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winterbadgerThe Oscars are coming up. For my "what have I seen" LJ post, I wanted to look back not at the best picture awards but (because I love a good story and good writing) at the best screen play awards.
There are (from 1940 on) two categories: best original screenplay and best adapted screenplay. The latter has gone through about fifty bazillion name changes, but in essence, that's what it is, best adapted screenplay. In 1948 there was just one "screenplay" award, and I've listed it under 'adapted', as it was an adaptation.
I don't, at the moment, have time to go through and format the lits, as is traditional in LJ, to show which I've seen and which I haven't. I will try to do that later. To start with, I've just scored how many I've seen at least once all the way through and computed what percentage of the total that is.
Best Original Screenplay (28 or 42%; only four before 1968. Did my sister really take me to see Butch Cassidy in the theater when I was five? Wow.)
1940 The Great McGinty - Preston Sturges
1941 Citizen Kane - Herman Mankiewicz, Orson Welles
1942 Woman of the Year - Michael Kanin, Ring Lardner Jr
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 awarded
1949 Battleground - Robert Pirosh
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
1956 The Red Balloon - Albert Lamorisse
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
1960 The Apartment - I.A.L. Diamond, Billy Wilder
1961 Splendor in the Grass - William Inge
1962 Divorce, Italian Style - Ennio de Concini, Pietro Germi,
1963 How the West Was Won - James Webb
1964 Father Goose - Peter Stone, Frank Tarloff
1965 Darling - Frederic Raphael
1966 A Man and a Woman - Story by Claude Lelouch; Screenplay by Claude Lelouch, Pierre Uytterhoeven
1967 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner - William Rose
1968 The Producers - Mel Brooks
1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - William Goldman
1970 Patton - Francis Ford Coppola, Edmund H. North
1971 The Hospital - Paddy Chayefsky
1972 The Candidate - Jeremy Larner
1973 The Sting - David S. Ward
1974 Chinatown - Robert Towne
1975 Dog Day Afternoon - Frank Pierson
1976 Network - Paddy Chayefsky
1977 Annie Hall - Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman
1978 Coming Home - Screenplay by Robert C. Jones, Waldo Salt; Story by Nancy Dowd
1979 Breaking Away - Steve Tesich
1980 Melvin and Howard - Bo Goldman
1981 Chariots of Fire - Colin Welland
1982 Gandhi - John Briley
1983 Tender Mercies - Horton Foote
1984 Places in the Heart - Robert Benton
1985 Witness - Screenplay by William Kelley, Earl Wallace; Story by William Kelley, Pamela Wallace, Earl Wallace
1986 Hannah and Her Sisters - Woody Allen
1987 Moonstruck - John Patrick Shanley
1988 Rain Man - Ronald Bass, Barry Morrow
1989 Dead Poets Society - Tom Schulman
1990 Ghost - Bruce Rubin
1991 Thelma and Louise - Callie Khouri
1992 The Crying Game - Neil Jordan
1993 The Piano - Jane Campion
1994 Pulp Fiction - Quentin Tarantino (story and screenplay) and Roger Avary (story)
1995 The Usual Suspects - Christopher McQuarrie
1996 Fargo - Ethan and Joel Coen
1997 Good Will Hunting - Ben Affleck, Matt Damon
1998 Shakespeare in Love - Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard
1999 American Beauty - Alan Ball
2000 Almost Famous - Cameron Crowe
2001 Gosford Park - Julian Fellowes
2002 Talk to Her (Hable con ella) - Pedro Almodóvar
2003 Lost in Translation - Sofia Coppola
2004 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Charlie Kaufman
2005 Crash - Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco
2006 Little Miss Sunshine - Michael Arndt
Best Adapted Screenplay (39, or 49%; a couple each decade, but more from the 1970s on than before that)
1927/1928 Seventh Heaven - Benjamin Glazer from a play by Austin Stong
1928/1929 The Patriot - Hanns Kräly from a play by Ashley Dukes translated from the play Der Patriot by Alfred Neumann derived from the story Paul I by Dmitri Merezhkovsky
1929/1930 The Big House - Joseph Farnham, Martin Flavin, Frances Marion, Lennox Marion original
1930/1931 Cimarron - Howard Estabrook from the novel by Edna Ferber
1931/1932 Bad Girl - Edwin J. Burke from the novel and play by Viña Delmar
1932/1933 Little Women - Victor Heerman, Sarah Y. Mason from the novel by Louisa May Alcott
1934 It Happened One Night - Robert Riskin from the story Night Bus by Samuel Hopkins Adams
1935 The Informer - Dudley Nichols from the novel by Liam O'Flaherty. This was the first Academy Award ever to be declined.
