Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
The Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars. They are overwhelmingly considered by both entertainment industry insiders as well as the movie-going public to be the most prestigious film awards in the United States. The Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source (as opposed to the Oscar for best original screenplay, for which no additional works are cited by the author(s) as forming the basis for their screenplay, either in part or as a whole). The most frequently adapted media are novels, but other adapted narrative formats include plays, musicals, and other theatrical works; short stories; nonfiction books; TV series; and even other films, for example, foreign language films. All sequels are automatically considered adaptations by this standard, since the sequel must be based on the story set forth in the original film.
| Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay | |
|---|---|
 Taika Waititi, the latest recipient for Jojo Rabbit | |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) |
| First awarded | 1929 |
| Most recent winner | Taika Waititi Jojo Rabbit (2019) |
| Website | oscars |
Superlatives
The first person to win twice in this category was Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who won the award in two consecutive years, 1949 and 1950. Others to win twice in this category include: George Seaton, Robert Bolt (who also won in consecutive years), Francis Ford Coppola, Mario Puzo, Alvin Sargent, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Michael Wilson and Alexander Payne. Payne won both awards as part of a writing team, with Jim Taylor for Sideways and Jim Rash and Nat Faxon for The Descendants. Michael Wilson was blacklisted at the time of his second Oscar, so the award was given to a front (novelist Pierre Boulle). However, the Academy officially recognized him as the winner several years later.[1]
Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett, Paddy Chayefsky, Francis Ford Coppola, Horton Foote, William Goldman, Robert Benton, Bo Goldman, and the Coen brothers have won Oscars for both original and adapted screenplays.
Frances Marion (The Big House) was the first woman to win in the category.
Pierre Collings and Sheridan Gibney (The Story of Louis Pasteur) were the first to win for adapting their own work.
Philip G. Epstein and Julius J. Epstein (Casablanca) are the first siblings to win in this category. James Goldman (The Lion in Winter) and William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men) are the first siblings to win for separate films. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men) are the third winning siblings.
Mario Puzo is the one of two writers whose work has been adapted and resulted in two wins. Puzo's novel The Godfather resulted in wins in 1972 and 1974 for himself and Francis Ford Coppola. The other is E. M. Forster, whose novels A Room with a View and Howards End resulted in wins for Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
Larry McMurtry is the only person who has won for adapting someone else's work (Brokeback Mountain), and whose own work has been adapted by someone else resulting in a win (Terms of Endearment).
William Monahan is the only person who has won this award by using another full-length feature film (the Hong Kong action drama Infernal Affairs) as the credited source of the adaptation.
Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) are the only married couple to win.
Geoffrey S. Fletcher (Precious) and John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) are the only African-Americans to win solo in this category; Fletcher is also the first African-American to win in any writing category. Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight) are the first African-American writing duo to win; Spike Lee and Kevin Willmott (BlacKkKlansman) are the second, although their co-writers, David Rabinowitz and Charlie Wachtel, are both white.
James Ivory (Call Me by Your Name) is the oldest person to receive the award at age 89. Charlie Wachtel (BlacKkKlansman) is the youngest at age 32.
Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit) is the first person of Māori descent to receive the award.
Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility) is the only winner who has also won for acting.[2] Winners Billy Bob Thornton (Sling Blade) and John Huston (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre) have been nominated for acting but not won.
Charles Schnee (The Bad and the Beautiful), Billy Bob Thornton (Sling Blade), and Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters) are the only winners whose films were not nominated for Best Picture.
Notable nominees
Noted novelists and playwrights nominated in this category include: George Bernard Shaw (who shared an award for an adaptation of his play Pygmalion), Graham Greene, Tennessee Williams, Vladimir Nabokov, James Hilton, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Lillian Hellman, Irwin Shaw, James Agee, Norman Corwin, S. J. Perelman, Terence Rattigan, John Osborne, Robert Bolt, Harold Pinter, David Mamet, Larry McMurtry, Arthur Miller, John Irving, David Hare, Tony Kushner, and August Wilson.
Ted Elliott, Roger S. H. Schulman, Joe Stillman & Terry Rossio, writers of Shrek and Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich, writers of Toy Story 3, are as of 2020, the only writers to be nominated for an animated film.[3][4]
Scott Frank, James Mangold, and Michael Green, writers of Logan, are the first to be nominated for a film based on superhero comic books (the X-Men).[5][6]
Winners and nominees
Winners are listed first in colored row, followed by the other nominees.
