The Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source (usually a novel or play).

See also the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay, a similar award for screenplays that are not adapted from elsewhere.

Following is a listing of people who have won the award.

This award started with the name Best Writing, Adaptation

1920s

• 1927/1928 Seventh Heaven - Benjamin Glazer from a play by Austin Stong
  • Glorious Betsy - Anthony Coldeway from a play by Rida Johnson Young
  • The Jazz Singer - Alfred A. Cohn from the play Day of Atonement by Samson Raphaelson

In the 2nd and 3rd years there was only a single writing award for Writing Achievement with no distinction between original works and adaptations.

• 1928/1929 The Patriot - Hanns Kräly from a play by Ashley Dukes translated from the play Der Patriot by Alfred Neumann derived from the story Paul I by Dmitri Merezhkovsky
  • The Cop - William Taylor Garnett from a story by Elliott Judd Clawson
  • In Old Arizona - Tom Barry from the story The Caballero's Way by O. Henry
  • The Last of Mrs. Cheyney - Hanns Kräly from a play by Frederick Lonsdale
  • The Leatherneck - Elliott Judd Clawson original
  • Our Dancing Daughters - Josephine Lovett original
  • Sal of Singapore - Elliott Judd Clawson from the story The Sentimentalists by Dale Collins
  • Skyscraper - Elliott Judd Clawson , William Taylor Garnett from a story by Dudley Murphy
  • The Valiant - Tom Barry, John Hunter Booth from a play by Halworthy Hall and Robert Middlemass
  • A Woman of Affairs - Bess Meredyth from the novel The Green Hat by Michael Arlen
  • Wonder of Women - Bess Meredyth from the novel Die Frau des Steffen Tromholt by Hermann Sudermann
• 1929/1930 The Big House - Joseph Farnham , Martin Flavin , Frances Marion , Lennox Marion original
  • All Quiet on the Western Front - Maxwell Anderson, George Abbott, Del Andrews from a novel by Erich Maria Remarque
  • Disraeli - Julien Josephson from a play by Louis N. Parker
  • The Divorcee - John Meehan from the novel Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott
  • Street of Chance - Lenore J. Coffee , Howard Estabrook from the story by Oliver H. P. Garrett

1930s

For the 1930/31 production year the award was again subdivided, and this one was once again Best Writing, Adaptation.

• 1930/1931 Cimarron - Howard Estabrook from the novel by Edna Ferber
  • The Criminal Code - Seton I. Miller , Fred Niblo Jr. from a play by Martin Flavin
  • Holiday - Horace Jackson from the play by Philip Barry
  • Little Caesar - Francis Edward Faragoli , Robert N. Lee , Robert Lord , Darryl F. Zanuck from the novel by William R. Burnett
  • Skippy - Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Don Marquis, Norman Z. McLeod , Sam Mintz from the comic strip by Percy Crosby
• 1931/1932 Bad Girl - Edwin J. Burke from the novel and play by Viña Delmar
  • Arrowsmith - Sidney Howard from the novel by Sinclair Lewis
  • Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Samuel Hoffenstein , Percy Heath from the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson
• 1932/1933 Little Women - Victor Heerman , Sarah Y. Mason from the novel by Louisa May Alcott
  • Lady for a Day - Robert Riskin from the story Madame la Gimp by Damon Runyon
  • State Fair - Paul Green , Sonya Levien from the novel by Philip Stong
• 1934 It Happened One Night - Robert Riskin from the story Night Bus by Samuel Hopkins Adams
  • The Thin Man - Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich from a novel by Dashiell Hammett
  • Viva Villa! - Ben Hecht from the book by Edgecumb Pinchon and O. B. Stade

