Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay

This award started with the name Best Writing, Adaptation

• 1927/28 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.

• 1928/29 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[?] fom the novel The Green Hat by Michael Arlen[?]
  • Wonder of Women[?] - Bess Meredyth[?] from the novel Die Frau des Steffen Tromholt by Hermann Sudermann
• 1929/30 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[?]

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

• 1930/31 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[?]
• 1931/32 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
• 1932/33 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 Busa 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 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
• 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
  • Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman[?] - 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
• 1943 Casablanca - Philip Epstein, Julius Epstein, Howard Koch
• 1944 Going My Way - Frank Butler, Frank Cavett
• 1945 The Lost Weekend - Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder
• 1946 The Best Years of Our Lives - Robert Sherwood
• 1947 Miracle on 34th Street - George Seaton
• 1948 Treasure of the Sierra Madre[?] - John Huston
• 1949 A Letter to Three Wives - Joseph Mankiewicz
• 1950 All About Eve - Joseph Mankiewicz
• 1951 A Place in the Sun - Harry Brown, Michael Wilson
• 1952 The Bad and the Beautiful - Charles Schnee
• 1953 From Here to Eternity - Daniel Taradash
• 1954 The Country Girl - George Seaton
• 1955 Marty - Paddy Chayefsky[?]
• 1956 Around the World in Eighty Days - John Farrow, S. Perelman, James Poe
• 1957 The Bridge on the River Kwai - Carl Foreman, Michael Wilson
• 1958 Gigi - Alan Lerner
• 1959 Room at the Top - Neil Paterson
• 1960 Elmer Gantry - Richard Brooks
• 1961 Judgment at Nuremberg - Abby Man
• 1962 To Kill a Mockingbird - Horton Foote
• 1963 Tom Jones - John Osborne
• 1964 Becket - Edward Anhalt
• 1965 Doctor Zhivago - Robert Bolt
• 1966 A Man for All Seasons - Robert Bolt
• 1967 In the Heat of the Night - Stirling Siliphant
• 1968 The Lion in Winter - James Goldman
• 1969 Midnight Cowboy - Waldo Salt
• 1970 MASH - Ring Lardner
• 1971 The French Connection - Ernest Tidyman
• 1972 The Godfather - Francis Coppola, Mario Puzo
• 1973 The Exorcist - William Blatty
• 1974 The Godfather, Part II - Francis Coppola, Mario Puzo
• 1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Bo Goldman, Laurence Hauben
• 1976 All the President's Men - William Goldman
• 1977 Julia - Alvin Sargent
• 1978 Midnight Express - Oliver Stone
• 1979 Kramer vs. Kramer - Robert Benton
• 1980 Ordinary People - Alvin Sargent
• 1981 On Golden Pond - Ernest Thompson
• 1982 Missing - Constantin Costa-Gavras, Donald Stewart
• 1983 Terms of Endearment - James Brooks
• 1984 Amadeus - Peter Shaffer
• 1985 Out of Africa - Kurt Luedtke
• 1986 A Room with a View - Ruth Jhabvala
• 1987 The Last Emperor - Bernardo Bertolucci, Mark Peploe
• 1988 Dangerous Liaisons - Christopher Hampton
• 1989 Driving Miss Daisy - Alfred Uhry
• 1990 Dances With Wolves - Michael Blake
• 1991 The Silence of the Lambs - Ted Tally
• 1992 Howards End - Ruth Jhabvala
• 1993 Schindler's List - Steven Zaillian
• 1994 Forrest Gump - Eric Roth
• 1995 Sense and Sensibility - Emma Thompson
• 1996 Sling Blade - Billy Bob Thornton
• 1997 L.A. Confidential - Curtis Hanson, Brian Helgeland
• 1998 Gods and Monsters - Bill Condon
• 1999 The Cider House Rules - John Irving
• 2000 Traffic - Stephen Gaghan
• 2001 A Beautiful Mind - Akiva Goldsman
• 2002 The Pianist - Ronald Harwood[?] from the book by Wladyslaw Szpilman[?]
  • About a Boy - Peter Hedges[?], Chris Weitz[?], Paul Weitz[?] from the novel by Rick Hornby[?]
  • Adaptation[?] - Charlie Kaufman[?], 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[?]