Best Adapted Screenplay Winners

Best Adapted Screenplay

All great films have great screenplays. It’s a rule that directors and actors acknowledge every time they make a great movie. Sometimes the inspiration comes from an outside source. Novels, short stories, comic books, and news articles are just a few places where screenwriters have found their inspiration. Some of these screenplays are literal adaptations, bringing the same story to life for film. Other times the screenplay comes together in an effort to communicate a message from the source, or a small portion of a greater work. Joseph L. Mankiewicz was the first multiple winner of this award, winning back-to-back in 1950 and 1951. Since then eight others have won twice, including Francis Ford Coppola, Alexander Payne, and Mario Puzo.

Here are the winners…

1928 – Seventh Heaven

1929 – The Patriot

1930 – The Big House

1931 – Cimarron

1932 – Bad Girl

1933 – Little Women

1934 – It Happened One Night

1935 – The Informer

1936 – The Story of Louis Pasteur

1937 – The Life of Emile Zola

1938 – Pygmalion

1939 – Gone with the Wind

1940 – The Philadelphia Story

1941 – Here Comes Mr. Jordan

1942 – Mrs. Miniver

1943 – Casablanca

1944 – Going My Way

1945 – The Lost Weekend

1946 – The Best Years of Our Lives

1947 – Miracle on 34th Street

1948 – The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

1949 – A Letter to Three Wives

1950 – All About Eve

1951 – A Place in the Sun

1952 – The Bad and the Beautiful

1953 – From Here to Eternity

1954 – The Country Girl

1955 – Marty

1956 – Around the World in 80 Days

1957 – The Bridge on the River Kwai

1958 – Gigi

1959 – Room at the Top

1960 – Elmer Gantry

1961 – Judgment at Nuremburg

1962 – To Kill a Mockingbird

1963 – Tom Jones

1964 – Becket

1965 – Doctor Zhivago

1966 – A Man for All Seasons

1967 – In the Heat of the Night

1968 – The Lion in Winter

1969 – Midnight Cowboy

1970 – M*A*S*H*

1971 – The French Connection

1972 – The Godfather

1973 – The Exorcist

1974 – The Godfather: Part II

1975 – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

1976 – All the President’s Men

1977 – Julia

1978 – Midnight Express

1979 – Kramer vs. Kramer

1980 – Ordinary People

1981 – On Golden Pond

1982 – Missing

1983 – Terms of Endearment

1984 – Amadeus

1985 – Out of Africa

1986 – A Room With a View

1987 – The Last Emperor

1988 – Dangerous Liaisons

1989 – Driving Miss Daisy

1990 – Dances with Wolves

1991 – The Silence of the Lambs

1992 – Howard’s End

1993 – Schindler’s List

1994 – Forrest Gump

1995 – Sense and Sensibility

1996 – Sling Blade

1997 – L.A. Confidential

1998 – Gods and Monsters

1999 – The Cider House Rules

2000 – Traffic

2001 – A Beautiful Mind

2002 – The Pianist

2003 – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

2004 – Sideways

2005 – Brokeback Mountain

2006 – The Departed

2007 – No Country for Old Men

2008 – Slumdog Millionaire

2009 – Precious

2010 – The Social Network

2011 – The Descendants

2012 – Argo

2013 – 12 Years a Slave

2014 – The Imitation Game

2015 – The Big Short

2016 – Moonlight