (75th)
The Pianist
Ronald Harwood
The memoir by Władysław Szpilman
About a Boy
Peter Hedges , Chris & Paul Weitz
The novel by Nick Hornby
Adaptation
Charlie & Donald Kaufman[note 13] [11]
The book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
Chicago
Bill Condon
The musical by Fred Ebb & Bob Fosse
The Hours
David Hare
The novel by Michael Cunningham
2003 (76th)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Philippa Boyens , Peter Jackson & Fran Walsh
The novel The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien
American Splendor
Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini
The comic by Harvey Pekar & Our Cancer Year by Pekar & Joyce Brabner
City of God
Bráulio Mantovani
The novel by Paulo Lins
Mystic River
Brian Helgeland
The novel by Dennis Lehane
Seabiscuit
Gary Ross
The book Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
2004 (77th)
Sideways
Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor
The novel by Rex Pickett
Before Sunset
Screenplay: Julie Delpy , Ethan Hawke & Richard Linklater ; Story: Kim Krizan & Linklater
Characters from the film Before Sunrise by Krizan & Linklater
Finding Neverland
David Magee
The play The Man Who Was Peter Pan by Allan Knee
Million Dollar Baby
Paul Haggis
The book Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner by F.X. Toole
The Motorcycle Diaries
José Rivera
The books Con el Che por America Latina by Alberto Granado & The Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara
2005 (78th)
Brokeback Mountain
Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana
The short story by Annie Proulx
Capote
Dan Futterman
The book by Gerald Clarke
The Constant Gardener
Jeffrey Caine
The novel by John le Carré
A History of Violence
Josh Olson
The graphic novel by Vince Locke & John Wagner
Munich
Tony Kushner & Eric Roth
The book Vengeance by George Jonas
2006 (79th)
The Departed
William Monahan
The film Infernal Affairs written by Felix Chong & Alan Mak
Borat
Screenplay: Sacha Baron Cohen , Peter Baynham , Anthony Hines & Dan Mazer ; Story: Baron Cohen, Baynham, Hines & Todd Phillips
The character Borat Sagdiyev , from the television series Da Ali G Show by Baron Cohen
Children of Men
David Arata , Alfonso Cuarón , Mark Fergus , Hawk Ostby & Timothy J. Sexton
The novel by P. D. James
Little Children
Todd Field & Tom Perrotta
The novel by Perrotta
Notes on a Scandal
Patrick Marber
The novel by Zoë Heller
2007 (80th)
No Country for Old Men
Coen Brothers
The novel by Cormac McCarthy
Atonement
Christopher Hampton
The novel by Ian McEwan
Away from Her
Sarah Polley
The short story "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" by Alice Munro
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Ronald Harwood
The book by Jean-Dominique Bauby
There Will Be Blood
Paul Thomas Anderson
The novel Oil! by Upton Sinclair
2008 (81st)
Slumdog Millionaire
Simon Beaufoy
The novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Screenplay: Eric Roth ; Story: Roth & Robin Swicord
The short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Doubt
John Patrick Shanley
The play Doubt: A Parable by Shanley
Frost/Nixon
Peter Morgan
The play by Morgan
The Reader
David Hare
The novel by Bernhard Schlink
2009 (82nd)
Precious
Geoffrey S. Fletcher
The novel Push by Sapphire
District 9
Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell
The short film Alive in Joburg written by Blomkamp
An Education
Nick Hornby
The book by Lynn Barber
In the Loop
Jesse Armstrong , Simon Blackwell , Armando Iannucci & Tony Roche
The character Malcolm Tucker , from the television series The Thick of It by Iannucci
Up in the Air
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner
The novel by Walter Kirn
2010s
Year
Film
Nominees
Source Material
2010 (83rd)
The Social Network
Aaron Sorkin
The book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich
127 Hours
Simon Beaufoy & Danny Boyle
The book Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston
Toy Story 3
Screenplay: Michael Arndt ; Story: John Lasseter , Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich
The Toy Story films by Pete Docter , Lasseter, Stanton, et al.
