Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Academy Awards
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:
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.
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
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)
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
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)
• 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).]
• 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.]
• 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:
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)*+
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:
• Patton (1970)*+
• The Godfather (1972)*+
• The Conversation (1974)
• The Godfather: Part II (1974)*+
• Apocalypse Now (1979)
• The Godfather: Part III (1990)
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.
• 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
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).