| Year |
Winner |
| 1927-28 |
Seventh Heaven - Benjamin Glazer from a play by Austin Stong |
| 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 |
| 1929-30 |
The Big House - Joseph Farnham, Martin Flavin, Frances Marion,
Lennox Marion original |
| 1930-31 |
Cimarron - Howard Estabrook from the novel by Edna Ferber |
| 1931-32 |
Bad Girl - Edwin J. Burke from the novel and play by Viña Delmar |
| 1932-33 |
Little Women - Victor Heerman, Sarah Y. Mason from the novel by
Louisa May Alcott |
| 1934 |
It Happened One Night - Robert Riskin from the story Night Bus
by Samuel Hopkins Adams |
| 1935 |
The Informer - Dudley Nichols from the novel by Liam O'Flaherty. |
| 1936 |
The Story of Louis Pasteur - Pierre Collings, Sheridan Gibney from
their own story |
| 1937 |
The Life of Emile Zola - Heinz Herald, Geza Herczag, Norman Raine
from the book Zola and His Time by Matthew Josephson |
| 1938 |
Pygmalion - Ian Dalrymple, Cecil Lewis, W.P. Lipscomb, George Bernard
Shaw from the play by George Bernard Shaw |
| 1939 |
Gone with the Wind - Sidney Howard from the novel by Margaret Mitchell |
| 1940 |
The Philadelphia Story - Donald Ogden Stewart from the play by Philip
Barry |
| 1941 |
Here Comes Mr. Jordan - Sidney Buchman, Seton Miller from the play
Heaven Can Wait by Harry Segall |
| 1942 |
Mrs. Miniver - George Froeschel, James Hilton, Claudine West, Arthur
Wimperis based on the novel by Jan Struther |
| 1943 |
Casablanca - Philip Epstein, Julius Epstein, Howard Koch from the
play Everybody Comes to Rick's by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison |
| 1944 |
Going My Way - Frank Butler, Frank Cavett from the story by Leo
McCarey |
| 1945 |
The Lost Weekend - Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder from the novel
by Charles R. Jackson |
| 1946 |
The Best Years of Our Lives - Robert Sherwood from the novel Glory
for Me by MacKinlay Kantor |
| 1947 |
Miracle on 34th Street - George Seaton from the story by Valentine
Davies |
| 1948 |
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre - John Huston from the novel by
B. Traven |
| 1949 |
A Letter to Three Wives - Joseph Mankiewicz from the novel Letter
to Five Wives by John Klempner |
| 1950 |
1950 All About Eve - Joseph Mankiewicz from the short story The
Wisdom of Eve by Mary Orr |
| 1951 |
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 |
| 1952 |
The Bad and the Beautiful - Charles Schnee from the story Tribute
to a Badman by Charles Bradshaw |
| 1953 |
1953 From Here to Eternity - Daniel Taradash from the novel by James
Jones |
| 1954 |
1954 The Country Girl - George Seaton from the play by Clifford
Odets |
| 1955 |
Marty - Paddy Chayefsky based on his teleplay |
| 1956 |
Around the World in Eighty Days - John Farrow, S. J. Perelman,
James Poe from the novel by Jules Verne |
| 1957 |
The Bridge on the River Kwai - Carl Foreman, Michael Wilson (front:
Pierre Boulle) based on the novel by Pierre Boulle |
| 1958 |
Gigi - Alan Jay Lerner based on the novel by Colette |
| 1959 |
Room at the Top - Neil Paterson from the novel by John Braine |
| 1960 |
Elmer Gantry - Richard Brooks from the novel by Sinclair Lewis |
| 1961 |
Judgment at Nuremberg - Abby Mann from his teleplay |
| 1962 |
To Kill a Mockingbird - Horton Foote from the novel by Harper Lee |
| 1963 |
Tom Jones - John Osborne from the novel The History of Tom Jones,
a Foundling by Henry Fielding |
| 1964 |
Becket - Edward Anhalt from the play by Jean Anouilh |
| 1965 |
Doctor Zhivago - Robert Bolt from the novel by Boris Pasternak |
| 1966 |
A Man for All Seasons - Robert Bolt from his play |
| 1967 |
In the Heat of the Night - Stirling Silliphant from the novel by
John Ball |
| 1968 |