1936 The Story of Louis Pasteur - Pierre Collings, Sheridan Gibney from their own story
1937 The Life of Emile Zola - Heinz Herald, Geza Herczeg, Norman Raine from the book Zola and His Time by Matthew Josephson
1938 Pygmalion - Ian Dalrymple, Cecil Lewis, W.P. Lipscomb, George Bernard Shaw from the play by George Bernard Shaw
1939 Gone with the Wind - Sidney Howard from the novel by Margaret Mitchell
1940 The Philadelphia Story - Donald Ogden Stewart from the play by Philip Barry
1941 Here Comes Mr. Jordan - Sidney Buchman, Seton Miller from the play Heaven Can Wait by Harry Segall
1942 Mrs. Miniver - George Froeschel, James Hilton, Claudine West, Arthur Wimperis based on the novel by Jan Struther
1943 Casablanca - Philip Epstein, Julius J. Epstein, Howard Koch from the play Everybody Comes to Rick's by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison
1944 Going My Way - Frank Butler, Frank Cavett from the story by Leo McCarey
1945 The Lost Weekend - Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder from the novel by Charles R. Jackson
1946 The Best Years of Our Lives - Robert Sherwood from the novel Glory for Me by MacKinlay Kantor
1947 Miracle on 34th Street - George Seaton from the story by Valentine Davies
1948 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre - John Huston from the novel by B. Traven
1949 A Letter to Three Wives - Joseph Mankiewicz from the novel Letter to Five Wives by John Klempner
1950 All About Eve - Joseph Mankiewicz from the short story The Wisdom of Eve by Mary Orr
1951 A Place in the Sun - Harry Brown, Michael Wilson from the novel An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser and the play An American Tragedy by Patrick Kearney
1952 The Bad and the Beautiful - Charles Schnee from the story Tribute to a Badman by Charles Bradshaw
1953 From Here to Eternity - Daniel Taradash from the novel by James Jones
1954 The Country Girl - George Seaton from the play by Clifford Odets
1955 Marty - Paddy Chayefsky based on his teleplay
1956 Around the World in Eighty Days - John Farrow, S. J. Perelman, James Poe from the novel by Jules Verne
1957 The Bridge on the River Kwai - Carl Foreman, Michael Wilson (front: Pierre Boulle) based on the novel by Pierre Boulle (Note: Though Pierre Boulle received official screen credit, it was commonly known that blacklisted writers Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson, wrote the screenplay based on Boulle's novel (translated from the original French). The Board of Governors, on December 11, 1984, voted posthumous Oscars to Wilson and Foreman. It was widely reported that Boulle was surprised, as well as many others, by the nomination, especially since Boulle did not speak (or write) English).
1958 Gigi - Alan Jay Lerner based on the novel by Colette
1959 Room at the Top - Neil Paterson from the novel by John Braine
1960 Elmer Gantry - Richard Brooks from the novel by Sinclair Lewis
1961 Judgment at Nuremberg - Abby Mann from his teleplay
1962 To Kill a Mockingbird - Horton Foote from the novel by Harper Lee
1963 Tom Jones - John Osborne from the novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
1964 Becket - Edward Anhalt from the play by Jean Anouilh
1965 Doctor Zhivago - Robert Bolt from the novel by Boris Pasternak
1966 A Man for All Seasons - Robert Bolt from his play
1967 In the Heat of the Night - Stirling Silliphant from the novel by John Ball
1968 The Lion in Winter - James Goldman from his play
1969 Midnight Cowboy - Waldo Salt from the novel by James Leo Herlihy
1970 MASH - Ring Lardner Jr. from the novel by Richard Hooker
1971 The French Connection - Ernest Tidyman from the novel by Robin Moore
1972 The Godfather - Mario Puzo, Francis Coppola from the novel by Mario Puzo
1973 The Exorcist - William Peter Blatty from the novel of William Blatty
1974 The Godfather, Part II - Francis Coppola, Mario Puzo from the novel The Godfather by Mario Puzo
1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Bo Goldman, Laurence Hauben from the novel by Ken Kesey
1976 All the President's Men - William Goldman from the book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
1977 Julia - Alvin Sargent from the novel Pentimento by Lillian Hellman
1978 Midnight Express - Oliver Stone from the book by Billy Hayes and William Hoffer
1979 Kramer vs. Kramer - Robert Benton from the novel by Avery Corman
1980 Ordinary People - Alvin Sargent from the novel by Judith Guest
1981 On Golden Pond - Ernest Thompson from his play of the same title
1982 Missing - Constantin Costa-Gavras, Donald Stewart from the book by Thomas Hauser
1983 Terms of Endearment - James L. Brooks from the novel by Larry McMurtry
