The Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (formerly known as the Academy Award for Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium) is the Academy Award for the best screenplay adapted from previously established material. The most frequently adapted media are novels, but other adapted narrative formats include stage plays, musicals, short stories, TV series, and other films and film characters. All sequels are also considered adaptations by this standard, being based on the story and characters of the original film.
Prior to its current name, the award was known as the Academy Award for Best Screenplay Based On Material From Another Medium. The Best Adapted Screenplay category has been a part of the Academy Awards since their inception.
Superlatives The first person to win twice in this category was Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who won the award in two consecutive years, 1949 and 1950. Others to win twice in this category include George Seaton, Robert Bolt (who also won in consecutive years), Francis Ford Coppola, Mario Puzo, Alvin Sargent, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Michael Wilson, Alexander Payne and Christopher Hampton. Payne won both awards as part of a writing team, with Jim Taylor for Sideways and Jim Rash and Nat Faxon for The Descendants. Michael Wilson was blacklisted at the time of his second Oscar, so the award was given to a front (novelist Pierre Boulle). However, the Academy officially recognized him as the winner several years later.
Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett, Paddy Chayefsky, Francis Ford Coppola, Horton Foote, William Goldman, Robert Benton, Bo Goldman, Waldo Salt, and the Coen brothers have won Oscars for both original and adapted screenplays.
Frances Marion (The Big House) was the first woman to win in any screenplay category, although she won for her original script for Best Writing, which then included both original and adapted screenplays before a separate award for Best Original Screenplay was introduced. Sarah Y. Mason (Little Women) was the first woman to win for adaptation from previously established material; she shared the award with her husband, Victor Heerman. They are also the first of two married couples to win in this category; Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) are the others.
Pierre Collings and Sheridan Gibney (The Story of Louis Pasteur) were the first to win for adapting their own work.
Philip G. Epstein and Julius J. Epstein (Casablanca) are the first siblings to win in this category. James Goldman (The Lion in Winter) and William Goldman (All the President's Men) are the first siblings to win for separate films. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men) are the third winning siblings.
Mario Puzo is the one of two writers whose work has been adapted and resulted in two wins. Puzo's novel The Godfather resulted in wins in 1972 and 1974 for himself and Francis Ford Coppola. The other is E. M. Forster, whose novels A Room with a View and Howards End resulted in wins for Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
Larry McMurtry is the only person who has won for adapting someone else's work (Brokeback Mountain), and whose own work has been adapted by someone else, resulting in a win (Terms of Endearment.
William Monahan (The Departed and Sian Heder (CODA) are the only people who have won this award by using another full-length feature film as the credited source of the adaptation.
Geoffrey S. Fletcher (Precious), John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) and Cord Jefferson (American Fiction) are the only African-Americans to win solo in this category; Fletcher is also the first African-American to win in any writing category. Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight are the first African-American writing duo to win; Spike Lee and Kevin Willmott (BlacKkKlansman) are the second, although their co-writers, David Rabinowitz and Charlie Wachtel, are both white.
James Ivory (Call Me by Your Name) is the oldest person to receive the award at age 89. Charlie Wachtel (BlacKkKlansman) is the youngest at age 32.
Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit is the first person of Māori descent to receive the award.
Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility) is the only winner who has also won for acting. Winners Billy Bob Thornton (Sling Blade) and John Huston (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre) have been nominated for acting but not won.
Charles Schnee (The Bad and the Beautiful, Billy Bob Thornton (Sling Blade), and Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters) are the only winners whose respective films were not nominated for Best Picture.
Notable nominees Noted novelists and playwrights nominated in this category include: George Bernard Shaw (who shared an award for an adaptation of his play Pygmalion), Graham Greene, Tennessee Williams, Vladimir Nabokov, James Hilton, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Lillian Hellman, Irwin Shaw, James Agee, Norman Corwin, S. J. Perelman, Terence Rattigan, John Osborne, Robert Bolt, Harold Pinter, David Mamet, Larry McMurtry, Arthur Miller, John Irving, David Hare, Tony Kushner, August Wilson, Florian Zeller and Kazuo Ishiguro.
Ted Elliott, Roger S. H. Schulman, Joe Stillman & Terry Rossio, writers of Shrek and Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich, writers of Toy Story 3, are as of 2020, the only writers to be nominated for an animated film.A Beautiful Mind Wins Adapted Screenplay: 2002 OscarsAaron Sorkin Wins Adapted Screenplay: 2011 Oscars
Scott Frank, James Mangold and Michael Green, writers of Logan, are the first writers to be nominated for a film based on superhero comic books (the X-Men)."Call Me by Your Name" wins Best Adapted Screenplay-Oscars on YouTube2018|Oscars.org
Winners and nominees Winners are listed first in colored row, followed by the other nominees.