For 1935 the award became Best Writing, Screenplay

• 1935 The Informer - Dudley Nichols from the novel by Liam O'Flaherty. This was the first Academy Award ever to be declined.
  • Captain Blood - write-in candidate Casey Robinson from the novel by Rafael Sabatini
  • The Lives of a Bengal Lancer - Waldemar Young , John L. Balderston , Achmed Abdullah , Grover Jones , William Slavens McNutt from the novel by Francis Yeats-Brown
  • Mutiny on the Bounty - Talbot Jennings , Jules Furthman , Carey Wilson from the novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
• 1936 The Story of Louis Pasteur - Pierre Collings , Sheridan Gibney from their own story
  • After the Thin Man - Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett from a story by Dashiell Hammett
  • Dodsworth - Sidney Howard from the novel by Sinclair Lewis
  • Mr. Deeds Goes to Town - Robert Riskin from the story Opera Hat by Clarence Budington Kelland
  • My Man Godfrey - Morrie Ryskind , Eric Hatch from the novel by Eric Hatch
• 1937 The Life of Emile Zola - Heinz Herald , Geza Herczag , Norman Raine from the book Zola and His Time by Matthew Josephson
  • The Awful Truth - Viña Delmar from the play by Arthur Richman
  • Captains Courageous - Marc Connelly, John Lee Mahin, Dale Van Every from the novel by Rudyard Kipling
  • Stage Door - Morrie Ryskind , Anthony Veiller from the play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman
  • A Star Is Born - Dorothy Parker, Alan Campbell, Robert Carson from a story by William A. Wellman and Robert Carson
• 1938 Pygmalion - Ian Dalrymple , Cecil Lewis , W.P. Lipscomb , George Bernard Shaw from the play by George Bernard Shaw
  • Boys Town - John Meehan , Dore Schary from the story by Dore Schary and Eleanore Griffin
  • The Citadel - Ian Dalrymple , Frank Wead, Elizabeth Hill from the novel by A. J. Cronin
  • Four Daughters - Lenore J. Coffee , Julius J. Epstein from the novel Sister Act by Fannie Hurst
  • You Can't Take It with You - Robert Riskin from the play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart
• 1939 Gone with the Wind - Sidney Howard from the novel by Margaret Mitchell
  • Goodbye, Mr. Chips - R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West , Eric Maschwitz from the novel by James Hilton
  • Mr. Smith Goes to Washington - Sidney Buchman from the story by Lewis R. Foster
  • Ninotchka - Charles Brackett , Billy Wilder, Walter Reisch from the story by Melchior Lengyel
  • Wuthering Heights - Charles MacArthur, Ben Hecht from the novel by Emily Brontë

1940s

• 1940 The Philadelphia Story - Donald Ogden Stewart from the play by Philip Barry
  • The Grapes of Wrath - Nunnally Johnson from the novel by John Steinbeck
  • - Donald Ogden Stewart , Dalton Trumbo from the novel by Christopher Morley
  • The Long Voyage Home - Dudley Nichols from a composite of the short plays The Moon of the Caribees, In the Zone, Bound East for Cardiff and The Long Voyage Home by Eugene O'Neill
  • Rebecca - Philip MacDonald , Michael Hogan from the novel by Daphne Du Maurier
• 1941 Here Comes Mr. Jordan - Sidney Buchman , Seton Miller from the play Heaven Can Wait by Harry Segall
  • Hold Back the Dawn - Charles Brackett , Billy Wilder from the book by Ketti Frings
  • How Green Was My Valley - Philip Dunne from the novel by Richard Llewellyn
  • The Little Foxes - Lillian Hellman from her own play
  • The Maltese Falcon - John Huston from the novel by Dashiell Hammett
• 1942 Mrs. Miniver - George Froeschel , James Hilton, Claudine West , Arthur Wimperis based on the novel by Jan Struther
  • Forty-Ninth Parallel - Rodney Ackland , Emeric Pressburger from the story by Emeric Pressburger
  • The Pride of the Yankees - Herman J. Mankiewicz, Jo Swerling from the story by Paul Gallico
  • Random Harvest - George Froeschel , Claudine West , Arthur Wimperis from the novel by James Hilton
  • The Talk of the Town - Sidney Buchman , Irwin Shaw from the story by Sidney Harmon
• 1943 Casablanca - Philip Epstein , Julius Epstein , Howard Koch from the play Everybody Comes to Rick's by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison
  • Holy Matrimony - Nunally Johnson from the novel Buried Alive by Arnold Bennett
  • The More the Merrier - Richard Flournoy , Lewis R. Foster , Frank Ross , Robert Russell from the story by Frank Ross and Robert Russell
  • The Song of Bernadette - George Seaton from the novel by Franz Werfel
  • Watch on the Rhine - Dashiell Hammett from the play by Lillian Hellman
• 1944 Going My Way - Frank Butler , Frank Cavett from the story by Leo McCarey
  • Double Indemnity - Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler from the novel Double Indemnity in Three of a Kind by James M. Cain
  • Gaslight - John Van Druten, Walter Reisch, John L. Balderston from the play Angel Street by Patrick Hamilton
  • Person - Jay Dratler , Samuel Hoffenstein , Betty Reinhardt from the novel by Vera Caspary
  • Meet Me in St. Louis - Irving Brecher , Fred F. Finklehoffe from the novel by Sally Benson
• 1945 The Lost Weekend - Charles Brackett , Billy Wilder from the novel by Charles R. Jackson
  • Mildred Pierce - Ranald MacDougall from the novel by James M. Cain
  • The Pride of the Marines - Albert Maltz from the book by Roger Butterfield
  • Story of G.I. Joe - Leopold Atlas , Guy Endore , Philip Stevenson from the books Brave Men and Here Is Your War by Ernie Pyle
  • A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Frank Davis , Tess Slesinger from the novel by Betty Smith
• 1946 The Best Years of Our Lives - Robert Sherwood from the novel Glory for Me by MacKinlay Kantor
  • Anna and the King of Siam - Sally Benson , Talbot Jennings from book by Margaret Landon
  • Brief Encounter - Anthony Havelock-Allan , David Lean, Ronald Neame from the play Still Life by Noel Coward
  • The Killers - Anthony Veiller from the short story by Ernest Hemingway
  • Open City - Sergio Amidei , Federico Fellini from the story by Sergio Amidei , Alberto Consiglio
• 1947 Miracle on 34th Street - George Seaton from the story by Valentine Davies
  • Boomerang - Richard Murphy based on the article by Anthony Abbot (pseudonym of Fulton Oursler )
  • Crossfire - John Paxton from the novel The Brick Foxhole by Richard Brooks
  • Gentleman's Agreement - Moss Hart from the novel by Laura Z. Hobson
  • Great Expectations - David Lean, Ronald Neame, Anthony Havelock-Allan from the novel by Charles Dickens
• 1948 Treasure of the Sierra Madre - John Huston from the novel by B. Traven
  • A Foreign Affair - Charles Brackett , Billy Wilder, Richard L. Breen from the story by David Shaw
  • Johnny Belinda - Irmgard von Cube , Allen Vincent from the play by Elmer Harris
  • The Search - Richard Schweizer , David Wechsler from their story
  • The Snake Pit - Frank Partos , Millen Brand from the novel by Mary Jane Ward
• 1949 A Letter to Three Wives - Joseph Mankiewicz from the novel Letter to Five Wives by John Klempner
  • All the King's Men - Robert Rossen from the novel by Robert Penn Warren
  • The Bicycle Thief - Cesare Zavattini from the novel by Luigi Bartolini
  • Champion - Carl Foreman from the short story by Ring Lardner
  • The Fallen Idol - Graham Greene from his short story The Basement Room

