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Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay

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The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best script not based upon previously published material. Before 1940, there was an Academy Award for Best Story for writing. For 1940, it and the award in this article were separated into two awards. Beginning with the Oscars for 1957, the two categories were combined to honor only the screenplay.

Contents
1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s

1940s

1940 The Great McGinty - Preston Sturges
- Angels over Broadway - Ben Hecht
- Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet - Norman Burnside, Heinz Herald, John Huston
- Foreign Correspondent - Charles Bennett, Joan Harrison
- The Great Dictator - Charlie Chaplin
1941 Citizen Kane - Herman Mankiewicz, Orson Welles
- The Devil and Miss Jones - Norman Krasna
- Sergeant York - Harry Chandlee, Abem Finkel, John Huston, Howard Koch
- Tall, Dark and Handsome - Karl Tunberg, Darrell Ware
- Tom, Dick and Harry - Paul Jarrico
1942 Woman of the Year - Michael Kanin, Ring Lardner Jr
- One of Our Aircraft is Missing - Micheal Powell, Emeric Pressburger
- Road to Morocco - Frank Butler, Don Hartman
- Wake Island - W. R. Burnett, Frank Butler
- The War Against Mrs. Hadley - George Oppenheimer
1943 Princess O'Rourke - Norman Krasna
- Air Force - Dudley Nichols
- In Which We Serve - Noel Coward
- The North Star - Lillian Hellman
- So Proudly We Hail! - Allan Scott
1944 Wilson - Lamar Trotti
- Hail the Conquering Hero - Preston Sturges
- The Miracle of Morgan's Creek - Preston Sturges
- Two Girls and a Sailor - Richard Connell, Glays Lehman
- Wing and a Prayer - Jerome Cady
1945 Marie-Louise - Richard Schweizer
- Dillinger - Philip Yordan
- Music for Millions - Myles Connolly
- Salty O'Rourke - Milton Holmes
- What Next, Corporal Hargrove? - Harry Kurnitz
1946 The Seventh Veil - Muriel Box, Sydney Box
- The Blue Dahlia - Raymond Chandler
- Children of Paradise - Jacques Prévert
- Notorious - Ben Hecht
- Road to Utopia - Norman Panama, Melvin Frank
1947 The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer - Sidney Sheldon
- Body and Soul - Abraham Polonsky
- A Double Life - Ruth Gordon, Garson Kanin
- Monsieur Verdoux - Charlie Chaplin
- Shoeshine - Sergio Amidei, Adolfo Franci, C. G. Viola, Cesare Zavattini
1948 none given (Instead of the categories "Original Screenplay and "Screenplay", it was combined into one category, called "Screenplay")
1949 Battleground - Robert Pirosh
- Jolson Sings Again - Sidney Buchman
- Paisà - Alfred Hayes, Federico Fellini, Sergio Amidei, Marcello Pagliero, Roberto Rossellini
- Passport to Pimlico - T. E. B. Clarke
- The Quiet One - Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb, Sidney Meyers

(In 1949, the category was renamed "Story and Screenplay")

