Writing (Screenplay--based on material from another medium) — Every Winner and Nominee

Every film recognised in the Oscars Writing (Screenplay--based on material from another medium) category in CineRoll's records: 160 films across 32 years, 32 of them winners.

The most recent winner is Dances with Wolves (1991); the earliest on record is The Bridge on the River Kwai (1958).

The last three winners were Dances with Wolves (1991), Driving Miss Daisy (1990) and Dangerous Liaisons (1989).

The list is newest first. Each year shows the winner at the top, then the other nominees; a year with enough nominees links to its own page.

Last updated August 12, 2026

1991

Dances with Wolves(1990)
Michael Blake
Winner
Awakenings(1990)
Steven Zaillian
GoodFellas(1990)
Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese
Reversal of Fortune(1990)
Nicholas Kazan
The Grifters(1990)
Donald E. Westlake

1990

Driving Miss Daisy(1989)
Alfred Uhry
Winner
Born on the Fourth of July(1989)
Oliver Stone, Ron Kovic
Enemies, a Love Story(1989)
Roger L. Simon, Paul Mazursky
Field of Dreams(1989)
Phil Alden Robinson
My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown(1989)
Jim Sheridan, Shane Connaughton

1989

Dangerous Liaisons(1988)
Christopher Hampton
Winner
Gorillas in the Mist(1988)
Screenplay by Anna Hamilton Phelan; Story by Anna Hamilton Phelan, Tab Murphy
Little Dorrit(1987)
Christine Edzard
The Accidental Tourist(1988)
Frank Galati, Lawrence Kasdan
The Unbearable Lightness of Being(1988)
"The Unbearable Lightness of Being" Jean-Claude Carrière, Philip Kaufman

1988

The Last Emperor(1987)
Mark Peploe, Bernardo Bertolucci
Winner
Fatal Attraction(1987)
James Dearden
Full Metal Jacket(1987)
Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr, Gustav Hasford
My Life as a Dog(1985)
The Dead(1987)
Tony Huston

1987

A Room with a View(1986)
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Winner
Children of a Lesser God(1986)
Hesper Anderson, Mark Medoff
Crimes of the Heart(1986)
Beth Henley
Stand by Me(1986)
Raynold Gideon, Bruce A. Evans
The Color of Money(1986)
Richard Price

1986

Out of Africa(1985)
Kurt Luedtke
Winner
Kiss of the Spider Woman(1985)
Leonard Schrader
Prizzi's Honor(1985)
Richard Condon, Janet Roach
The Color Purple(1985)
Menno Meyjes
The Trip to Bountiful(1985)
Horton Foote

1985

Amadeus(1984)
Peter Shaffer
Winner
A Passage to India(1984)
David Lean
A Soldier's Story(1984)
Charles Fuller
Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes(1984)
P.H. Vazak, Michael Austin
The Killing Fields(1984)
Bruce Robinson

1984

Terms of Endearment(1983)
James L. Brooks
Winner
Betrayal(1983)
Harold Pinter
Educating Rita(1983)
Willy Russell
Reuben, Reuben(1983)
Julius J. Epstein
The Dresser(1983)
Ronald Harwood

1983

Missing(1982)
Costa-Gavras, Donald Stewart
Winner
Das Boot(1981)
Wolfgang Petersen
Sophie's Choice(1982)
Alan J. Pakula
The Verdict(1982)
David Mamet
Victor/Victoria(1982)
Blake Edwards

1982

On Golden Pond(1981)
Ernest Thompson
Winner
Pennies from Heaven(1981)
Dennis Potter
Prince of the City(1981)
Jay Presson Allen, Sidney Lumet
Ragtime(1981)
Michael Weller
The French Lieutenant's Woman(1981)
Harold Pinter

1981

Ordinary People(1980)
Alvin Sargent
Winner
Breaker Morant(1980)
Jonathan Hardy, David Stevens, Bruce Beresford
Coal Miner's Daughter(1980)
Tom Rickman
The Elephant Man(1980)
Christopher DeVore, Eric Bergren, David Lynch
The Stunt Man(1980)
Screenplay by Lawrence B. Marcus; Adaptation by Richard Rush

1980

Kramer vs. Kramer(1979)
Robert Benton
Winner
A Little Romance(1979)
Allan Burns
Apocalypse Now(1979)
John Milius, Francis Coppola
La Cage aux Folles(1978)
Francis Veber, Edouard Molinaro, Marcello Danon, Jean Poiret
Norma Rae(1979)
Irving Ravetch, Harriet Frank, Jr.

1979

Midnight Express(1978)
Oliver Stone
Winner
Bloodbrothers(1978)
Walter Newman
California Suite(1978)
Neil Simon
Heaven Can Wait(1978)
Elaine May, Warren Beatty
Same Time, Next Year(1978)
Bernard Slade

1978

Julia(1977)
Alvin Sargent
Winner
Equus(1977)
Peter Shaffer
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden(1977)
Gavin Lambert, Lewis John Carlino
Oh, God!(1977)
Larry Gelbart
That Obscure Object of Desire(1977)
Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carrière

1977

All the President's Men(1976)
William Goldman
Winner
Bound for Glory(1976)
Robert Getchell
Fellini's Casanova(1976)
Federico Fellini, Bernardino Zapponi
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution(1976)
Nicholas Meyer
Voyage of the Damned(1976)
Steve Shagan, David Butler

