Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay

Screenplays are eligible if they are not based on "previously published material". The Writer's Branch of the academy determines if a screenplay is adapted or original, based on possible sources in question, interviews given about the film and the film's publicity materials, and sometimes places screenplays in a different category than the Writers Guild of America. For the 75th Academy Awards, Gangs of New York was nominated as an original screenplay despite being based on the book The Gangs of New York because the writers based the film on the book's historical research but largely invented the characters and plot. For the 89th Academy Awards, Moonlight was campaigned as an original screenplay, being based on an unpublished play, but was ultimately placed in the adapted screenplay category, which it won. Similarly, Whiplash was considered an adapted screenplay at the 87th Academy Awards despite being written as an original screenplay because a scene from the script was produced as a proof-of-concept short film. However, 2008's Frozen River, which similarly had a proof-of-concept short film screened at film festivals, was nominated as an original screenplay. Another similar case was with Barbie in 2023, which was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 96th Academy Awards despite campaigning for Best Original Screenplay during the awards season. This was because its use of existing characters (like Barbie and Ken) and its partial setting (Barbieland) were considered controversial. ==Superlatives==

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 Woody Allen has the most nominations in this category with 16, and the most awards with 3 (for Annie Hall (1977), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and Midnight in Paris (2011)). Paddy Chayefsky and Billy Wilder have also won three screenwriting Oscars: Chayefsky won two for Original Screenplay (The Hospital and Network) and one for Adapted Screenplay (Marty), while Wilder won one for Adapted Screenplay (The Lost Weekend, shared with Charles Brackett), and two for Original Screenplay (Sunset Boulevard, shared with Brackett and D. M. Marshman Jr., and The Apartment, shared with I. A. L. Diamond) 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 the award for a foreign-language film, Marie-Louise (French). Other winners for a non-English screenplay include Albert Lamorisse (The Red Balloon; French), Pietro Germi (Divorce Italian Style; Italian), Claude Lelouch (A Man and A Woman; French), Pedro Almodóvar (Talk to Her; Spanish), Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won (Parasite, Korean), and Justine Triet and Arthur Harari (Anatomy of a Fall, French). Lamorisse is the only person to win or even be nominated for Best Original Screenplay for a short film. Frances Marion (The Big House) was the first woman to win for her original script, although she won Best Writing, which then included both original and adapted screenplays before a separate award for Best Original Screenplay was introduced. Muriel Box (The Seventh Veil) was the first woman to win in this category; she shared the award with her husband, Sydney Box. They 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 became 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. Kenny and Keith Lucas are the only African-American siblings to receive a nomination in this category (Judas and the Black Messiah, 2020/21). Frank Butler was nominated for two different films in the same year, both with a co-writer (1942): Road to Morocco, with Don Hartman, and Wake Island, with W.R. Burnett. Preston Sturges was nominated solo for two 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 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. This was also the most recent of 10 occasions when Oscars in this category have been awarded to writers for both screenplay AND story on one film (sometimes they have been completely different, and sometimes the credited screenplay author also contributed to the story alongside at least one other credited scribe). ==Winners and nominees==

Winners are listed first in the colored row, followed by the other nominees. co-won the award for Citizen Kane in 1942. won for Citizen Kane (1941) alongside Orson Welles. won twice for Sunset Boulevard (1950) and The Apartment (1960). won for An American in Paris (1951) won for On the Waterfront (1954) won for Splendor in the Grass (1961). won for A Man and a Woman (1966) in 2010 at a ceremony to give him a star on the Walk of Fame.|thumb|Mel Brooks won for his comedy The Producers (1968). , winner in 1969 for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. won for Patton (1970). won twice for The Hospital (1971) and Network (1976) smoking in a cigar from a still of the movie that bears his name.|thumb|Robert Towne won for Chinatown (1975). won thrice for Annie Hall (1977), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and Midnight in Paris (2011). He has received sixteen nominations total, the most of any writer. won for Breaking Away (1979). won for Melvin and Howard (1980). won for Moonstruck (1987). won for Thelma & Louise (1991) won for The Crying Game in 1992. won for The Piano in 1993. won twice for Pulp Fiction (1994), and Django Unchained (2012) won for The Usual Suspects in 1995. won for Fargo (1996) won for co-writing Good Will Hunting (1997) won for co-writing Good Will Hunting (1997) won for Shakespeare in Love (1998) won for American Beauty (1999) won for Almost Famous (2000) won for Gosford Park (2001) won for Talk to Her (2002) won for 2003's Lost in Translation. Her father previously won for Patton. won for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) won for Crash (2005) won for Little Miss Sunshine (2006) won for 2007's Juno. .|thumb|Dustin Lance Black won for 2008's Milk. won for 2009's The Hurt Locker. .|thumb|Spike Jonze won for Her (2013). won for Birdman (2014). won for Spotlight (2015). won for co-writing Spotlight (2015) won for Manchester by the Sea (2016). became the first African-American to win with Get Out (2017). won for Parasite (2019), co-written with Han Jin-won. won for Promising Young Woman (2020). won for Belfast (2021) won for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). co-won for Anatomy of a Fall (2023). co-won for Anatomy of a Fall (2023). won for Anora (2024). 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s ==Multiple wins and nominations==

Multiple wins Multiple nominations ==Age superlatives==