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Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay

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.

1940s

1940 The Great McGinty - Preston Sturges

1941 Citizen Kane - Herman Mankiewicz, Orson Welles

1942 Woman of the Year - Michael Kanin, Ring Lardner Jr

One of Our Aircraft is Missing - Michael 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

1944 Wilson - Lamar Trotti

1945 Marie-Louise - Richard Schweizer

1946 The Seventh Veil - Muriel Box, Sydney Box

1947 The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer - Sidney Sheldon

1948 none given (Instead of the categories "Original Screenplay and "Screenplay", it was combined into one category, called "Screenplay")
1949 Battleground - Robert Pirosh

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

1950s

1950 Sunset Boulevard - Charles Brackett, D.M. Marshman, Jr., Billy Wilder

1951 An American in Paris - Alan Jay Lerner

1952 The Lavender Hill Mob - T.E.B. Clarke

1953 Titanic - Charles Brackett, Richard Breen, Walter Reisch

1954 On the Waterfront - Budd Schulberg

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

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.)

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

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

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

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 H. North

Five Easy Pieces - Screenplay by "Adrien Joyce" (aka Carole 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

1972 The Candidate - Jeremy Larner

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

1975 Dog Day Afternoon - Frank Pierson

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")