1950s

• 1950 All About Eve - Joseph Mankiewicz from the short story The Wisdom of Eve by Mary Orr
  • The Asphalt Jungle - Ben Maddow , John Huston from the novel by W.R. Burnett
  • Born Yesterday - Albert Mannheimer , from the play by Garson Kanin
  • Broken Arrow (1950 film) - Albert Maltz (front: Michael Blankfort ) from the novel Blood Brother by Elliott Arnold
  • Father of the Bride - Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett from the novel by Edward Streeter
• 1951 A Place in the Sun - Harry Brown , Michael Wilson from the novel An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser and the play An American Tragedy by Patrick Kearney
  • The African Queen - James Agee, John Huston from the novel by C.S. Forester
  • Detective Story - Robert Wyler , Philip Yordan from the play by Sidney Kingsley
  • La Ronde - Jacques Natanson , Max Ophüls from the play Reigen by Arthur Schnitzler
  • A Streetcar Named Desire - Tennessee Williams, from his play
• 1952 The Bad and the Beautiful - Charles Schnee from the story Tribute to a Badman by Charles Bradshaw
  • Five Fingers - Michael Wilson from the novel Operation Cicero by L.C. Moyzisch
  • High Noon - Carl Foreman from the story The Tin Star by John W. Cunningham
  • The Man in the White Suit - John Dighton , Roger MacDougall , Alexander Mackendrick from the play by Roger MacDougall
  • The Quiet Man - Frank S. Nugent , from the story Green Rushes by Maurice Walsh
• 1953 From Here to Eternity - Daniel Taradash from the novel by James Jones
  • The Cruel Sea - Eric Ambler from the novel by Nicholas Monsarrat
  • Lilli - Helen Deutsch from the story Love of Seven Dolls by Paul Gallico
  • Roman Holiday - Ian McLellan Hunter , John Dighton from the story by Dalton Trumbo (front: Ian McLellan Hunter )
  • Shane - A.B. Guthrie Jr. from the novel by Jack Schaefer
• 1954 The Country Girl - George Seaton from the play by Clifford Odets
  • The Caine Mutiny - Stanley Roberts from the novel by Herman Wouk
  • Rear Window - John Michael Hayes from the story It Had to Be Murder by Cornell Woolrich
  • Sabrina - Billy Wilder, Samuel Taylor , Ernest Lehman from the novel Sabrina Fair by Samuel Taylor
  • Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - Albert Hackett, Frances Gooderich , Dorothy Kingsley from the story The Sobbin' Women by Stephen Vincent Benet
• 1955 Marty - Paddy Chayefsky based on his teleplay
  • Bad Day at Black Rock - Millard Kaufman from the story Bad Day at Hondo by Howard Breslin
  • The Blackboard Jungle - Richard Brooks from the novel by Evan Hunter
  • East of Eden - Paul Osborn from the novel by John Steinbeck
  • Love Me or Leave Me - Daniel Fuchs , Isobel Lennart from the story by Daniel Fuchs

