The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material.
It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story.
Beginning with the Oscars for 1957, the two categories were combined to honor only the screenplay.
Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, a similar award for screenplays that are adaptations.
Woody Allen has the most nominations in this category with 16, and the most awards with 3 (for Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, and Midnight in Paris).
Paddy Chayefsky has also won three screenwriting Oscars: two for Original Screenplay (The Hospital and Network) and one for Adapted Screenplay (Marty).
Woody Allen also holds the record as the oldest winner (76) for Midnight in Paris.
Ben Affleck is the youngest winner (25) for Good Will Hunting, co-written with Matt Damon (27).
Richard Schweizer was the first to win for a foreign-language film, Marie-Louise.
Other winners for a non-English screenplay include Albert Lamorisse, Pietro Germi, Claude Lelouch, Pedro Almodóvar, Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won.
Lamorisse is the only person to win or even be nominated for Best Original Screenplay for a short film (The Red Balloon, 1956).
Couples
Muriel Box (The Seventh Veil) was the first woman to win in this category; she shared the award with her husband, Sydney Box. The Boxes are also the first of two married couples to win in this category; Earl W. Wallace and Pamela Wallace (Witness) are the others.
In 1996, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen the only siblings to win in this category (for Fargo).
Francis Ford Coppola (Patton, 1970) and Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, 2003) are the only father-daughter pair to win.
Preston Sturges was nominated for 2 different films in the same year (1944): Hail the Conquering Hero and The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek.
Oliver Stone achieved the same distinction in 1986, for Platoon and Salvador.
Maurice Richlin and Stanley Shapiro were nominated in 1959 for both Operation Petticoat and Pillow Talk and won for the latter.
Jordan Peele became the first and only African-American to win in this category for 2017’s Get Out.
Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won became the first Asian writers to win either Screenplay award, for 2019’s Parasite.
Multiple wins and nominations
Wins Screenwriter
3
Woody Allen
2
Charles Brackett
Paddy Chayefsky
Quentin Tarantino
Billy Wilder
Multiple nominations
Nominations Screenwriter
16 Woody Allen
6 Federico Fellini
5 Ingmar Bergman, Mike Leigh
4 Pete Docter
Melvin Frank
Tullio Pinelli
Stanley Shapiro
Quentin Tarantino
Billy Wilder
3
Sergio Amidei
Wes Anderson
Warren Beatty
Robert Benton
Paddy Chayefsky
Ethan Coen
Joel Coen
Nora Ephron
Ennio Flaiano
Ruth Gordon
Tonino Guerra
Garson Kanin
Barry Levinson
Kenneth Lonergan
Paul Mazursky
Norman Panama
Jack Rose
William Rose
Andrew Stanton
Oliver Stone
Preston Sturges
Age superlatives
Oldest winner:
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris, 76
Woody Allen, Oldest nominee, Blue Jasmine, 78
Youngest winner:
Ben Affleck Good Will Hunting 25
Youngest nominee John Singleton Boyz n the Hood 24
Diversity of nominees/winners
Asian nominees/winners
1986 Hanif Kureishi United Kingdom/Pakistan My Beautiful Laundrette Nominated
1999 M. Night Shyamalan United States/India The Sixth Sense Nominated
2006 Iris Yamashita United States/Japan Letters from Iwo Jima Nominated
2012 Asghar Farhadi Iran A Separation Nominated
2015 Ronnie del Carmen Philippines Inside Out Nominated
2017
(90th) Kumail Nanjiani Pakistan The Big Sick Nominated
2019
(92nd) Bong Joon Ho
Han Jin-won South Korea Parasite Won
Black nominees/winners
1972 Suzanne de Passe, US, Lady Sings the Blues Nominated
1989 Spike Lee Do the Right Thing Nominated
1991 John Singleton Boyz n the Hood Nominated
2017 Jordan Peele Get Out Won
Latin American nominees/winners
1985
(58th) Aída Bortnik
Luis Puenzo
Argentina
The Official Story Nominated
2002
(75th) Alfonso Cuarón
Carlos Cuarón
Mexico
Y Tu Mamá También Nominated
2006
(79th) Guillermo Arriaga Babel Nominated
Guillermo del Toro Pan’s Labyrinth Nominated
2014
(87th) Armando Bó
Nicolás Giacobone
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Argentina
Argentina
Mexico Birdman Won
2017
(90th) Guillermo del Toro
Mexico
The Shape of Water Nominated
2018
(91st) Alfonso Cuarón Roma Nominated
LGBT nominees and winners
1942
Noël Coward, In Which We Serve Nominated
George Oppenheimer, The War Against Mrs. Hadley, Nominated
1952
Terence Rattigan The Sound Barrier Nominated
1961
William Inge Splendor in the Grass Won
1965
Jacques Demy The Umbrellas of Cherbourg Nominated
1968
Arthur C. Clarke 2001: A Space Odyssey Nominated
1969 Luchino Visconti The Damned Nominated
1977 Arthur Laurents The Turning Point Nominated
1979 James Bridges The China Syndrome Nominated
1993 Ron Nyswaner Philadelphia Nominated
1999 Alan Ball American Beauty Won
2000
John Logan Gladiator Nominated
2002
Pedro Almodóvar Talk to Her Won
Todd Haynes Far from Heaven Nominated [98]
2004
John Logan The Aviator Nominated
2008
Dustin Lance Black Milk Won
2010
Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids Are All Right, Nominated
2015
Jonathan Herman, Straight Outta Compton, Nominated