True Grit
Coen Brothers
The novel by Charles Portis
Winter's Bone
Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini
The novel by Daniel Woodrell
2011 (84th)
The Descendants
Nat Faxon , Alexander Payne & Jim Rash
The novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings
Hugo
John Logan
The novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
The Ides of March
George Clooney , Grant Heslov & Beau Willimon
The play Farragut North by Willimon
Moneyball
Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin & Steven Zaillian ; Story: Stan Chervin
The book by Michael Lewis
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Bridget O'Connor (p.n. ) & Peter Straughan
The novel by John le Carré
2012 (85th)
Argo
Chris Terrio
The book The Master of Disguise by Tony Mendez & article The Great Escape by Joshuah Bearman
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin
The play Juicy and Delicious by Alibar
Life of Pi
David Magee
The novel by Yann Martel
Lincoln
Tony Kushner
The book Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Silver Linings Playbook
David O. Russell
The novel by Matthew Quick
2013 (86th)
12 Years a Slave
John Ridley
The memoir by Solomon Northup
Before Midnight
Julie Delpy , Ethan Hawke & Richard Linklater
Characters from the film Before Sunrise by Kim Krizan & Linklater
Captain Phillips
Billy Ray
The book A Captain's Duty by Richard Phillips & Stephan Talty
Philomena
Steve Coogan & Jeff Pope
The book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee by Martin Sixsmith
The Wolf of Wall Street
Terence Winter
The memoir by Jordan Belfort
2014 (87th)
The Imitation Game
Graham Moore
The book Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges
American Sniper
Jason Hall
The autobiography by Jim DeFelice, Chris Kyle & Scott McEwan
Inherent Vice
Paul Thomas Anderson
The novel by Thomas Pynchon
The Theory of Everything
Anthony McCarten
The book Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen Hawking by Jane Hawking
Whiplash
Damien Chazelle
The short film by Chazelle
2015 (88th)
The Big Short
Charles Randolph & Adam McKay
The book by Michael Lewis
Brooklyn
Nick Hornby
The novel by Colm Tóibín
Carol
Phyllis Nagy
The novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
The Martian
Drew Goddard
The novel by Andy Weir
Room
Emma Donoghue
The novel by Donoghue
2016 (89th) [12]
Moonlight
Screenplay: Barry Jenkins ; Story: Tarell Alvin McCraney
The play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue by McCraney
Arrival
Eric Heisserer
The short story Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang
Fences
August Wilson (p.n. )
The play by Wilson
Hidden Figures
Theodore Melfi & Allison Schroeder
The book by Margot Lee Shetterly
Lion
Luke Davies
The memoir A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley & Larry Buttrose
2017 (90th) [13]
Call Me by Your Name
James Ivory
The novel by André Aciman
The Disaster Artist
Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber
The book by Greg Sestero & Tom Bissell
Logan
Screenplay: Scott Frank , Michael Green & James Mangold ; Story: Mangold
The Wolverine comics by John Romita Sr. & Len Wein
Molly's Game
Aaron Sorkin
The memoir by Molly Bloom
Mudbound
Dee Rees & Virgil Williams
The novel by Hillary Jordan
2018 (91st) [14]
BlacKkKlansman
Spike Lee , David Rabinowitz, Charlie Wachtel & Kevin Willmott
The memoir Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Coen Brothers
The short stories All Gold Canyon by Jack London & The Gal Who Got Rattled by Stewart Edward White
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Nicole Holofcener & Jeff Whitty
The memoir by Lee Israel
If Beale Street Could Talk
Barry Jenkins
The novel by James Baldwin
A Star Is Born
Bradley Cooper , Will Fetters & Eric Roth
The 1954 film by Moss Hart , 1976 film by Joan Didion , John Gregory Dunne & Frank Pierson & story by Robert Carson & William A. Wellman
2019 (92nd) [15]
Jojo Rabbit
Taika Waititi
The novel Caging Skies by Christine Leunens
The Irishman
Steven Zaillian
The book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt
Joker
Todd Phillips & Scott Silver
Comic book characters by Bill Finger , Bob Kane & Jerry Robinson
Little Women
Greta Gerwig
The novel by Louisa May Alcott
The Two Popes
Anthony McCarten
The play The Pope by McCarten
2020s
Year
Film
Nominees
Source Material
2020/21 (93rd) [16]
The Father
Christopher Hampton & Florian Zeller
The play Le Père by Zeller
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Screenplay: Sacha Baron Cohen , Peter Baynham , Jena Friedman , Anthony Hines, Lee Kern, Dan Mazer , Erica Rivinoja & Dan Swimer ; Story: Baron Cohen, Hines, Nina Pedrad & Swimer
The character by Baron Cohen
Nomadland
Chloé Zhao
The book by Jessica Bruder
One Night in Miami...
