Award winning screenplays. Best Original Screenplay Oscar Winners of the 21st Century Ranked, From ‘Her’ to ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’
he Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay 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)
original screenplays
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. Woody Allen also holds the record as the oldest winner (at age 76 for Midnight in Paris, 2011).[3]
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—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.
At the 2018 ceremony, Get Out writer-director Jordan Peele became the first African-American to win in this category.
List of screenplays
get out manchester by the sea kenneth lonergan birdman alejandro g. inarritu
her spike jonze
django quentin tarantino
midnight in paris woody allen
hurt locker mark boal
milk dustin lance black
juno diablo cody
little miss sunshine michael arndt
crash paul haggis & bobby moresco
eternal sunshine of the spotless mind charlie kaufman
lost in translation sofia coppola
talk to her pedro almodovar
gosford park julian fellows
almost famous cameron crowe
american beauty alen ball
shakespeare in love marc norman & tom stoppard
good will hunting ben affleck & matt damon
fargo ethan coen & joel coen
the usual suspects christopher mcquarrie
pulp fiction quentin tarantino & roger avery
the piano jane champion
the crying game neil jordan
thelma & louise callie khouri
ghost bruce joel rubin
dead poets society tom schulman
rain man ronald bass & barry morrow
moonstruck john patrick shanley
hannah and her sisters woody allen
witness earl w. wallace, william kelley & pamela wallace
places in the heart robert benton
tender mercies horton foote
ghandi john briley
ernestia fraser screenplays
chariots of fire colin welland
melvin and howard bo goldman
breaking away steve tesich
coming home nancy down waldo salt & robert jones
annie hall woody allen & marshall brickman
network paddy chayefsky
dog day afternoon frank person
chinatown robert towne
the sting david s ward
the candidate jeremy larner
hospital paddy cheyefsky
patton francis ford coppola & edmund h north
butch cassidy and the sundance kid william goldman
the producers mel brooks
gues who’s coming to dinner william rose
a man and a woman claude lelouch & pierre uytterhoeven
darling frederic raphael
father goose barnett peter stone frank tarloff
how the west was won james r. webb
divorce italian style ennio de concini alfredo giannetti pietro germi
splendor in the grass william inge
pillow talk russell rouse claren greene stanley shapiro maurice richlin
the defiant ones nedrick young harold jacob smith
designing woman george wells
the brave one dalton trumbo robert rich
the red balloon albert lamorisse
love me or leave me
marty paddy chayefsky
broken lance phillip yordan
roman holiday dalton trumbo ian mclellan hunter
the greatest show on earth frederic m. frank theodore st. john frank cavett
seven to noon paul dehn & james bernard
panic in the streets edna & edward anhalt
the stratton story douglas morrow
the search richard schweizer & david wechsler
miracle on 34th street valentine davies
the house on 92nd street charles g booth
going my way leo mccarey
the human comedy william saroyan
the invaders emeric pressburger
citizen kane herman j mankiewicz & orson wells
the great mcginty preston sturges
mr. smith goes to washington lewis r. foster
boys town dore schary & eleanore griffin
a star is born william a wellman & robert carson
the story of lewis pasteur pierre colllings & sheridan gibney
the scoundrel ben hecht & charle macarthur
it happened one night robert riskin
little women vistor heerman & sarah y. mason
bad girl edwin burke
cimarron howard estabrook
the big house frances marion
the patriot hans kraly
underworld ben hect
7th heaven benjamin glazer