For 1956 the Category was renamed Screenplay--Adapted:

• 1956 Around the World in Eighty Days - John Farrow , S. J. Perelman, James Poe from the novel by Jules Verne
  • Baby Doll - Tennessee Williams from his one act plays Twenty-seven Wagons Full of Cotton and The Unsatisfactory Supper
  • Friendly Persuasion - Michael Wilson from the novel by Jessamyn West Note: Originally was ineligible due to Academy bylaws
  • Giant - Fred Guiol , Ivan Moffat from the novel by Edna Ferber
  • Lust for Life - Norman Corwin from the novel by Irving Stone

For 1957 the category was renamed Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium:

• 1957 The Bridge on the River Kwai - Carl Foreman , Michael Wilson (front: Pierre Boulle) based on the novel by Pierre Boulle
  • Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison - John Huston, John Lee Mahin from the novel by Charles Shaw
  • Peyton Place - John Michael Hayes from the novel by Grace Metalious
  • Sayonara - Paul Osborn from the novel by James Michener
  • Twelve Angry Men - Reginald Rose from his teleplay
• 1958 Gigi - Alan J. Lerner based on the novel by Collette and the play by Anita Loos
  • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - Richard Brooks, James Poe from the play by Tennessee Williams
  • The Horse's Mouth - Alec Guinness from the novel by Joyce Cary
  • I Want to Live! - Nelson Gidding , Don M. Mankiewicz from the letters by Barbara Graham and the articles by Ed Montgomery
  • Separate Tables - John Gay, Terence Rattigan from the play by Terence Rattigan
• 1959 Room at the Top - Neil Paterson from the novel by John Braine
  • Anatomy of a Murder - Wendell Mayes from the by Robert Traver (pseudonym of John D. Voelker
  • Ben-Hur - Karl Tunberg from the novel by Lew Wallace
  • The Nun's Story - Robert Anderson from the book by Kathryn Hulme
  • Some Like it Hot - Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond from a story suggested by Robert Thoeren and M. Logan

