Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
2024's winner: Sean Baker
Presented by	Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)
First awarded	1940
Currently held by	Sean Baker Anora (2024)

The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is a special prize given out at the Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars. It's for the best movie script that was written completely new, meaning it wasn't based on a book, play, or any other story that already existed.

This award started in 1940. Before that, there was just one award for all kinds of writing in movies. But from 1957 onwards, the two writing awards were combined to celebrate only the screenplay itself.

There's also a similar award called the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. That one is for scripts that are based on stories that already exist, like from a book or a play.

What Makes a Screenplay Original?

To be considered for this award, a movie script must be "original." This means it can't be based on any material that was published before. The group that gives out the Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, decides if a script is original or adapted. They look at where the story ideas came from, interviews with the filmmakers, and even the movie's advertising.

Sometimes, the Academy might put a script in a different category than other groups, like the Writers Guild of America. For example, the movie Gangs of New York (from 2002) was nominated as an original screenplay. Even though it was based on a book called The Gangs of New York, the writers mostly made up the characters and plot, using only the book's historical research.

Another example is Moonlight (from 2016). It was first thought to be an original screenplay because it was based on a play that hadn't been published yet. But the Academy decided it was an adapted screenplay, and it even won in that category! Also, Whiplash (from 2014) was considered an adapted screenplay because a scene from the script was made into a short film first, even though the full script was new.

Amazing Achievements

Woody Allen has received the most Oscar nominations in this category with 16, winning three times for Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters and Midnight in Paris

Some screenwriters have achieved incredible things in this category!

• Most Nominations and Wins: Woody Allen has been nominated 16 times, which is more than anyone else! He has won the award three times for his movies Annie Hall (1977), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and Midnight in Paris (2011).
• Other Multiple Winners: Paddy Chayefsky and Billy Wilder have also won three screenwriting Oscars each. Chayefsky won two for Original Screenplay (The Hospital and Network). Wilder won two for Original Screenplay (Sunset Boulevard and The Apartment).
• Oldest and Youngest Winners: Woody Allen is also the oldest person to win this award. He was 76 when he won for Midnight in Paris. The youngest winner is Ben Affleck, who was 25 when he won for Good Will Hunting, which he wrote with Matt Damon (who was 27).
• First Foreign Language Film Winner: Richard Schweizer was the first to win for a movie not in English, called Marie-Louise. Other winners for non-English scripts include Pedro Almodóvar and Bong Joon-ho.
• Short Film Winner: Albert Lamorisse is the only person to win or even be nominated for an Original Screenplay Oscar for a short film, The Red Balloon (1956).
• First Women Winners: Frances Marion was the first woman to win for an original script, though it was before this specific category existed. Muriel Box was the first woman to win in this category for The Seventh Veil, sharing the award with her husband, Sydney Box. They were the first married couple to win together in this category.
• Siblings and Father-Daughter Winners: In 1996, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen became the only siblings to win this award for their movie Fargo. Francis Ford Coppola (Patton, 1970) and his daughter Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, 2003) are the only father-daughter pair to win.
• Multiple Nominations in One Year: Preston Sturges was nominated for two different films in the same year (1944): Hail the Conquering Hero and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. Oliver Stone also did this in 1986 for Platoon and Salvador.
• First African-American Winner: Jordan Peele became the first African-American to win this award for his movie Get Out (2017).
• First Asian Winners: Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won were the first Asian writers to win a screenplay Oscar for Parasite (2019).

Recent Winners and Nominees

Here are some of the recent winners of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, along with other nominated films. The winner is always listed first in the colored row.