1984 Amadeus - Peter Shaffer from the play by Peter Shaffer
1985 Out of Africa - Kurt Luedtke from the memoirs of Isak Dinesen, the book Silence Will Speak by Errol Trzebinski and the book Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller by Judith Thurman
1986 A Room with a View - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from the novel by E.M. Forster
1987 The Last Emperor - Bernardo Bertolucci, Mark Peploe from the autobiography From Emperor to Citizen: The Autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi by Henry Pu Yi
1988 Dangerous Liaisons - Christopher Hampton from the novel by Choderlos de Laclos and the play by Christopher Hampton
1989 Driving Miss Daisy - Alfred Uhry from the play by Alfred Uhry
1990 Dances with Wolves - Michael Blake from the novel by Michael Blake
1991 The Silence of the Lambs - Ted Tally from the novel by Thomas Harris
1992 Howards End - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from the novel by E.M. Forster
1993 Schindler's List - Steven Zaillian from the novel by Thomas Keneally
1994 Forrest Gump - Eric Roth from the novel by Winston Groom
1995 Sense and Sensibility - Emma Thompson from the novel by Jane Austen
1996 Sling Blade - Billy Bob Thornton from the play by Billy Bob Thornton
1997 L.A. Confidential - Curtis Hanson, Brian Helgeland from the novel by James Ellroy
1998 Gods and Monsters - Bill Condon from the novel Father of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram
1999 The Cider House Rules - John Irving from the novel by John Irving
2000 Traffic - Stephen Gaghan from the teleplay Traffik by Simon Moore
2001 A Beautiful Mind - Akiva Goldsman from the biography by Sylvia Nasar
2002 The Pianist - Ronald Harwood from the book by Władysław Szpilman
2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson from the novel by J. R. R. Tolkien
2004 Sideways - Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor from the novel by Rex Pickett
2005 Brokeback Mountain - Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana from the short story by E. Annie Proulx
2006 The Departed - William Monahan from the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. At the 79th Oscar Award night, the Commentator incorrectly stated that the movie was adapted from a Japanese film.
There are (from 1940 on) two categories: best original screenplay and best adapted screenplay. The latter has gone through about fifty bazillion name changes, but in essence, that's what it is, best adapted screenplay. In 1948 there was just one "screenplay" award, and I've listed it under 'adapted', as it was an adaptation.
I don't, at the moment, have time to go through and format the lits, as is traditional in LJ, to show which I've seen and which I haven't. I will try to do that later. To start with, I've just scored how many I've seen at least once all the way through and computed what percentage of the total that is.
Best Original Screenplay (28 or 42%; only four before 1968. Did my sister really take me to see Butch Cassidy in the theater when I was five? Wow.)
1940 The Great McGinty - Preston Sturges
1941 Citizen Kane - Herman Mankiewicz, Orson Welles
1942 Woman of the Year - Michael Kanin, Ring Lardner Jr
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 awarded
1949 Battleground - Robert Pirosh
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
1956 The Red Balloon - Albert Lamorisse
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
1960 The Apartment - I.A.L. Diamond, Billy Wilder
1961 Splendor in the Grass - William Inge
1962 Divorce, Italian Style - Ennio de Concini, Pietro Germi,
1963 How the West Was Won - James Webb
1964 Father Goose - Peter Stone, Frank Tarloff
1965 Darling - Frederic Raphael
1966 A Man and a Woman - Story by Claude Lelouch; Screenplay by Claude Lelouch, Pierre Uytterhoeven
1967 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner - William Rose
1968 The Producers - Mel Brooks
1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - William Goldman
1970 Patton - Francis Ford Coppola, Edmund H. North
1971 The Hospital - Paddy Chayefsky
1972 The Candidate - Jeremy Larner
1973 The Sting - David S. Ward
1974 Chinatown - Robert Towne
1975 Dog Day Afternoon - Frank Pierson
1976 Network - Paddy Chayefsky
1977 Annie Hall - Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman
1978 Coming Home - Screenplay by Robert C. Jones, Waldo Salt; Story by Nancy Dowd
1979 Breaking Away - Steve Tesich
1980 Melvin and Howard - Bo Goldman
1981 Chariots of Fire - Colin Welland
1982 Gandhi - John Briley
1983 Tender Mercies - Horton Foote
1984 Places in the Heart - Robert Benton