1950s

1950 Sunset Boulevard - Charles Brackett, D.M. Marshman, Jr., Billy Wilder
- Adam's Rib - Ruth Gordon, Garson Kanin
- Caged - Virginia Kellogg, Bernard C. Schoenfeld
- The Men - Carl Foreman
- No Way Out - Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Lesser Samuels
1951 An American in Paris - Alan Jay Lerner
- The Big Carnival - Billy Wilder, Lesser Samuels, Walter Newman
- David and Bathsheba - Philip Dunne
- Go for Broke! - Robert Pirosh
- The Well - Clarence Greene, Russell Rouse
1952 The Lavender Hill Mob - T.E.B. Clarke
- The Atomic City - Sydney Boehm
- The Sound Barrier - Terence Rattigan
- Pat and Mike - Ruth Gordon, Garson Kanin
- Viva Zapata! - John Steinbeck
1953 Titanic - Charles Brackett, Richard Breen, Walter Reisch
- The Band Wagon - Betty Comden, Adolph Green
- The Desert Rats - Richard Murphy
- The Naked Spur - Sam Rolfe, Harold Jack Bloom
- Take the High Ground! - Millard Kaufman
1954 On the Waterfront - Budd Schulberg
- The Barefoot Contessa - Joseph L. Mankiewicz
- Genevieve - William Rose
- The Glenn Miller Story - Valentine Davies, Oscar Brodney
- Knock on Wood - Norman Panama, Melvin Frank
1955 Interrupted Melody - Sonya Levien, William Ludwig
- The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell - Milton Sperling, Emmet Lavery
- It's Always Fair Weather - Betty Comden, Adolph Green
- Mr. Hulot's Holiday - Jacques Tati, Henri Marquet
- The Seven Little Foys - Melville Shavelson, Jack Rose
1956 The Red Balloon - Albert Lamorisse
- The Bold and the Brave - Robert Lewin
- Julie - Andrew L. Stone
- La strada - Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli
- The Ladykillers - William Rose
1957 Designing Woman - George Wells
- Funny Face - Leonard Gershe
- Man of a Thousand Faces - Ralph Wheelwright, R. Wright Campbell, Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts
- The Tin Star - Barney Slater, Joel Kane, Dudley Nichols
- I vitelloni - Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli
1958 The Defiant Ones - Nathan E. Douglas, Harold Jacob Smith (Upon request of his widow and upon recommendation of the Writers Branch Executive Committee, the Board of Governors voted to restore the name of Nedrick Young to the nomination and award presented to Nathan E. Douglas, which was a pseudonym for Mr. Young during the blacklisting period.)
- The Goddess - Paddy Chayefsky
- Houseboat - Melville Shavelson, Jack Rose
- The Sheepman - James Edward Grant, William Bowers
- Teacher's Pet - Fay Kanin, Michael Kanin
1959 Pillow Talk - Clarence Greene, Maurice Richlin, Russell Rouse, Stanley Shapiro
- The 400 Blows - François Truffaut, Marcel Moussy
- North by Northwest - Ernest Lehman
- Operation Petticoat - Paul King, Joseph Stone, Stanley Shapiro, Maurice Richlin
- Wild Strawberries - Ingmar Bergman