1920s Year Film Nominees Source Material1927/28(1st)During these years, the award was bestowed as Best Writing, Adaptation. 7th Heaven Benjamin Glazer The play Seventh Heaven by Austin Strong Glorious Betsy Anthony Coldeway The play by Rida Johnson Young The Jazz Singer Alfred A. Cohn The play & short story "The Day of Atonement" by Samson Raphaelson1928/29(2nd) The 2nd Academy Awards is unique in being the only occasion where there were no official nominees. Subsequent research by AMPAS has resulted in a list of unofficial or de facto nominees, based on records of which films were evaluated by the judges. The Patriot Hanns Kräly The novel by Alfred Neumann, play by Ashley Dukes & novel Paul I by Dmitry Merezhkovsky The Cop Elliott J. Clawson – In Old Arizona Tom Barry The short story "The Caballero's Way" by O. Henry The Last of Mrs. Cheyney Hanns Kräly The play by Frederick Lonsdale The Leatherneck Elliott J. Clawson – Our Dancing Daughters Josephine Lovett – Sal of Singapore Elliott J. Clawson The novel The Sentimentalists by Dale Collins Skyscraper A story by Dudley Murphy The Valiant Tom Barry The play by Holworthy Hall & Robert Middlemass A Woman of AffairsBess Meredyth The novel The Green Hat by Michael Arlen Wonder of Women The novel The Wife of Steffen Tromholt by Hermann Sudermann
1930s Year Film Nominees Source Material1929/30During this year, the award was bestowed as Best Writing and included both original and adapted screenplays. The Big House Frances Marion – All Quiet on the Western Front Screenplay: George Abbott; Adaptation: Maxwell Anderson & Del Andrews; Dialogue: Anderson The novel by Erich Maria Remarque Disraeli Julien Josephson The play by Louis N. Parker The Divorcee John Meehan The novel Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott Street of Chance Howard Estabrook A story by Oliver H.P. Garrett1930/31(4th) Cimarron Howard Estabrook The novel by Edna Ferber The Criminal Code Seton I. Miller & Fred Niblo Jr. The play by Martin Flavin Holiday Horace Jackson The play by Philip Barry Little Caesar Screenplay: Francis Edward Faragoh; Continuity: Robert N. Lee The novel by W. R. Burnett Skippy Joseph L. Mankiewicz & Sam Mintz The comic strip by Percy Crosby1931/32 Bad Girl Edwin J. Burke The novel by Viña Delmar and play by Delmar and Brian Marlowe Arrowsmith Sidney Howard The novel by Sinclair Lewis Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Percy Heath & Samuel Hoffenstein The novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson1932/33 Little Women Victor Heerman & Sarah Y. Mason The novel by Louisa May Alcott Lady for a Day Robert Riskin The short story "Madame La Gimp" by Damon Runyon State Fair Paul Green & Sonya Levien The novel by Phil Stong1934 It Happened One Night Robert Riskin The short story "Night Bus" by Samuel Hopkins Adams The Thin Man Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett The novel by Dashiell Hammett Viva Villa! Ben Hecht The book Viva Villa! A Recovery of the Real Pancho Villa, Peon, Bandit, Soldier, Patriot by Edgecumb Pinchon & O. B. Stade1935(8th)From 1935 until 1955, the award was bestowed as Best Writing, Screenplay. Captain Blood, written by Casey Robinson from the novel Captain Blood: His Odyssey by Rafael Sabatini, was not officially nominated for this award, but appears in Academy records because it placed third in voting as a write-in candidate in 1935. The Informer Dudley NicholsDudley Nichols refused to accept the award, but was in possession of it by 1949 according to Academy records. The novel by Liam O'Flaherty The Lives of a Bengal Lancer Screenplay: Achmed Abdullah, John L. Balderston & Waldemar Young; Adaptation: Grover Jones & William Slavens McNutt The memoir by Francis Yeats-Brown Mutiny on the Bounty Jules Furthman, Talbot Jennings & Carey Wilson The novel by James Norman Hall & Charles Nordhoff1936 The Story of Louis Pasteur Pierre Collings & Sheridan Gibney After the Thin Man Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett The novel The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett Dodsworth Sidney Howard The play by Howard & novel by Sinclair Lewis Mr. Deeds Goes to Town Robert Riskin The short story "Opera Hat" by Bud Kelland My Man Godfrey Eric S. Hatch & Morrie Ryskind The novel 1101 Park Avenue by Hatch1937 The Life of Emile Zola Heinz Herald, Geza Herczeg & Norman Reilly Raine The book Zola and His Time by Matthew Josephson The Awful Truth Viña Delmar The play by Arthur Richman Captains Courageous Marc Connelly, Dale Van Every & John Lee Mahin The novel Captain Courageous: A Story of the Grand Banks by Rudyard Kipling Stage Door Morrie Ryskind & Anthony Veiller The play by Edna Ferber & George S. Kaufman A Star Is Born Alan Campbell, Robert Carson & Dorothy Parker A story by William A. Wellman & Carson1938 Pygmalion Screenplay & Dialogue: George Bernard Shaw; Adaptation: Ian Dalrymple, Cecil Arthur Lewis & W. P. Lipscomb The play by Shaw Boys Town John Meehan & Dore Schary A story by Schary & Eleanore Griffin The Citadel Dalrymple, Betty Hill & Spig Wead The novel by A. J. Cronin Four Daughters Lenore Coffee & Julius J. Epstein The short story "Sister Act" by Fannie Hurst You Can't Take It with You Robert Riskin The play by George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart1939 Gone with the Wind Sidney Howard The novel by Margaret Mitchell Goodbye, Mr. Chips Holt Marvell, R. C. Sherriff & Claudine West The novella by James Hilton Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Sidney Buchman A story by Lewis R. Foster Ninotchka Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch & Billy Wilder A story by Melchior Lengyel Wuthering Heights Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur The novel by Emily Brontë
1940s