Year	Film	Nominees
2020/21 (93rd)	Promising Young Woman	Emerald Fennell
	Judas and the Black Messiah	Screenplay: Will Berson & Shaka King; Story: Berson, King, Keith & Kenny Lucas
	Minari	Lee Isaac Chung
	Sound of Metal	Screenplay: Abraham & Darius Marder; Story: Derek Cianfrance & D. Marder
	The Trial of the Chicago 7	Aaron Sorkin
2021 (94th)	Belfast	Kenneth Branagh
	Don't Look Up	Screenplay: Adam McKay; Story: McKay & David Sirota
	King Richard	Zach Baylin
	Licorice Pizza	Paul Thomas Anderson
	The Worst Person in the World	Joachim Trier & Eskil Vogt
2022 (95th)	Everything Everywhere All at Once	Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
	The Banshees of Inisherin	Martin McDonagh
	The Fabelmans	Tony Kushner & Steven Spielberg
	Tár	Todd Field
	Triangle of Sadness	Ruben Östlund
2023 (96th)	Anatomy of a Fall	Arthur Harari & Justine Triet
	The Holdovers	David Hemingson
	Maestro	Bradley Cooper & Josh Singer
	May December	Screenplay: Samy Burch; Story: Burch & Alex Mechanik
	Past Lives	Celine Song
2024 (97th)	Anora	Sean Baker
	The Brutalist	Brady Corbet & Mona Fastvold
	A Real Pain	Jesse Eisenberg
	September 5	Moritz Binder & Tim Fehlbaum; Co-written by Alex David
	The Substance	Coralie Fargeat

Writers with Multiple Wins and Nominations

Some writers have been recognized many times for their amazing original screenplays.

Age Records

Here are some interesting facts about the ages of writers who have won or been nominated for this award.

Images for kids

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  Orson Welles co-won the award for Citizen Kane in 1942.

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  Herman J. Mankiewicz, co-winner of the second award in this category (for Citizen Kane).

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  Screenwriter and director Billy Wilder received two awards in this category in collaboration with others—one for Sunset Boulevard and one for The Apartment.

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  Budd Schulberg won for On the Waterfront (1954).

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  William Inge earned this award in 1961 for Splendor in the Grass.

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  Claude Lelouch won for A Man and a Woman (1966).

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  William Rose (center right) won for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1968).

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  Mel Brooks won in 1969 for 1968's The Producers.

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  William Goldman, winner in 1969 for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

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  Francis Ford Coppola, co-winner of the 1970 award for Patton.

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  Paddy Chayefsky garnered two solo wins The Hospital (1971) and Network (1976).

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  The screenwriter of Chinatown, Robert Towne, received this award.

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  Woody Allen earned three Original Screenplay Oscars, for Annie Hall (along with Marshall Brickman), Hannah and Her Sisters, and Midnight in Paris. He has received sixteen nominations total, the most of any writer.

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  Steve Tesich received the award in 1979 for Breaking Away.

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  Bo Goldman won for Melvin and Howard (1980).

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  John Patrick Shanley won for Moonstruck (1987).

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  Jane Campion won for The Piano in 1993.

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  Quentin Tarantino won twice for Pulp Fiction (1994), and Django Unchained (2012).

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  Writer-director pair the Coen brothers won for Fargo (1996).

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  Ben Affleck, co-winner for Good Will Hunting (1997).

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  Matt Damon also received the award for Good Will Hunting.

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  Pedro Almodóvar won for Talk to Her (2002).

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  Sofia Coppola won for 2003's Lost in Translation.

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  Charlie Kaufman won for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004).

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  Diablo Cody won for 2007's Juno.

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  Dustin Lance Black won for 2008's Milk.

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  Mark Boal won for 2009's The Hurt Locker.

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  Spike Jonze won for 2013's Her.

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  Tom McCarthy won for Spotlight (2015).

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  Kenneth Lonergan won for Manchester by the Sea (2016).

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  Jordan Peele became the first African-American to win with Get Out (2017).

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  Bong Joon-ho won for Parasite (2019), co-written with Han Jin-won.

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  Emerald Fennell won for Promising Young Woman (2020).

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  Daniels won for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022).

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  Justine Triet co-won for Anatomy of a Fall (2023).

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  Arthur Harari co-won for Anatomy of a Fall (2023).

See also

In Spanish: Anexo:Óscar al mejor guion original para niños

• BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay