See this site's 101 Greatest Film Screenplays of All-Time

One indicator of the types of screenplays that are nominated for awards is within the Best Picture category. Through the 79th Academy Awards ceremony (through 2007), the vast majority of films that have won the top prize have been adapted from other sources, while about a fourth have been original screenplays:

• 43 of 80 Best Picture-winning films: adapted from novels, stories or short stories, or remakes of other films (i.e., Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Rebecca (1940), Ben-Hur (1959), The Departed (2006), No Country for Old Men (2007))
• 12 of 80 Best Picture-winning films: adapted from stage plays or stage musicals (i.e., You Can't Take It With You (1938), Hamlet (1948), West Side Story (1961), The Sound of Music (1965))
• 1 of 80 Best Picture-winning films: adapted from an article ( On the Waterfront (1954))
• 1 of 80 Best Picture-winning films: adapted from a TV show (Marty (1955))
• 1 of 80 Best Picture-winning films: adapted from various writings ( Lawrence of Arabia (1962))
• 22 of 80 Best Picture-winning films: original screenplays (i.e., Going My Way (1944), The Apartment (1960), Rocky (1976), Unforgiven (1992), Crash (2005))

There have been many writers who have unofficially worked on various nominated (and winning) screenplays who are not included or credited for the screenplay. [Uncredited but talented screenwriters include neophytes, called screenplay polishers, who make minor rewrites to improve the dialogue or scene directions.] The Academy Awards include only those who are officially nominated.

History of Changes in the Award:

See an entire detailed listing of Academy Award Script/Screenplay Winners from 1927/28 to the Present on this site.

This awards category has varied considerably over the first 30 years of the awards ceremony, but solidified itself by about 1970:

• in the first year of the Academy Awards, 1927/1928, there were only two writing categories: Best Writing, Adaptation and Best Original Story; there was also a short-lived category termed Best Title Writing, discontinued after this year at the end of the silent era
  
  
• in the second and third years of the Academy Awards (1928/29 and 1929/30), there was only a single writing award: Writing Achievement, with no distinction between original works and adaptations. Only the titles of the nominated films were announced. Writers were nominated for all of their work that year, rather than nominating the writer for a specific film
  
  
• in the next four ceremonies (1930/31, 1931/32, 1932/33, and 1934), the distinction between original works and adaptations was resumed with two categories: Best Writing, Adaptation and Best Original Story
  
  
• beginning in 1935, the term screenplay was first used as a nomination category (replacing Best Writing, Adaptation - it was used to indicate an adaptation rather than an original story), so now there were two categories: Best Original Story and Best Screenplay (adaptation)
  
  (Because of these rules, The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936) remains the only film to win its two writing nominations in one ceremony for the same screenwriters (Pierre Collings and Sheridan Gibney), for both Best Original Story and Best Screenplay (adaptation). Collings and Gibney are the only screenwriters to win two Oscars each for their work on a single film.)
  
  
• in 1940, the Academy started a new category - Best Original Screenplay, in addition to the other two categories: Best Original Story and Best Screenplay (adaptation). Best Original Story was intended to give credit to the authors of performance works (not novels) that films were based on. Therefore, oftentimes, the source and its adaptation would earn nominations - and Oscars.
  
  (Besides The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936) with more than one writing Oscar, Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) was the first to win two writing Oscars, followed by Going My Way (1944) and Miracle on 34th Street (1947). But in these other three cases, the script authors were different people from the writers credited with the screenplay.)
  
  
• in 1942, the titles for the three awards were: Best Screenplay (adaptation), Best Original Screenplay, and Best Original Motion Picture Story
  
  
• in 1948, the award went back to only two awards: Best Motion Picture Story (original screenplay) and Best Screenplay (adaptation); the Best Original Screenplay category was dropped
  
  
• in 1949, the award was expanded back to three nebulous categories: Best Motion Picture Story, Best Screenplay (adaptation) and Best Story and Screenplay (the new name for the Best Original Screenplay category)
  
  
• in 1956, there were again three nominees, retaining Best Motion Picture Story and two other renamed categories: Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Screenplay
  
  
• in 1957, the modern division of the award into "original" and "adapted" screenplays was finally implemented - with only two renamed categories: Best Screenplay - Based on Material From Another Medium (Adapted Screenplay) and Best Story and Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Original Screenplay); the category of Best Motion Picture Story was discarded by being merged into the other categories
  
  
• in 1969, the category of Best Story and Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen was renamed: Best Story and Screenplay - Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced
  
  
• since then, the category names for the writing awards have been simplified to Adapted Screenplay and Original Screenplay

Currently, there are two basic categories of writing awards:

• Writing, Adapted Screenplay: awarded to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source (novel or play usually)
• Writing, Original Screenplay: awarded to the writer of a script not based on previously published material

Top Academy Award Screenwriting Nominations and Winners:

Woody Allen (13) and Billy Wilder (12) have been nominated the most for any screenwriting category. Four individuals have been awarded with three (3) screenwriting Oscars: Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett, Francis Ford Coppola, and Paddy Chayefsky.

Top Screenwriting Oscar Winners: Overall
Billy Wilder 12 nominations 3 wins	Billy Wilder Wins: The Lost Weekend (1945) - (Best Screenplay - adaptation) Sunset Boulevard (1950) - (Best Story and Screenplay - original) The Apartment (1960) - (Best Original Story and Screenplay) Nominated For: Ninotchka (1939) - (Best Screenplay - adaptation) Hold Back the Dawn (1941) - (Best Screenplay - adaptation) Ball of Fire (1941) - (Best Original Story) Double Indemnity (1944) - (Best Screenplay - adaptation) A Foreign Affair (1948) - (Best Screenplay - adaptation) The Big Carnival (1951), aka Ace in the Hole - (Best Story and Screenplay - original) Sabrina (1954) - (Best Screenplay - adaptation) Some Like It Hot (1959) - (Best Adapted Screenplay) The Fortune Cookie (1966) - (Best Original Screenplay) Note: Wilder had 7 Adapted Screenplay nominations, 4 Original Screenplay nominations, and one Best Original Story nomination. Billy Wilder, Francis Ford Coppola, Charles Brackett and Paddy Chayefsky share the Academy Award record for Oscar writing wins (3) in all categories. Together, Wilder and Charles Brackett are responsible for a total of 14 screenplay nominations. They co-share 5 screenplay nominations (from 1939-1950) and two wins: The Lost Weekend (1945) and Sunset Boulevard (1950).
Woody Allen 14 nominations 2 wins	Woody Allen Wins: Annie Hall (1977) Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) Nominated For: Interiors (1978) Manhattan (1979) Broadway Danny Rose (1984) The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) Radio Days (1987) Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) Alice (1990) Husbands and Wives (1992) Bullets Over Broadway (1994) Mighty Aphrodite (1995) Deconstructing Harry (1997) Match Point (2005) Note: All of Allen's nominations were under the Best Original Screenplay category.
Charles Brackett 7 nominations 3 wins	Charles Brackett Wins: The Lost Weekend (1945) - (Best Screenplay - adaptation) Sunset Boulevard (1950) - (Best Story and Screenplay - original) Titanic (1953) - (Best Story and Screenplay - original) Nominated For: Ninotchka (1939) - (Best Screenplay - adaptation) Hold Back the Dawn (1941) - (Best Screenplay - adaptation) To Each His Own (1946) - (Best Original Motion Picture Story) A Foreign Affair (1948) - (Best Screenplay - adaptation) Only two of Brackett's nominated screenplays, To Each His Own (1946) and Titanic (1953) did not involve his frequent scriptwriting collaborator, Billy Wilder.
John Huston 8 nominations 1 win	John Huston Wins: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) - (Best Screenplay - adaptation) Nominated For: Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940) - (Best Original Screenplay) The Maltese Falcon (1941) - (Best Screenplay - adaptation) Sergeant York (1941) - (Best Original Screenplay) The Asphalt Jungle (1950) - (Best Screenplay - adaptation) The African Queen (1951) - (Best Screenplay - adaptation) Heaven Knows Mr. Allison (1957) - (Best Adapted Screenplay) The Man Who Would Be King (1975) - (Best Adapted Screenplay)
Federico Fellini 8 nominations 0 wins	Federico Fellini Nominated For Best Original Screenplay: Paisan (1946) - awarded 1949 Vitelloni, I (1953) - awarded 1957 La Strada (1954) - awarded 1956 La Dolce Vita (1960) - awarded 1961 8 1/2 (1963) - awarded 1963 Amarcord (1973) - awarded 1975 Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay: Open City (1945) - awarded 1946 Casanova (1976) - awarded 1976 Note: Federico Fellini has the record for most screenplay nominations for a foreign language film. Four of his films won Best Foreign Language Film Oscars: La Strada (1954) in 1956, Nights of Cabiria (1957) in 1957, 8½ (1963) in 1963, and Amarcord (1973) in 1974.
Francis Ford Coppola 5 nominations 3 wins	Francis Ford Coppola Wins: Patton (1970) - Best Original Screenplay The Godfather (1972) - Best Adapted Screenplay The Godfather, Part II (1974) - Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated For: The Conversation (1974) - Best Original Screenplay Apocalypse Now (1979) - Best Adapted Screenplay Note: Billy Wilder, Francis Ford Coppola, Charles Brackett, and Paddy Chayefsky share the Academy Award record for Oscar writing wins (3) in all categories.
Paddy Chayefsky 4 nominations 3 wins	Paddy Chayefsky Wins: Marty (1955) - (Best Screenplay - adaptation) The Hospital (1971) - (Best Original Screenplay) Network (1976) - (Best Original Screenplay) Nominated For: The Goddess (1958) - (Best Original Screenplay) Note: Billy Wilder, Francis Ford Coppola, Charles Brackett and Paddy Chayefsky share the Academy Award record for Oscar writing wins (3) in all categories.
Ingmar Bergman 5 nominations 0 wins	Ingmar Bergman Nominated for Best Original Screenplay: Wild Strawberries (1959) Through a Glass Darkly (1962) Cries and Whispers (1973) - adapted Autumn Sonata (1978) Fanny & Alexander (1983)
Leo McCarey 4 nominations 0 wins	Leo McCarey Nominated for Best Original Story: Love Affair (1939) My Favorite Wife (1940) Going My Way (1944) Note: McCarey was also nominated for My Son John (1952) for Best Motion Picture Story - equivalent to Best Original Screenplay.