The Lion in Winter - James Goldman from his play |
| 1969 |
Midnight Cowboy - Waldo Salt from the novel by James Leo Herlihy |
| 1970 |
M*A*S*H - Ring Lardner Jr. from the novel by Richard Hooker |
| 1971 |
The French Connection - Ernest Tidyman from the novel by Robin
Moore |
| 1972 |
The Godfather - Mario Puzo, Francis Coppola from the novel by Mario
Puzo |
| 1973 |
The Exorcist - William Blatty from his novel |
| 1974 |
The Godfather, Part II - Francis Coppola, Mario Puzo from the novel
The Godfather by Mario Puzo |
| 1975 |
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Bo Goldman, Laurence Hauben from
the novel by Ken Kesey |
| 1976 |
All the President's Men - William Goldman from the book by Carl
Bernstein and Bob Woodward |
| 1977 |
Julia - Alvin Sargent from the novel Pentimento by Lillian Hellman |
| 1978 |
Midnight Express - Oliver Stone from the book by Billy Hayes and
William Hoffer |
| 1979 |
Kramer vs. Kramer - Robert Benton from the novel by Avery Corman |
| 1980 |
Ordinary People - Alvin Sargent from the novel by Judith Guest |
| 1981 |
On Golden Pond - Ernest Thompson from his play |
| 1982 |
Missing - Constantin Costa-Gavras, Donald Stewart from the book
by Thomas Hauser |
| 1983 |
Terms of Endearment - James L. Brooks from the novel by Larry McMurtry |
| 1984 |
Amadeus - Peter Shaffer from his play |
| 1985 |
Out of Africa - Kurt Luedtke from the memoirs of Isak Dinesen, the
book Silence Will Speak by Errol Trzebinski and the book Isak Dinesen:
The Life of a Storyteller by Judith Thurman |
| 1986 |
A Room with a View - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from the novel by E.M.
Forster |
| 1987 |
The Last Emperor - Bernardo Bertolucci, Mark Peploe from the autobiography
From Emperor to Citizen: The Autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi by
Henry Pu Yi |
| 1988 |
Dangerous Liaisons - Christopher Hampton from the novel by Choderlos
de Laclos and the play by Christopher Hampton |
| 1989 |
Driving Miss Daisy - Alfred Uhry from the play by Alfred Uhry |
| 1990 |
Dances with Wolves - Michael Blake from the novel by Michael Blake |
| 1991 |
The Silence of the Lambs - Ted Tally from the novel by Thomas Harris |
| 1992 |
Howards End - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from the novel by E.M. Forster |
| 1993 |
Schindler's List - Steven Zaillian from the novel by Thomas Keneally |
| 1994 |
Forrest Gump - Eric Roth from the novel by Winston Groom |
| 1995 |
Sense and Sensibility - Emma Thompson from the novel by Jane Austen |
| 1996 |
Sling Blade - Billy Bob Thornton from the play by Billy Bob Thornton |
| 1997 |
L.A. Confidential - Curtis Hanson, Brian Helgeland from the novel
by James Ellroy |
| 1998 |
Gods and Monsters - Bill Condon from the novel Father of Frankenstein
by Christopher Bram |
| 1999 |
The Cider House Rules - John Irving from the novel by John Irving |
| 2000 |
Traffic - Stephen Gaghan from the teleplay Traffik by Simon Moore |
| 2001 |
A Beautiful Mind - Akiva Goldsman from the biography by Sylvia
Nasar |
| 2002 |
The Pianist - Ronald Harwood from the book by Władysław Szpilman |
| 2003 |
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - Fran Walsh, Philippa
Boyens and Peter Jackson from the novel by J. R. R. Tolkien |
| 2004 |
Sideways - Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor from the novel by Rex
Pickett |
| 2005 |
Brokeback Mountain - Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana from the short story by E. Annie Proulx |
| 2006 |
The Departed - William Monahan from the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. |
| 2007 |
No Country for Old Men - Ethan and Joel Coen from the novel by Cormac McCarthy |
| 2008 |
Slumdog Millionaire – Simon Beaufoy |