1985 Witness - Screenplay by William Kelley, Earl Wallace; Story by William Kelley, Pamela Wallace, Earl Wallace
1986 Hannah and Her Sisters - Woody Allen
1987 Moonstruck - John Patrick Shanley
1988 Rain Man - Ronald Bass, Barry Morrow
1989 Dead Poets Society - Tom Schulman
1990 Ghost - Bruce Rubin
1991 Thelma and Louise - Callie Khouri
1992 The Crying Game - Neil Jordan
1993 The Piano - Jane Campion
1994 Pulp Fiction - Quentin Tarantino (story and screenplay) and Roger Avary (story)
1995 The Usual Suspects - Christopher McQuarrie
1996 Fargo - Ethan and Joel Coen
1997 Good Will Hunting - Ben Affleck, Matt Damon
1998 Shakespeare in Love - Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard
1999 American Beauty - Alan Ball
2000 Almost Famous - Cameron Crowe
2001 Gosford Park - Julian Fellowes
2002 Talk to Her (Hable con ella) - Pedro Almodóvar
2003 Lost in Translation - Sofia Coppola
2004 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Charlie Kaufman
2005 Crash - Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco
2006 Little Miss Sunshine - Michael Arndt
Best Adapted Screenplay (39, or 49%; a couple each decade, but more from the 1970s on than before that)
1927/1928 Seventh Heaven - Benjamin Glazer from a play by Austin Stong
1928/1929 The Patriot - Hanns Kräly from a play by Ashley Dukes translated from the play Der Patriot by Alfred Neumann derived from the story Paul I by Dmitri Merezhkovsky
1929/1930 The Big House - Joseph Farnham, Martin Flavin, Frances Marion, Lennox Marion original
1930/1931 Cimarron - Howard Estabrook from the novel by Edna Ferber
1931/1932 Bad Girl - Edwin J. Burke from the novel and play by Viña Delmar
1932/1933 Little Women - Victor Heerman, Sarah Y. Mason from the novel by Louisa May Alcott
1934 It Happened One Night - Robert Riskin from the story Night Bus by Samuel Hopkins Adams
1935 The Informer - Dudley Nichols from the novel by Liam O'Flaherty. This was the first Academy Award ever to be declined.
1936 The Story of Louis Pasteur - Pierre Collings, Sheridan Gibney from their own story
1937 The Life of Emile Zola - Heinz Herald, Geza Herczeg, Norman Raine from the book Zola and His Time by Matthew Josephson
1938 Pygmalion - Ian Dalrymple, Cecil Lewis, W.P. Lipscomb, George Bernard Shaw from the play by George Bernard Shaw
1939 Gone with the Wind - Sidney Howard from the novel by Margaret Mitchell
1940 The Philadelphia Story - Donald Ogden Stewart from the play by Philip Barry
1941 Here Comes Mr. Jordan - Sidney Buchman, Seton Miller from the play Heaven Can Wait by Harry Segall
1942 Mrs. Miniver - George Froeschel, James Hilton, Claudine West, Arthur Wimperis based on the novel by Jan Struther
1943 Casablanca - Philip Epstein, Julius J. Epstein, Howard Koch from the play Everybody Comes to Rick's by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison
1944 Going My Way - Frank Butler, Frank Cavett from the story by Leo McCarey
1945 The Lost Weekend - Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder from the novel by Charles R. Jackson
1946 The Best Years of Our Lives - Robert Sherwood from the novel Glory for Me by MacKinlay Kantor
1947 Miracle on 34th Street - George Seaton from the story by Valentine Davies
1948 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre - John Huston from the novel by B. Traven
1949 A Letter to Three Wives - Joseph Mankiewicz from the novel Letter to Five Wives by John Klempner
1950 All About Eve - Joseph Mankiewicz from the short story The Wisdom of Eve by Mary Orr
1951 A Place in the Sun - Harry Brown, Michael Wilson from the novel An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser and the play An American Tragedy by Patrick Kearney
1952 The Bad and the Beautiful - Charles Schnee from the story Tribute to a Badman by Charles Bradshaw
1953 From Here to Eternity - Daniel Taradash from the novel by James Jones
1954 The Country Girl - George Seaton from the play by Clifford Odets
1955 Marty - Paddy Chayefsky based on his teleplay
1956 Around the World in Eighty Days - John Farrow, S. J. Perelman, James Poe from the novel by Jules Verne
1957 The Bridge on the River Kwai - Carl Foreman, Michael Wilson (front: Pierre Boulle) based on the novel by Pierre Boulle (Note: Though Pierre Boulle received official screen credit, it was commonly known that blacklisted writers Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson, wrote the screenplay based on Boulle's novel (translated from the original French). The Board of Governors, on December 11, 1984, voted posthumous Oscars to Wilson and Foreman. It was widely reported that Boulle was surprised, as well as many others, by the nomination, especially since Boulle did not speak (or write) English).
