Best Original Screenplay Winners

Best Original Screenplay

Without a screenplay there is nothing for an actor to say or do. Without a screenplay there is nothing for a director to work from. Behind every great film is a great screenplay, there’s no exception to the rule. Over the years writers have come up with unique and original ideas that have been played out on the big screen. When these ideas don’t come from some other source, they’re considered original screenplays. This category came into being in 1940, separating the previous Best Story category. The skill in writing a winning screenplay is by the list of winners. Woody Allen, Billy Wilder, Quentin Tarantino, Paddy Chayefsky, and Charles Brackett make up the list of people who’ve managed to win more than once.

Here are the winners…

1940 – The Great McGinty

1941 – Citizen Kane

1942 – Woman of the Year

1943 – Princess O’Rourke

1944 – Wilson

1945 – Marie-Louise

1946 – The Seventh Veil

1947 – The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer

1948 – No Award Given

1949 – Battleground

1950 – Sunset Boulevard

1951 – An American in Paris

1952 – The Lavender Hill Mob

1953 – Titanic

1954 – On the Waterfront

1955 – Interrupted Melody

1956 – The Red Balloon

1957 – Designing Woman

1958 – The Defiant Ones

1959 – Pillow Talk

1960 – The Apartment

1961 – Splendor in the Grass

1962 – Divorce, Italian Style

1963 – How the West Was Won

1964 – Father Goose

1965 – Darling

1966 – A Man and a Woman

1967 – Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

1968 – The Producers

1969 – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

1970 – Patton

1971 – The Hospital

1972 – The Candidate

1973 – The Sting

1974 – Chinatown

1975 – Dog Day Afternoon

1976 – Network

1977 – Annie Hall

1978 – Coming Home

1979 – Breaking Away

1980 – Melvin and Howard

1981 – Chariots of Fire

1982 – Gandhi

1983 – Tender Mercies

1984 – Places in the Heart

1985 – Witness

1986 – Hannah and Her Sisters

1987 – Moonstruck

1988 – Rain Man

1989 – Dead Poets Society

1990 – Ghost

1991 – Thelma and Louise

1992 – The Crying Game

1993 – The Piano

1994 – Pulp Fiction

1995 – The Usual Suspects

1996 – Fargo

1997 – Good Will Hunting

1998 – Shakespeare in Love

1999 – American Beauty

2000 – Almost Famous

2001 – Gosford Park

2002 – Talk to Her (Habla con Ella)

2003 – Lost in Translation

2004 – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

2005 – Crash

2006 – Little Miss Sunshine

2007 – Juno

2008 – Milk

2009 – The Hurt Locker

2010 – The King’s Speech

2011 – Midnight in Paris

2012 – Django Unchained

2013 – Her

2014 – Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

2015 – Spotlight

2016 – Manchester by the Sea