1960s

• 1960 Elmer Gantry - Richard Brooks from the novel by Sinclair Lewis
  • Inherit the Wind - Nedrick Young (front: Nathan E. Douglas ), Harold Jacob Smith from the play by Jerome Lawrence, Robert E. Lee
  • Sons and Lovers - Gavin Lambert , T.E.B. Clarke from the novel by D.H. Lawrence
  • The Sundowners - Isobel Lennart from the novel by Jon Cleary
  • Tunes of Glory - James Kennaway from his novel
• 1961 Judgment at Nuremberg - Abby Man from his teleplay
  • Breakfast at Tiffany's - George Axelrod from the novel by Truman Capote
  • The Guns of Navarone - Carl Foreman from the novel by Alistair MacLean
  • The Hustler - Sydney Carroll , Robert Rossen from the novel by Walter Tevis
  • West Side Story - Ernest Lehman from the play by Arthur Laurents
• 1962 To Kill a Mockingbird - Horton Foote from the novel by Harper Lee
  • David and Lisa - Eleanor Perry from the novel by Theodore Isaac Rubin
  • Lawrence of Arabia - Robert Bolt, Michael Wilson (Note: originally the nomination was solely for Robert Bolt) from the writings of T.E. Lawrence
  • Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov from his novel
  • The Miracle Worker - William Gibson from his play
• 1963 Tom Jones - John Osborne from the novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
  • Captain Newman, M.D. - Richard L. Breen , Henry Ephron , Phoebe Ephron from the novel by Leo Rosten
  • Hud - Irving Ravetch , Harriet Frank Jr. from the novel Horseman Pass By by Larry McMurtry
  • Lillies of the Field - James Poe from the novel by William E. Barrett
  • Sundays and Cybele - Serge Bourguignon , Bernard Eschassériaux from the novel Les Dimanches de Ville d'Avray by Bernard Eschassériaux
• 1964 Becket - Edward Anhalt from the play by Jean Anouilh
  • Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb - Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, Peter George from the novel Red Alert by Peter George
  • Mary Poppins - Bill Walsh, Don DaGradi from the books by P.L. Travers
  • My Fair Lady - Alan Jay Lerner from his musical play and the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
  • Zorba the Greek - Michael Cacoyannis from the novel The Life of Alexis Zorba by Nikos Kazantzakis
• 1965 Doctor Zhivago - Robert Bolt from the novel by Boris Pasternak
  • Cat Ballou - Walter Newman, Frank Pierson from the novel The Ballad of Cat Ballou by Roy Chanslor
  • The Collector - Stanley Mann , John Kohn from the novel by John Fowles
  • Ship of Fools - Abby Mann from the novel by Katherine Anne Porter
  • A Thousand Clowns - Herb Gardner from his play
• 1966 A Man for All Seasons - Robert Bolt from his play
  • Alfie - Bill Naughton from his play
  • The Professionals - Richard Brooks from the novel A Mule for the Marquesa by Frank O'Rourke
  • The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming - William Rode from the novel Off-Islanders by Nathaniel Benchley
  • Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - Ernest Lehman from the play by Edward Albee
• 1967 In the Heat of the Night - Stirling Siliphant from the novel by John Ball
  • Cool Hand Luke - Donn Pearce , Frank Pierson from the novel by Donn Pearce
  • The Graduate - Calder Willingham , Buck Henry from the novel by Charles Webb
  • In Cold Blood - Richard Brooks from the novel by Truman Capote
  • Ulysses - Joseph Strick, Fred Haines from the novel by James Joyce
• 1968 The Lion in Winter - James Goldman from his play
  • The Odd Couple - Neil Simon from his play
  • Oliver! - Vernon Harris from the musical by Lionel Bart and the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
  • Rachel, Rachel - Stewart Stern from the novel A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence
  • Rosemary's Baby - Roman Polanski from the novel by Ira Levin
• 1969 Midnight Cowboy - Waldo Salt from the novel by James Leo Herlihy
  • Anne of the Thousand Days - John Hale , Bridget Boland , Richard Sokolove from the play by Maxwell Anderson
  • Goodbye, Columbus - Arnold Schulman from the novel by Philip Roth
  • They Shoot Horses, Don't They? - James Poe , Robert E. Thompson from the novel by Horace McCoy
  • Z - Jorge Semprún , Costa-Gavras from the novel by Vassilis Vassilikos

1970s

• 1970 M*A*S*H - Ring Lardner Jr. from the novel by Richard Hooker
  • Airport - George Seaton from the novel by Arthur Hailey
  • I Never Sang for My Father - Robert Anderson from his play
  • Lovers and Other Strangers - Joseph Bologna, David Zelag Goodman Renée Taylor from the play by Joseph Bologna and Renée Taylor
  • Women in Love - Larry Kramer from the novel by D.H. Lawrence
• 1971 The French Connection - Ernest Tidyman from the novel by Robin Moore
  • A Clockwork Orange - Stanley Kubrick from the novel by Anthony Burgess
  • The Conformist - Bernardo Bertolucci from the novel Il Conformista by Alberto Moravia
  • The Garden of the Finzi-Continis - Ugo Pirro , Vittorio Bonicelli from the novel Giardino dei Finzi-Contini by Giorgio Bassani
  • The Last Picture Show - Larry McMurtry Peter Bogdanovich from the novel by Larry McMurtry
• 1972 The Godfather - Mario Puzo, Francis Coppola from the novel by Mario Puzo
  • Cabaret - Jay Preston Allen from the musical by Joe Masteroff , the play I Am a Camera by John Van Druten and the book Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood
  • The Emigrants - Bengt Forslund , Jan Troell from the novels Utvandrarna and Invandrarna by Vilhelm Moberg
  • Pete 'n' Tillie - Julius J. Epstein from the story Witch's Milk by Peter De Vries
  • Sounder - Lonne Elder III from the book by William H. Armstrong
• 1973 The Exorcist - William Blatty from his novel
  • The Last Detail - Robert Towne from the novel by Darryl Ponicsan
  • The Paper Chase - James Bridges from the novel by John Jay Osborn Jr.
  • Paper Moon - Alvin Sargent from the novel Addie Pray by Joe David Brown
  • Serpico - Waldo Salt, Norman Wexler from the book by Peter Maas

From 1974 the Category was renamed Screenplay Adapted From Other Material:

