First awarded 1940 Country United States of America Category of Academy Awards | Official website oscars.org Instituted 1940 Currently held by Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer | |
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Presented by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences People also search for Academy Award for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay Winners & Nominees Manchester by the SeaKenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea, Winner, La La LandDamien Chazelle, La La Land, Nominee, Hell or High WaterTaylor Sheridan, Hell or High Water, Nominee, The LobsterYorgos Lanthimos - Efthymis Filippou, The Lobster, Nominee, 20th Century WomenMike Mills, 20th Century Women, Nominee, SpotlightTom McCarthy - Josh Singer, Spotlight, Winner, Bridge of SpiesEthan Coen - Joel Coen - Matt Charman, Bridge of Spies, Nominee, Ex MachinaAlex Garland, Ex Machina, Nominee, Inside OutPete Docter - Ronnie del Carmen - Josh Cooley -, Inside Out, Nominee, Straight Outta ComptonAlan Wenkus - Jonathan Herman - Andrea Berloff -, Straight Outta Compton, Nominee, BirdmanAlejandro González Iñárritu - Armando Bo - Alexander Dinelaris -, Birdman, Winner, FoxcatcherDan Futterman - E Max Frye, Foxcatcher, Nominee, The Grand Budapest HotelWes Anderson - Hugo Guinness, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Nominee, NightcrawlerDan Gilroy, Nightcrawler, Nominee, BoyhoodRichard Linklater, Boyhood, Nominee, HerSpike Jonze, Her, Winner, NebraskaBob Nelson, Nebraska, Nominee, Blue JasmineWoody Allen, Blue Jasmine, Nominee, American HustleDavid O Russell - Eric Singer, American Hustle, Nominee, Dallas Buyers ClubCraig Borten - Melisa Wallack, Dallas Buyers Club, Nominee, Django UnchainedQuentin Tarantino, Django Unchained, Winner, Moonrise KingdomWes Anderson - Roman Coppola, Moonrise Kingdom, Nominee, FlightJohn Gatins, Flight, Nominee, LoveMichael Haneke, Love, Nominee, Zero Dark ThirtyMark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty, Nominee | ||
The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best script not based upon previously published material. It was created for 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the Oscars for 1957, the two categories were combined to honor only the screenplay. In 2002, the name of the award was changed from Writing (Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen) to Writing (Original Screenplay).
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Notable nominees
Noted novelists and playwrights who have received nominations in this category include: John Steinbeck, Noël Coward, Raymond Chandler, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Edward Bond, Arthur C. Clarke, Lillian Hellman, Neil Simon, Paddy Chayefsky, Tom Stoppard, and Terence Rattigan.
Special winners
Woody Allen has the most nominations in this category with 16, and the most awards with 3, though Paddy Chayefsky won the Best Adapted Screenplay in 1955 for his adaptation of his teleplay, Marty, and also won for Original Screenplay for The Hospital and Network, considered by many critics to be the most notable screenplay of the twentieth century. Woody Allen also holds the record as the oldest winner (at age 76 for Midnight in Paris, 2011).
Ben Affleck is the youngest winner, at the age of 25 for Good Will Hunting; he co-wrote the screenplay with Matt Damon (age 27 at the time of their award).
Richard Schweizer was the first to win for a foreign-language film, Marie-Louise. Other winners for a non-English screenplay include Albert Lamorisse, Pietro Germi, Claude Lelouch, and Pedro Almodóvar. Lamorisse is additionally the only person to win or even be nominated for Best Original Screenplay for a short film (The Red Balloon, 1956).
Muriel Box was the first woman to win in this category; she shared the award with her husband, Sydney Box, for the 1945 film The Seventh Veil. The Boxes are also the first married couple to win in this category. Only three other married couples won an Oscar in another category. They are; Earl W. Wallace and Pamela Wallace (for Original Screenplay), Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh (for Adapted Screenplay and Picture), and Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (for Original Song).
In 1996, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen became the only siblings to win in this category (for Fargo). Francis Ford Coppola (Patton, 1970) and Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, 2003) are the only father-daughter pair to win.
Preston Sturges was nominated 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.
Winners and nominees
Winners are listed first in colored row, followed by the other nominees.