Academy Award for best adapted screenplay

award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, located in Beverly Hills, California. It honors outstanding achievement by screenwriters for a screenplay adapted from another work, such as a play or novel, from a given year, as determined by the academy’s voting members.

At the inaugural Academy Awards ceremony, in 1929, the award recognized the work in films released from August 1, 1927, to August 1, 1928. The next four ceremonies honored work in films released from August to July. The 6th ceremony honored work from August to December, and, beginning with the 7th ceremony (1935), only work in movies released the previous calendar year was eligible for consideration.

This award has a complicated history. In the 1st ceremony (1927–28), an award was given for best adaptation. In the 2nd and 3rd ceremonies (1928–30), an award was given for best writing, with no distinction between original work and adaptations. From the 4th (1930–31) to the 7th (1934) ceremonies, an award was again given for best adaptation. Beginning with the 8th ceremony (1935), a screenplay award was given that was the equivalent of the modern award for best adapted screenplay. At the 29th ceremony (1956), the screenplay category was split into best adaptation and best original screenplay. The award had various names before the academy finally settled on best adapted screenplay for the 75th ceremony (2002). The winning screenwriters are given a gold-plated statuette known as an Oscar.

Below is a list of the winning screenwriters and the films for which they won. The years indicate when the eligible films were released.

1920s and 1930s

• 1927–28: adaptation: Benjamin Glazer (7th Heaven)
• 1928–29: writing: Hans Kraly (The Patriot)
• 1929–30: none
• 1930–31: adaptation: Howard Estabrook (Cimarron)
• 1931–32: adaptation: Edward Burke (Bad Girl)
• 1932–33: adaptation: Victor Heerman and Sarah Y. Mason (Little Women)
• 1934: adaptation: Robert Riskin (It Happened One Night)
• 1935: screenplay: Dudley Nichols (The Informer)
• 1936: screenplay: Pierre Collings and Sheridan Gibney (The Story of Louis Pasteur)
• 1937: screenplay: Norman Reilly Raine, Heinz Herald, and Geza Herczeg (The Life of Emile Zola)
• 1938: screenplay: screenplay and dialogue by George Bernard Shaw; adaptation by W.P. Lipscomb, Cecil Lewis, and Ian Dalrymple (Pygmalion)
• 1939: screenplay: Sidney Howard (Gone with the Wind)

1940s and 1950s

• 1940: screenplay: Donald Ogden Stewart (The Philadelphia Story)
• 1941: screenplay: Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller (Here Comes Mr. Jordan)
• 1942: screenplay: Arthur Wimperis, George Froeschel, James Hilton, and Claudine West (Mrs. Miniver)
• 1943: screenplay: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch (Casablanca)
• 1944: screenplay: Frank Butler and Frank Cavett (Going My Way)
• 1945: screenplay: Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder (The Lost Weekend)
• 1946: screenplay: Robert E. Sherwood (The Best Years of Our Lives)
• 1947: screenplay: George Seaton (Miracle on 34th Street)
• 1948: screenplay: John Huston (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre)
• 1949: screenplay: Joseph L. Mankiewicz (A Letter to Three Wives)
• 1950: screenplay: Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve)
• 1951: screenplay: Michael Wilson and Harry Brown (A Place in the Sun)
• 1952: screenplay: Charles Schnee (The Bad and the Beautiful)
• 1953: screenplay: Daniel Taradash (From Here to Eternity)
• 1954: screenplay: George Seaton (The Country Girl)
• 1955: screenplay: Paddy Chayefsky (Marty)
• 1956: James Poe, John Farrow, and S.J. Perelman (Around the World in 80 Days)
• 1957: Michael Wilson, Carl Foreman, and Pierre Boulle (The Bridge on the River Kwai) (Boulle originally received credit for the screenplay, though it had actually been written by blacklisted writers Wilson and Foreman on the basis of Boulle’s novel; Wilson and Foreman received Academy Awards posthumously in 1984.)
• 1958: Alan Jay Lerner (Gigi)
• 1959: Neil Paterson (Room at the Top)

1960s and 1970s

• 1960: Richard Brooks (Elmer Gantry)
• 1961: Abby Mann (Judgment at Nuremberg)
• 1962: Horton Foote (To Kill a Mockingbird)
• 1963: John Osborne (Tom Jones)
• 1964: Edward Anhalt (Becket)
• 1965: Robert Bolt (Doctor Zhivago)
• 1966: Robert Bolt (A Man for All Seasons)
• 1967: Stirling Silliphant (In the Heat of the Night)
• 1968: James Goldman (The Lion in Winter)
• 1969: Waldo Salt (Midnight Cowboy)
• 1970: Ring Lardner, Jr. (M*A*S*H)
• 1971: Ernest Tidyman (The French Connection)
• 1972: Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather)
• 1973: William Peter Blatty (The Exorcist)
• 1974: Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo (The Godfather Part II)
• 1975: Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman (One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest)
• 1976: William Goldman (All the President’s Men)
• 1977: Alvin Sargent (Julia)
• 1978: Oliver Stone (Midnight Express)
• 1979: Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer)

1980s and 1990s

• 1980: Alvin Sargent (Ordinary People)
• 1981: Ernest Thompson (On Golden Pond)
• 1982: Costa-Gavras and Donald Steward (Missing)
• 1983: James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment)
• 1984: Peter Shaffer (Amadeus)
• 1985: Kurt Luedtke (Out of Africa)
• 1986: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (A Room with a View)
• 1987: Mark Peploe and Bernardo Bertolucci (The Last Emperor)
• 1988: Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons)
• 1989: Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy)
• 1990: Michael Blake (Dances with Wolves)
• 1991: Ted Tally (The Silence of the Lambs)
• 1992: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Howards End)
• 1993: Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List)
• 1994: Eric Roth (Forrest Gump)
• 1995: Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility)
• 1996: Billy Bob Thornton (Sling Blade)
• 1997: Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential)
• 1998: Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters)
• 1999: John Irving (The Cider House Rules)

2000s and 2010s

• 2000: Stephen Gaghan (Traffic)
• 2001: Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind)
• 2002: Ronald Harwood (The Pianist)
• 2003: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King)
• 2004: Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor (Sideways)
• 2005: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (Brokeback Mountain)
• 2006: William Monahan (The Departed)
• 2007: Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men)
• 2008: Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire)
• 2009: Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire)
• 2010: Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network)
• 2011: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash (The Descendants)
• 2012: Chris Terrio (Argo)
• 2013: John Ridley (12 Years a Slave)
• 2014: Graham Moore (The Imitation Game)
• 2015: Charles Randolph and Adam McKay (The Big Short)
• 2016: screenplay by Barry Jenkins, story by Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight)
• 2017: James Ivory (Call Me by Your Name)
• 2018: Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, and Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman)
• 2019: Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit)

2020s

• 2020: Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller (The Father)
• 2021: Siân Heder (CODA)
• 2022: Sarah Polley (Women Talking)
• 2023: Cord Jefferson (American Fiction)