• 1974 The Godfather, Part II - Francis Coppola, Mario Puzo from the novel The Godfather by Mario Puzo
  • The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz - Lionel Chetwynd , Mordecai Richler from the book by Mordecai Richler
  • Lenny - Julian Barry from his play
  • Murder on the Orient Express - Paul Dehn from the novel by Agatha Christie
  • Young Frankenstein - Gene Wilder, Mel Brooks from the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• 1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Bo Goldman , Laurence Hauben from the novel by Ken Kesey
  • Barry Lyndon - Stanley Kubrick from the novel The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. by William Makepeace Thackeray
  • The Man Who Would Be King - John Huston, Gladys Hill from the story by Rudyard Kipling
  • Scent of a Woman - Ruggero Maccari , Dino Risi from the novel Il buio e il mare by Giovanni Arpino
  • The Sunshine Boys - Neil Simon from his play

From 1976 the category was renamed Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium

• 1976 All the President's Men - William Goldman from the book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
  • Bound for Glory - Robert Getchell from the book by Woody Guthrie
  • Fellini's Casanova - Federico Fellini, Bernardino Zapponi from the autobiography Histoire de ma vie by Giacomo Casanova
  • The Seven-Per-Cent Solution - Nicholas Meyer from his novel
  • Voyage of the Damned - David Butler, Steve Shagan from the book by Gordon Thomas ; co-authored by Max Morgan Witts
• 1977 Julia - Alvin Sargent from the novel Pentimento by Lillian Hellman
  • Equus - Peter Shaffer from his play
  • I Never Promised You a Rose Garden - Gavin Lambert , Lewis John Carlino from the novel by Hannah Greene
  • Oh, God! - Larry Gelbart from the novel by Avery Corman
  • That Obscure Object of Desire - Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carriere from the novel La femme et le pantin by Pierre Louÿs
• 1978 Midnight Express - Oliver Stone from the book by William Hayes and William Hoffer
  • Bloodbrothers - Walter Newman from the novel by Richard Price
  • California Suite - Neil Simon from his play
  • Heaven Can Wait - Elaine May, Warren Beatty from the play by Harry Seagal
  • Same Time, Next Year - Bernard Slade from his play
• 1979 Kramer vs. Kramer - Robert Benton from the novel by Avery Corman
  • Apocalypse Now - John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola from the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
  • La Cage aux folles - Marcello Danon , Edouard Molinaro , Jean Poiret , Francis Veber from the play by Jean Poiret
  • A Little Romance - Allan Burns from the novel E=MC2 mon amour by Patrick Cauvin (pseudonym of Claude Klotz )
  • Norma Rae - Harriet Frank Jr. , Irving Ravetch