1920s
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
Writers with multiple awards
- 2 Awards
Writers with multiple nominations
The following writers have received three or more nominations:
- 7 Nominations
- 6 Nominations
- 5 Nominations
- 4 Nominations
- Michael Wilson
- Carl Foreman
- Albert Hackett
- Frances Goodrich
- Julius J. Epstein
- Stanley Kubrick
- Joel Coen
- Ethan Coen
- Steven Zaillian
- 3 Nominations
Age superlatives
| Record | Writer | Film | Age | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oldest winner | James Ivory | Call Me by Your Name | 89 | [14] |
| Oldest nominee | [15] | |||
| Youngest winner | Charlie Wachtel | BlacKkKlansman | 32 | [16] |
| Youngest nominee | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Skippy | 22 |
See also
Notes
- During these years, the award was bestowed as Best Writing, Adaptation.
- The 2nd Academy Awards is unique in being the only occasion where there were no official nominees. Subsequent research by AMPAS has resulted in a list of unofficial or de facto nominees, based on records of which films were evaluated by the judges.
- During this year, the award was bestowed as Best Writing and included original and adapted screenplays.
- From 1935 until 1955, the award was bestowed as Best Writing, Screenplay.
- Captain Blood, written by Casey Robinson from the novel by Rafael Sabatini, was not officially nominated for this award, but appears in Academy records because it placed third in voting as a write-in candidate in 1935.
- Dudley Nichols refused to accept the award, but was in possession of it by 1949 according to Academy records.
- Michael Blankfort was originally nominated as the screenwriter of Broken Arrow. In 1991, research proved blacklisted Albert Maltz was the screenwriter and his credit was restored. Blankfort was removed from the nomination and it was given to Maltz.
- Michael Wilson was originally credited as the screenwriter of Friendly Persuasion, but Allied Artists, acting in agreement with the Screen Writers Guild, removed his credit because he was blacklisted. Early in 1957, the Academy revised its bylaws so the film would be eligible for a writing nomination without naming Wilson as a nominee. Friendly Persuasion was initially announced a nominee without a writer's name attached. The Academy's Board of Governors voted to strike the nomination altogether and it was not included on the final ballot. The Board of Governors, however, reinstated the nomination with Wilson's name attached in 2002.
- Pierre Boulle was credited as the screenwriter of The Bridge on the River Kwai and ultimately won the award. Blacklisted writers Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman, who actually wrote the screenplay, were awarded posthumous Oscars by the Academy's Board of Governors in 1984.
- Due to blacklisting, Young wrote under the pseudonym Nathan E. Douglas.
- In 1995, research proved blacklisted Michael Wilson was also a screenwriter of Lawrence of Arabia. He was added as a nominee by the Academy's Board of Governors.
- Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes was initially adapted by screenwriter Robert Towne, but he removed his name from the credits because he was unhappy with co-writer Michael Austin's alterations and the finished film itself. He instead used the pseudonym P.H. Vazak, the name of his late Hungarian sheepdog.
- Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is a character in his own script for Adaptation, as is his fictional twin brother Donald. The nonexistent Donald was credited as a screenwriter and was nominated for an Academy Award. The film's end credits claimed he had died during pre-production.
References
- Aljean Harmetz (March 16, 1985). "Oscars Go to Writers of 'Kwai'". The New York Times.
- Johnson, Andrew (28 March 2010). "Emma Thompson: How Jane Austen saved me from going under". The Independent. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
- A Beautiful Mind Wins Adapted Screenplay: 2002 Oscars
- Aaron Sorkin Wins Adapted Screenplay: 2011 Oscars
- "Call Me by Your Name" wins Best Adapted Screenplay-Oscars on YouTube
- 2018|Oscars.org
- "The Official Academy Awards Database". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on February 27, 2009. Retrieved January 9, 2018.
- "The 18th Academy Awards - 1946". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
- Saito, Stephen (February 20, 2008). "Fake Names, Real Oscars: Five Nominees Who Didn't Really Exist". IFC. Retrieved January 9, 2018.
- "Academy Awards 2017: Complete list of Oscar winners and nominees". Los Angeles Times. February 26, 2017. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
- "90th Oscar Nominations Announced" (PDF). Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. January 23, 2018. Retrieved January 23, 2018.
- "91st Oscar Nominations Announced" (PDF). Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. January 22, 2019. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
- "92nd Oscar Nominations Announced" (PDF). Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. January 22, 2019. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
- "James Ivory is oldest Oscar winner ever with screenplay award for Call Me by Your Name". The Guardian. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
- Snubs, Surprises, and a Staring Contest: The Academy Awards Nominations - The Ringer
- "SOC Alumnus Wins Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay". American Washington University. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