1960s

1960 The Apartment - I.A.L. Diamond, Billy Wilder
- The Angry Silence - Screenplay by Bryan Forbes; Story by Richard Gregson, Michael Craig
- The Facts of Life - Norman Panama, Melvin Frank
- Hiroshima Mon Amour - Marguerite Duras
- Never on Sunday - Jules Dassin
1961 Splendor in the Grass - William Inge
- Ballad of a Soldier - Valentin Yoshov, Grigori Chukhrai
- La dolce vita - Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, Brunello Rondi
- General Della Rovere - Sergio Amidei, Diego Fabbi, Indro Montanelli
- Lover Come Back - Stanley Shapiro, Paul Henning
1962 Divorce, Italian Style - Ennio de Concini, Pietro Germi, Alfredo Giannetti
- Freud - Story by Charles Kaufman, Screenplay by Charles Kaufman and Wolfgang Reinhardt
- Last Year at Marienbad - Alain Robbe-Grillet
- That Touch of Mink - Stanley Shapiro, Nate Monaster
- Through a Glass Darkly - Ingmar Bergman
1963 How the West Was Won - James Webb
- 8½ - Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, Brunello Rondi
- America, America - Elia Kazan
- The Four Days of Naples - Story by Pasquale Festa Campanile, Massimo Franciosa, Nanni Loy, Vasco Pratolini; Screenplay by Carlo Bernari, Massimo Franciosa, Pasquale Festa Campanile, Nanni Loy
- Love with the Proper Stranger - Arnold Schulman
1964 Father Goose - Peter Stone, Frank Tarloff
- A Hard Day's Night - Alun Owen
- One Potato, Two Potato - Screenplay by Raphael Hayes; Story by Orville H. Hampton
- The Organizer - Age Monicelli, Scarpelli Monicelli, Mario Monicelli
- That Man from Rio - Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Ariane Mnouchkine, Daniel Boulanger, Philippe de Broca
1965 Darling - Frederic Raphael
- Casanova 70 - Age Monicelli, Scarpelli Monicelli, Mario Monicelli, Tonino Guerra, Giorgio Salvioni, Suso Cecchi D'Amico
- Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines - Jack Davies, Ken Annakin
- The Train - Franklin Coen, Frank Davis
- The Umbrellas of Cherbourg - Jacques Demy
1966 A Man and a Woman - Story by Claude Lelouch; Screenplay by Claude Lelouch, Pierre Uytterhoeven
- Blowup - Story by Michelangelo Antonioni; Screenplay by Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra, Edward Bond
- The Fortune Cookie - Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond
- Khartoum - Robert Ardrey
- The Naked Prey - Clinkt Johnston, Don Peters
1967 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner - William Rose
- Bonnie and Clyde - David Newman, Robert Benton
- Divorce, American Style - Story by Robert Kaufman; Screenplay by Norman Lear
- La Guerre Est Finie - Jorge Semprún
- Two for the Road - Frederic Raphael
1968 The Producers - Mel Brooks
- 2001: A Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke
- The Battle of Algiers - Franco Solinas, Gillo Pontecorvo
- Faces - John Cassavetes
- Hot Millions - Iro Wallach, Peter Ustinov
1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - William Goldman
- Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice - Paul Mazursky, Larry Tucker
- The Damned - Story by Nicola Badalucco; Screenplay by Nicola Badalucco, Enrico Medioli, Luchino Visconti
- Easy Rider - Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Terry Southern
- The Wild Bunch - Story by Walon Green, Roy N. Sickner; Screenplay by Walon Green, Sam Peckinpah

(In 1969, the category was renamed: "Story and Screenplay - based on material not previously published or produced)

1970s

1970 Patton - Francis Ford Coppola, Edmund North
- Five Easy Pieces - Screenplay by Adrien Joyce (aka Carol Eastman); Story by Adrien Joyce, Bob Rafelson
- Joe - Norman Wexler
- Love Story - Erich Segal
- My Night at Maud's - Éric Rohmer
1971 The Hospital - Paddy Chayefsky
- Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion - Elio Petri, Ugo Pirro
- Klute - Andy and Dave Lewis
- Summer of '42 - Herman Raucher
- Sunday Bloody Sunday - Penelope Gilliatt
1972 The Candidate - Jeremy Larner
- The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie - Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carrière
- Lady Sings the Blues - Terrence McCloy, Chris Clark, Suzanne de Passe
- Murmur of the Heart - Louis Malle
- Young Winston - Carl Foreman
1973 The Sting - David S. Ward
- American Graffiti - George Lucas, Gloria Katz, Willard Huyck
- Cries and Whispers - Ingmar Bergman
- Save the Tiger - Steve Shagan
- A Touch of Class - Melvin Frank, Jack Rose
1974 Chinatown - Robert Towne
- Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore - Robert Getchell
- The Conversation - Francis Ford Coppola
- Day for Night - François Truffaut, Jean-Louis Richard, Suzanne Schiffman
- Harry and Tonto - Paul Mazursky, Josh Greenfeld
1975 Dog Day Afternoon - Frank Pierson
- Amarcord - Federico Fellini, Tonino Guerra
- And Now My Love - Claude LeLouch, Pierre Uytterhoeven
- Lies My Father Told Me - Ted Allan
- Shampoo - Robert Towne, Warren Beatty
1976 Network - Paddy Chayefsky
- Cousin, cousine - Story and Screenplay by Jean-Charles Tacchella; Adaptation by Daniele Thompson
- The Front - Walter Bernstein
- Rocky - Sylvester Stallone
- Seven Beauties - Lina Wertmüller

(In 1976, the category was renamed: "Screenplay written directly for the Screen - Based on factual material or on story material not previously published or produced")