1980s

• 1980 Ordinary People - Alvin Sargent from the novel by Judith Guest
  • Breaker Morant - Jonathan Hardy , David Stevens , Bruce Beresford from the play by Kenneth Ross
  • Coal Miner's Daughter - Tom Rickman from the autobiography by Loretta Lynn and George Vecsey
  • The Elephant Man - Christopher De Vore , Eric Bergren , David Lynch from the book The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences by Sir Frederick Treves and by Ashley Montagu
  • The Stunt Man - Lawrence B. Marcus , Richard Rush from the novel by Paul Brodeur
• 1981 On Golden Pond - Ernest Thompson from his play
  • The French Lieutenant's Woman - Harold Pinter from the novel by John Fowles
  • Pennies From Heaven - Dennis Potter from his miniseries
  • Prince of the City - Jay Presson Allen , Sidney Lumet from the book by Robert Daley
  • Ragtime - Michael Weller from the novel by E.L. Doctorow
• 1982 Missing - Constantin Costa-Gavras, Donald Stewart from the book by Thomas Hauser
  • Das Boot - Wolfgang Petersen from the novel by Lothar G. Buchheim
  • Sophie's Choice - Alan J. Pakula from the novel by William Styron
  • The Verdict - David Mamet from the novel by Barry Reed
  • Victor/Victoria - Blake Edwards from the earlier film screenplay by Reinhold Schünzel
• 1983 Terms of Endearment - James Brooks from the novel by Larry McMurtry
  • The Betrayal - Harold Pinter from his play
  • The Dresser - Ronald Harwood from his play
  • Educating Rita - Willy Russell from his play
  • Reuben, Reuben - Julius J. Epstein from the novel by Peter De Vries and the play Spoonford by Herman Shumlin
• 1984 Amadeus - Peter Shaffer from his play
  • - P.H. Vazak, Michael Austin from the novel Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
  • The Killing Fields - Bruce Robinson from the article The Death and Life of Dith Pran by Sydney Schanberg
  • A Passage to India - David Lean from the novel by E.M. Forster
  • A Soldier's Story - Charles Fuller from the his play A Soldier's Play
• 1985 Out of Africa - Kurt Luedtke from the memoirs of Isak Dinesen, book Silence Will Speak by Errol Trzebinski
  • The Color Purple - Menno Meyjes from the novel by Alice Walker
  • Kiss of the Spider Woman - Leonard Schrader from the novel by Manuel Puig
  • Prizzi's Honor - Richard Condon, Janet Roach from the novel by Richard Condon
  • The Trip to Bountiful - Horton Foote from his play
• 1986 A Room with a View - Ruth Jhabvala from the novel by E.M. Forster
  • Children of a Lesser God - Hesper Anderson , Mark Medoff from the play by Mark Medoff
  • The Color of Money - Richard Price from the novel by Walter Tevis
  • Crimes of the Heart - Beth Henley from her play
  • Stand by Me - Raynold Gideon , Bruce A. Evans from the novella The Body by Stephen King
• 1987 The Last Emperor - Bernardo Bertolucci, Mark Peploe from the autobiography by Henry Pu Yi
  • The Dead - Tony Huston from the story by James Joyce
  • Fatal Attraction - James Dearden from the screenplay by James Dearden (This film was a re-make of an earlier, made-for-tv British film)
  • Full Metal Jacket - Gustav Hasford, Michael Herr , Stanley Kubrick from the novel The Short Timers by Gustav Hasford
  • Mitt liv som hund - Brasse Brännström , Per Berglund , Lasse Hallström, Reidar Jönsson from the novel by Reidar Jönsson
• 1988 Dangerous Liaisons - Christopher Hampton from the novel by Choderlos de Laclos and the play by Christopher Hampton
  • The Accidental Tourist - Frank Galati , Lawrence Kasdan from the novel by Anne Tyler
  • - Anna Hamilton Phelan from the article by Harold T.P. Hayes
  • Little Dorrit - Christine Edzard from the novel by Charles Dickens
  • The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Jean-Claude Carrière , Philip Kaufman from the novel by Milan Kundera
• 1989 Driving Miss Daisy - Alfred Uhry from the play by Alfred Uhry
  • Born on the Fourth of July - Ron Kovic, Oliver Stone from the autobiography by Ron Kovic
  • - Paul Mazursky, Roger L. Simon from the novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer
  • Field of Dreams - Phil Alden Robinson from the novel Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella
  • My Left Foot - Shane Connaughton , Jim Sheridan from the autobiography by Christy Brown

1990s

• 1990 Dances with Wolves - Michael Blake from the novel by Michael Blake
  • Awakenings - Steven Zaillian from the book by Oliver Sacks M.D.
  • Goodfellas - Nicholas Pileggi , Martin Scorsese from the novel Wise Guy by Nicholas Pileggi
  • The Grifters - Donald E. Westlake from the novel by Jim Thompson
  • Reversal of Fortune - Nicholas Kazan from the novel by Alan M. Dershowitz

From 1991 the category became Screenplay Based on Material Previously Published or Produced:

• 1991 The Silence of the Lambs - Ted Tally from the novel by Thomas Harris
  • Europa Europa - Agnieszka Holland from the autobiography by Salomon Perel
  • Fried Green Tomatoes - Fannie Flagg, Carol Sobieski from the novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
  • JFK - Oliver Stone, Zachary Sklar from the novel by Jim Marrs and the novel On the Trail of the Assassins by Jim Garrison
  • The Prince of Tides - Pat Conroy, Becky Johnston from the novel by Pat Conroy
• 1992 Howards End - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from the novel by E.M. Forster
  • Enchanted April - Peter Barnes from the novel by Elizabeth von Arnim
  • The Player - Michael Tolkin from the novel by Michael Tolkin
  • A River Runs Through It - Richard Friedenberg from the story by Norman Maclean
  • Scent of a Woman - Bo Goldman from the novel Il Buio E Il Miele by Giovanni Arpino
• 1993 Schindler's List - Steven Zaillian from the novel by Thomas Keneally
  • The Age of Innocence - Jay Cocks, Martin Scorsese from the novel by Edith Wharton
  • In the Name of the Father - Terry George , Jim Sheridan from the autobiography Proved Innocent by Gerry Conlon
  • The Remains of the Day - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • Shadowlands - William Nicholson from the play by William Nicholson
• 1994 Forrest Gump - Eric Roth from the novel by Winston Groom
  • The Madness of King George - Alan Bennett from the play The Madness of George III by Alan Bennett
  • Nobody's Fool - Robert Benton from the novel by Richard Russo
  • Quiz Show - Paul Attanasio from the novel by Richard N. Goodwin
  • The Shawshank Redemption - Frank Darabont from the short story Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King
• 1995 Sense and Sensibility - Emma Thompson from the novel by Jane Austen
  • Apollo 13 - William Broyles Jr., Al Reinert from the novel Lost Moon by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger
  • Babe - George Miller, Chris Noonan from the novel The Sheep Pig by Dick King-Smith
  • Leaving Las Vegas - Mike Figgis from the novel by John O'Brien
  • Il Postino - Anna Pavignano , Michael Radford , Furio Scarpelli , Giacomo Scarpelli , Massimo Troisi from the novel Ardiente Paciencia by Antonio Skármeta
• 1996 Sling Blade - Billy Bob Thornton from the play by Billy Bob Thornton
  • The Crucible - Arthur Miller from the play by Arthur Miller
  • The English Patient - Anthony Minghella from the novel by Michael Ondaatje
  • Hamlet - Kenneth Branagh from the play by William Shakespeare
  • Trainspotting - John Hodge from the novel by Irvine Welsh
• 1997 L.A. Confidential - Curtis Hanson, Brian Helgeland from the novel by James Ellroy
  • Donnie Brasco - Paul Attanasio from the novel by Joseph D. Pistone and Richard Woodley
  • The Sweet Hereafter - Atom Egoyan from the novel by Russell Banks
  • Wag the Dog - Hilary Henkin , David Mamet from the novel American Hero by Larry Beinhart
  • The Wings of the Dove - Hossein Amini from the novel by Henry James
• 1998 Gods and Monsters - Bill Condon from the novel by Christopher Bram
  • Out of Sight - Scott Frank from the novel by Elmore Leonard
  • Primary Colors - Elaine May from the novel by Joe Klein
  • A Simple Plan - Scott B. Smith from the novel by Scott B. Smith
  • The Thin Red Line - Terrence Malick from the novel by James Jones
• 1999 The Cider House Rules - John Irving from the novel by John Irving
  • Election - Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor from the novel by Tom Perrotta
  • The Green Mile - Frank Darabont from the novel by Stephen King
  • The Insider - Eric Roth , Michael Mann from the article The Man Who Knew Too Much by Marie Brenner
  • The Talented Mr. Ripley - Anthony Minghella from the novel by Patricia Highsmith

2000s

• 2000 Traffic - Stephen Gaghan from the teleplay Traffik by Simon Moore
  • Chocolat - Robert Nelson Jacobs from the novel by Joanne Harris
  • O Brother, Where Art Thou? - Ethan and Joel Coen from the poem The Odyssey by Homer
  • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Hui-Ling Wang , James Schamus and Kuo Jung Tsai from the novel by Du Lu Wang
  • Wonder Boys - Steven Kloves from the novel by Michael Chabon
• 2001 A Beautiful Mind - Akiva Goldsman from the biography by Sylvia Nasar
  • Ghost World - Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff from several comic book stories by Daniel Clowes
  • In the Bedroom - Todd Field and Robert Festinger from the short story Killings by Andre Dubus
  • The Fellowship of the Ring - Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson from the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • Shrek - Ted Elliott , Terry Rossio , Joe Stillman and Roger S.H. Schulman from the children's book by William Steig

From 2002 the category was renamed Adapted Screenplay:

• 2002 The Pianist - Ronald Harwood from the book by Władysław Szpilman
  • About a Boy - Peter Hedges , Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz from the novel by Nick Hornby
  • Adaptation - Charlie and Donald Kaufman from the book The Orchard Thief by Susan Orlean
  • Chicago - Bill Condon from the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins
  • The Hours - David Hare from the novel by Michael Cunningham
• 2003 The Return of the King - Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson from the novel by J. R. R. Tolkien
  • American Splendor - Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman from the comic book series by Harvey Pekar and the comic book series Our Cancer Year by Joyce Brabner
  • City of God - Braulio Mantovani from the novel by Paulo Lins
  • Mystic River - Brian Helgeland from the novel by Dennis Lehane
  • Seabiscuit - Gary Ross from the book by Laura Hillenbrand
• 2004 Sideways - Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor from the novel by Rex Pickett
  • Before Sunset - Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke from a story by Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan
  • Finding Neverland - David Magee from the play by Allan Knee
  • Million Dollar Baby - Paul Haggis from several stories by F. X. Toole
  • The Motorcycle Diaries - José Rivera from the books Con el Che por America Latina by Alberto Granado and Notas de viaje by Ernesto Guevara