1958 Gigi - Alan Jay Lerner based on the novel by Colette
1959 Room at the Top - Neil Paterson from the novel by John Braine
1960 Elmer Gantry - Richard Brooks from the novel by Sinclair Lewis
1961 Judgment at Nuremberg - Abby Mann from his teleplay
1962 To Kill a Mockingbird - Horton Foote from the novel by Harper Lee
1963 Tom Jones - John Osborne from the novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
1964 Becket - Edward Anhalt from the play by Jean Anouilh
1965 Doctor Zhivago - Robert Bolt from the novel by Boris Pasternak
1966 A Man for All Seasons - Robert Bolt from his play
1967 In the Heat of the Night - Stirling Silliphant from the novel by John Ball
1968 The Lion in Winter - James Goldman from his play
1969 Midnight Cowboy - Waldo Salt from the novel by James Leo Herlihy
1970 MASH - Ring Lardner Jr. from the novel by Richard Hooker
1971 The French Connection - Ernest Tidyman from the novel by Robin Moore
1972 The Godfather - Mario Puzo, Francis Coppola from the novel by Mario Puzo
1973 The Exorcist - William Peter Blatty from the novel of William Blatty
1974 The Godfather, Part II - Francis Coppola, Mario Puzo from the novel The Godfather by Mario Puzo
1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Bo Goldman, Laurence Hauben from the novel by Ken Kesey
1976 All the President's Men - William Goldman from the book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
1977 Julia - Alvin Sargent from the novel Pentimento by Lillian Hellman
1978 Midnight Express - Oliver Stone from the book by Billy Hayes and William Hoffer
1979 Kramer vs. Kramer - Robert Benton from the novel by Avery Corman
1980 Ordinary People - Alvin Sargent from the novel by Judith Guest
1981 On Golden Pond - Ernest Thompson from his play of the same title
1982 Missing - Constantin Costa-Gavras, Donald Stewart from the book by Thomas Hauser
1983 Terms of Endearment - James L. Brooks from the novel by Larry McMurtry
1984 Amadeus - Peter Shaffer from the play by Peter Shaffer
1985 Out of Africa - Kurt Luedtke from the memoirs of Isak Dinesen, the book Silence Will Speak by Errol Trzebinski and the book Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller by Judith Thurman
1986 A Room with a View - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from the novel by E.M. Forster
1987 The Last Emperor - Bernardo Bertolucci, Mark Peploe from the autobiography From Emperor to Citizen: The Autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi by Henry Pu Yi
1988 Dangerous Liaisons - Christopher Hampton from the novel by Choderlos de Laclos and the play by Christopher Hampton
1989 Driving Miss Daisy - Alfred Uhry from the play by Alfred Uhry
1990 Dances with Wolves - Michael Blake from the novel by Michael Blake
1991 The Silence of the Lambs - Ted Tally from the novel by Thomas Harris
1992 Howards End - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from the novel by E.M. Forster
1993 Schindler's List - Steven Zaillian from the novel by Thomas Keneally
1994 Forrest Gump - Eric Roth from the novel by Winston Groom
1995 Sense and Sensibility - Emma Thompson from the novel by Jane Austen
1996 Sling Blade - Billy Bob Thornton from the play by Billy Bob Thornton
1997 L.A. Confidential - Curtis Hanson, Brian Helgeland from the novel by James Ellroy
1998 Gods and Monsters - Bill Condon from the novel Father of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram
1999 The Cider House Rules - John Irving from the novel by John Irving
2000 Traffic - Stephen Gaghan from the teleplay Traffik by Simon Moore
2001 A Beautiful Mind - Akiva Goldsman from the biography by Sylvia Nasar
2002 The Pianist - Ronald Harwood from the book by Władysław Szpilman
2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson from the novel by J. R. R. Tolkien
2004 Sideways - Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor from the novel by Rex Pickett
2005 Brokeback Mountain - Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana from the short story by E. Annie Proulx
2006 The Departed - William Monahan from the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. At the 79th Oscar Award night, the Commentator incorrectly stated that the movie was adapted from a Japanese film.