1974

The Exorcist(1973)
William Peter Blatty
Winner
Paper Moon(1973)
Alvin Sargent
Serpico(1973)
Waldo Salt, Norman Wexler
The Last Detail(1973)
Robert Towne
The Paper Chase(1973)
James Bridges

1973

The Godfather(1972)
Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola
Winner
Cabaret(1972)
Jay Allen
Pete 'n' Tillie(1972)
Julius J. Epstein
Sounder(1972)
Lonne Elder, III
The Emigrants(1971)
Jan Troell, Bengt Forslund

1972

The French Connection(1971)
Ernest Tidyman
Winner
A Clockwork Orange(1971)
Stanley Kubrick
The Conformist(1970)
Bernardo Bertolucci
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis(1970)
Ugo Pirro, Vittorio Bonicelli
The Last Picture Show(1971)
Larry McMurtry, Peter Bogdanovich

1971

M*A*S*H(1970)
Ring Lardner, Jr.
Winner
Airport(1970)
George Seaton
I Never Sang for My Father(1970)
Robert Anderson
Lovers and Other Strangers(1970)
Renee Taylor, Joseph Bologna, David Zelag Goodman
Women in Love(1969)
Larry Kramer

1970

Midnight Cowboy(1969)
Waldo Salt
Winner
Anne of the Thousand Days(1969)
Screenplay by John Hale, Bridget Boland; Adaptation by Richard Sokolove
Goodbye, Columbus(1969)
Arnold Schulman
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?(1969)
James Poe, Robert E. Thompson
Z(1969)
Jorge Semprun, Costa-Gavras

1969

The Lion in Winter(1968)
James Goldman
Winner
Oliver!(1968)
Vernon Harris
Rachel, Rachel(1968)
Stewart Stern
Rosemary's Baby(1968)
Roman Polanski
The Odd Couple(1968)
Neil Simon

1968

In the Heat of the Night(1967)
Stirling Silliphant
Winner
Cool Hand Luke(1967)
Donn Pearce, Frank R. Pierson
In Cold Blood(1967)
Richard Brooks
The Graduate(1967)
Calder Willingham, Buck Henry
Ulysses(1967)
Joseph Strick, Fred Haines

1967

A Man for All Seasons(1966)
Robert Bolt
Winner
Alfie(1966)
Bill Naughton
The Professionals(1966)
Richard Brooks
The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!(1966)
William Rose
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?(1966)
Ernest Lehman

1966

Doctor Zhivago(1965)
Robert Bolt
Winner
A Thousand Clowns(1965)
Herb Gardner
Cat Ballou(1965)
Walter Newman, Frank R. Pierson
Ship of Fools(1965)
Abby Mann
The Collector(1965)
Stanley Mann, John Kohn

1965

Becket(1964)
Edward Anhalt
Winner
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb(1964)
Stanley Kubrick, Peter George, Terry Southern
Mary Poppins(1964)
Bill Walsh, Don DaGradi
My Fair Lady(1964)
Alan Jay Lerner
Zorba the Greek(1964)
Michael Cacoyannis

1964

Tom Jones(1963)
John Osborne
Winner
Captain Newman, M.D.(1963)
Richard L. Breen, Phoebe Ephron, Henry Ephron
Hud(1963)
Irving Ravetch, Harriet Frank, Jr.
Lilies of the Field(1963)
James Poe
Sundays and Cybele(1962)
Serge Bourguignon, Antoine Tudal

1963

To Kill a Mockingbird(1962)
Horton Foote
Winner
David and Lisa(1962)
Eleanor Perry
Lawrence of Arabia(1962)
Robert Bolt, Michael Wilson
Lolita(1962)
Vladimir Nabokov
The Miracle Worker(1962)
William Gibson

1962

Judgment at Nuremberg(1961)
Abby Mann
Winner
Breakfast at Tiffany's(1961)
George Axelrod
The Guns of Navarone(1961)
Carl Foreman
The Hustler(1961)
Sidney Carroll, Robert Rossen
West Side Story(1961)
Ernest Lehman

1961

Elmer Gantry(1960)
Richard Brooks
Winner
Inherit the Wind(1960)
Nedrick Young, Harold Jacob Smith
Sons and Lovers(1960)
Gavin Lambert, T. E. B. Clarke
The Sundowners(1960)
Isobel Lennart
Tunes of Glory(1960)
James Kennaway

1960

Room at the Top(1958)
Neil Paterson
Winner
Anatomy of a Murder(1959)
Wendell Mayes
Ben-Hur(1959)
Karl Tunberg
Some Like It Hot(1959)
Billy Wilder, I. A. L. Diamond
The Nun's Story(1959)
Robert Anderson

1959

Gigi(1958)
Alan Jay Lerner
Winner
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof(1958)
Richard Brooks, James Poe
I Want to Live!(1958)
Nelson Gidding, Don Mankiewicz
Separate Tables(1958)
Terence Rattigan, John Gay
The Horse's Mouth(1958)
Alec Guinness

1958

The Bridge on the River Kwai(1957)
Michael Wilson, Carl Foreman, Pierre Boulle
Winner
12 Angry Men(1957)
Reginald Rose
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison(1957)
John Lee Mahin, John Huston
Peyton Place(1957)
John Michael Hayes
Sayonara(1957)
Paul Osborn