Kemp Powers
The play by Powers
The White Tiger
Ramin Bahrani
The novel by Arvind Adiga
2021 (94th) [17]
CODA
Sian Heder
The film La Famille Bélier by Victoria Bedos, Thomas Bidegain , Stanislas Carré de Malberg & Éric Lartigau
Drive My Car
Ryusuke Hamaguchi & Takamasa Oe
The short story by Haruki Murakami
Dune
Eric Roth , Jon Spaihts & Denis Villeneuve
The novel by Frank Herbert
The Lost Daughter
Maggie Gyllenhaal
The novel by Elena Ferrante
The Power of the Dog
Jane Campion
The novel by Thomas Savage
Writers with multiple awards
2 Awards
Writers with multiple nominations
The following writers have received three or more nominations:
7 Nominations
6 Nominations
5 Nominations
4 Nominations
3 Nominations
Age superlatives
See also
Notes
^ a b c d e During these years, the award was bestowed as Best Writing, Adaptation .
^ The 2nd Academy Awards is unique in being the only occasion where there were no official nominees. Subsequent research by AMPAS has resulted in a list of unofficial or de facto nominees, based on records of which films were evaluated by the judges.
^ During this year, the award was bestowed as Best Writing and included original and adapted screenplays.
^ From 1935 until 1955, the award was bestowed as Best Writing, Screenplay .
^ Captain Blood , written by Casey Robinson from the novel by Rafael Sabatini , was not officially nominated for this award, but appears in Academy records because it placed third in voting as a write-in candidate in 1935.
^ Dudley Nichols refused to accept the award, but was in possession of it by 1949 according to Academy records.
^ Michael Blankfort was originally nominated as the screenwriter of Broken Arrow . In 1991, research proved blacklisted Albert Maltz was the screenwriter and his credit was restored. Blankfort was removed from the nomination and it was given to Maltz.
^ Michael Wilson was originally credited as the screenwriter of Friendly Persuasion , but Allied Artists , acting in agreement with the Screen Writers Guild , removed his credit because he was blacklisted. Early in 1957, the Academy revised its bylaws so the film would be eligible for a writing nomination without naming Wilson as a nominee. Friendly Persuasion was initially announced a nominee without a writer's name attached. The Academy's Board of Governors voted to strike the nomination altogether and it was not included on the final ballot. The Board of Governors, however, reinstated the nomination with Wilson's name attached in 2002.
^ Pierre Boulle was credited as the screenwriter of The Bridge on the River Kwai and ultimately won the award. Blacklisted writers Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman , who actually wrote the screenplay, were awarded posthumous Oscars by the Academy's Board of Governors in 1984.
^ Due to blacklisting, Young wrote under the pseudonym Nathan E. Douglas.
^ In 1995, research proved blacklisted Michael Wilson was also a screenwriter of Lawrence of Arabia . He was added as a nominee by the Academy's Board of Governors.
^ Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes was initially adapted by screenwriter Robert Towne , but he removed his name from the credits because he was unhappy with co-writer Michael Austin's alterations and the finished film itself. He instead used the pseudonym P.H. Vazak, the name of his late Hungarian sheepdog.
^ Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is a character in his own script for Adaptation , as is his fictional twin brother Donald. The nonexistent Donald was credited as a screenwriter and was nominated for an Academy Award. The film's end credits claimed he had died during pre-production.
References
^ "Academy Awards Best Screenplays and Writers" .
^ "Oscar Week: Best Adapted Screenplay" . 21 February 2008.
^ Aljean Harmetz (March 16, 1985). "Oscars Go to Writers of 'Kwai' " . The New York Times .
^ Johnson, Andrew (28 March 2010). "Emma Thompson: How Jane Austen saved me from going under" . The Independent . Archived from the original on 2010-04-06. Retrieved 18 August 2011 .
^ A Beautiful Mind Wins Adapted Screenplay: 2002 Oscars
^ Aaron Sorkin Wins Adapted Screenplay: 2011 Oscars
^ "Call Me by Your Name" wins Best Adapted Screenplay-Oscars on YouTube
^ 2018|Oscars.org
^ "The Official Academy Awards Database" . Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . Archived from the original on February 27, 2009. Retrieved January 9, 2018 .
^ "The 18th Academy Awards - 1946" . Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . Retrieved January 17, 2018 .
^ a b Saito, Stephen (February 20, 2008). "Fake Names, Real Oscars: Five Nominees Who Didn't Really Exist" . IFC . Retrieved January 9, 2018 .
^ "Academy Awards 2017: Complete list of Oscar winners and nominees" . Los Angeles Times . February 26, 2017. Retrieved January 8, 2018 .
^ "90th Oscar Nominations Announced" (PDF) . Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences . January 23, 2018. Retrieved January 23, 2018 .
^ "91st Oscar Nominations Announced" (PDF) . Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences . January 22, 2019. Retrieved January 22, 2019 .
^ "92nd Oscar Nominations Announced" (PDF) . Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences . January 22, 2019. Retrieved January 22, 2019 .
^ "Complete list of nominees for the 93rd Academy Awards" . ABC News . March 15, 2021. Retrieved March 15, 2021 .
^ "94th Academy Awards Nominees" . Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . Archived from the original on February 8, 2022. Retrieved February 8, 2022 .
^ "James Ivory is oldest Oscar winner ever with screenplay award for Call Me by Your Name" . The Guardian . 5 March 2018. Retrieved April 3, 2020 .
^ Snubs, Surprises, and a Staring Contest: The Academy Awards Nominations - The Ringer
^ "SOC Alumnus Wins Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay" . American Washington University . Retrieved April 3, 2020 .
Awards of Merit
Special awards
Former awards
Merit Awards Special Awards
Ceremonies ‡
‡ Dates and years listed for each ceremony were the eligibility period of film release in Los Angeles County . For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period was done on a seasonal basis, from August to July. For the 6th ceremony, held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1, 1932, to December 31, 1933. From the 7th ceremony, held in 1935, through the 92nd ceremony, held in 2020, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31. For the 93rd ceremony, held in 2021, the eligibility period was from January 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021. For the 94th ceremony, held in 2022, the eligibility period was from March 1, 2021, to December 31, 2021.
1928–1950
Benjamin Glazer (1928)
Hanns Kräly (1929)
Frances Marion (1930)
Howard Estabrook (1931)
Edwin J. Burke (1932)
Victor Heerman and Sarah Y. Mason (1933)
Robert Riskin (1934)
Dudley Nichols (1935)
Pierre Collings and Sheridan Gibney (1936)
Heinz Herald, Geza Herczeg, and Norman Reilly Raine (1937)
Ian Dalrymple , Cecil Arthur Lewis , W. P. Lipscomb , and George Bernard Shaw (1938)
Sidney Howard (1939)
Donald Ogden Stewart (1940)
Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller (1941)
George Froeschel , James Hilton , Claudine West , and Arthur Wimperis (1942)
Philip G. Epstein , Julius J. Epstein , and Howard Koch (1943)
Frank Butler and Frank Cavett (1944)
Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder (1945)
Robert Sherwood (1946)
George Seaton (1947)
John Huston (1948)
Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1949)
Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1950)
1951–1975 1976–2000 2001–present