Before
1940 there was an
Academy Award for Best Story for writing. For 1940 it and the award in this article were separated into two awards. Beginning with the Oscars for
1957 the two categories were recombined to honour only the screenplay.
- 1940 The Great McGinty[?] ? Preston Sturges[?]
- 1941 Citizen Kane ? Herman Mankiewicz[?], Orson Welles
- 1942 none given
- 1943 Princess O'Rourke[?] ? Norman Krasna
- 1944 Wilson ? Lamar Trotti
- 1945 Marie-Louise[?] ? Richard Schweizer
- 1946 The Seventh Veil[?] ? Muriel Box, Sydney Box
- 1947 The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer[?] ? Sidney Sheldon[?]
- 1948 none given
- 1949 Battleground[?] ? Robert Pirosh
- 1950 Sunset Boulevard ? Charles Brackett, D.M. Marshman, Billy Wilder
- 1951 An American in Paris ? Alan Lerner
- 1952 The Lavender Hill Mob ? T.E.B. Clarke
- 1953 Titanic[?] - Charles Brackett, Richard Breen, Walter Reisch
- 1954 On the Waterfront ? Budd Schulberg[?]
- 1955 Interrupted Melody ? Sonya Levien, William Ludwig
- 1956 The Red Balloon[?] ? Albert Lamorisse
- 1957 Designing Women ? George Wells
- 1958 The Defiant Ones ? Nathan Douglas, Harold Smith
- 1959 Pillow Talk ? Clarence Greene, Maurice Richlin, Russell Rouse, Stanley Shapiro
- 1960 The Apartment ? I.A.L. Diamond, Billy Wilder
- 1961 Splendor in the Grass ? William Inge
- 1962 Divorce Italian Style[?] - Ennio de Concini, Pietro Germi, Alfredo Giannetti
- 1963 How the West Was Won ? James Webb
- 1964 Father Goose[?] ? Peter Stone, Frank Tarloff
- 1965 Darling ? Frederic Raphael
- 1966 A Man and a Woman - Claude Lelouch, Pierre Uytterhoeven
- 1967 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner ? William Rose
- 1968 The Producers ? Mel Brooks
- 1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ? William Goldman
- 1970 Patton ? Francis Ford Coppola, Edmund North
- 1971 The Hospital ? Paddy Chayefsky[?]
- 1972 The Candidate[?] ? Jeremy Larner
- 1973 The Sting ? David Ward
- 1974 Chinatown ? Robert Towne
- 1975 Dog Day Afternoon ? Frank Pierson
- 1976 Network ? Paddy Chayefsky[?]
- 1977 Annie Hall ? Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman
- 1978 Coming Home ? Robert Jones, Waldo Salt
- 1979 Breaking Away ? Steve Tesich
- 1980 Melvin and Howard[?] ? Bo Goldman
- 1981 Chariots of Fire ? Colin Welland
- 1982 Gandhi ? John Briley
- 1983 Tender Mercies ? Horton Foote
- 1984 Places in the Heart ? Robert Benton
- 1985 Witness ? William Kelley, Pamela Wallace, Earl Wallace
- 1986 Hannah and Her Sisters ? Woody Allen
- 1987 Moonstruck ? John Shanley
- 1988 Rain Man ? Ronald Bass, Barry Morrow
- 1989 Dead Poets Society ? Tom Schulman
- 1990 Ghost ? Bruce Rubin
- 1991 Thelma and Louise ? Callie Khouri
- 1992 The Crying Game ? Neil Jordan
- 1993 The Piano ? Jane Campion
- 1994 Pulp Fiction ? Roger Avary, Quentin Tarantino
- 1995 The Usual Suspects ? Christopher McQuarrie
- 1996 Fargo ? Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
- 1997 Good Will Hunting ? Ben Affleck, Matt Damon
- 1998 Shakespeare in Love ? Marc Norman, Tom Stoppard
- 1999 American Beauty (1999 movie) - Alan Ball
- 2000 Almost Famous[?] - Cameron Crowe
- 2001 Gosford Park - Julian Fellowes
- 2002 Hable con ella[?] - Pedro Almodóvar