 | 2004 | Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry & Pierre Bismuth Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind | Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor Sideways |
| 2003 | Sofia Coppola Lost in Translation | Fran Walch, Phillipa Boyens & Peter Jackson The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King |
| 2002 | Pedro Almodóvar Talk to Her | Ronald Harwood The Pianist |
| | Screenplay written directly for the screen | Screenplay based on material previously produced or published |
| 2001 | Julian Fellowes Gosford Park | Akiva Goldsman A Beautiful Mind |
| 2000 | Cameron Crowe Almost Famous | Stephen Gaghan Traffic |
| 1999 | Alan Ball American Beauty | John Irving The Cider House Rules |
| 1998 | Marc Norman & Tom Stoppard Shakespeare in Love | Bill Condon Gods and Monsters |
| 1997 | Ben Affleck & Matt Damon Good Will Hunting | Brian Helgeland & Curtis Hanson L.A. Confidential |
| 1996 | Ethan Coen & Joel Coen Fargo | Billy Bob Thornton Sling Blade |
| 1995 | Christopher McQuarrie The Usual Suspects | Emma Thompson Sense and Sensibility |
| 1994 | Quentin Tarantino (Story and Screenplay) & Roger Avary (story) Pulp Fiction | Eric Roth Forrest Gump |
| 1993 | Jane Campion The Piano | Steven Zaillian Schindler's List |
| 1992 | Neil Jordan The Crying Game | Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Howards End |
| 1991 | Callie Khouri Thelma & Louise | Ted Tally The Silence of the Lambs |
| 1990 | Bruce Joel Rubin Ghost | Michael Blake Dances With Wolves |
| 1989 | Tom Schulman Dead Poets Society | Alfred Uhry Driving Miss Daisy |
| 1988 | Ronald Bass & Barry Morrow Rain Man | Christopher Hampton Dangerous Liaisons |
| 1987 | John Patrick Shanley Moonstruck | Mark Peploe & Bernardo Bertolucci The Last Emperor |
| 1986 | Woody Allen Hannah and Her Sisters | Ruth Prawer Jhabvala A Room with a View |
| 1985 | Earl W. Wallace, William Kelley & Pamela Wallace Witness | Kurt Luedke Out of Africa |
| 1984 | Robert Benton Places in the Heart | Peter Shaffer Amadeus |
| 1983 | Horton Foote Tender Mercies | James L. Brooks Terms of Endearment |
| 1982 | John Briley Gandhi | Costa-Gavras & Donald Stewart Missing |
| 1981 | Colin Welland Chariots of Fire | Ernest Thompson On Golden Pond |
| 1980 | Bo Goldman Melvin and Howard | Alvin Sargent Ordinary People |
| 1979 | Steve Tesich Breaking Away | Robert Benton Kramer vs. Kramer |
| 1978 | Nancy Dowd, Waldo Salt & Robert C. Jones Coming Home | Oliver Stone Midnight Express |
| 1977 | Woody Allen & Marshall Brickman Annie Hall | Alvin Sargent Julia |
| 1976 | Paddy Chayefsky Network | William Goldman All the President's Men |
| 1975 | Frank Pierson Dog Day Afternoon | Lawrence Hauben & Bo Goldman One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest |
| 1974 | Robert Towne Chinatown | Francis Ford Coppola & Mario Puzo The Godfather Part II |
| | Story and Screenplay - based on factual material or material not previously published or produced | Screenplay - based on material from another medium |
| 1973 | David S. Ward The Sting | William Peter Blatty The Exorcist |
| 1972 | Jeremy Larner The Candidate | Mario Puzo & Francis Ford Coppola The Godfather |
| 1971 | Paddy Chayefsky The Hospital | Ernest Tidyman The French Connection |
| 1970 | Francis Ford Coppola & Edmund H. North Patton | Ring Lardner, Jr. M*A*S*H |
| 1969 | William Goldman Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid | Waldo Salt Midnight Cowboy |
| 1968 | Mel Brooks The Producers | James Goldman The Lion in Winter |
| | Story & Screenplay - written directly for the screen | Screenplay - based on material from another medium |
| 1967 | William Rose Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | Stirling Silliphant In the Heat of the Night |
| 1966 | Claude Lelouch & Pierre Uytterhoeven A Man and a Woman | Robert Bolt A Man for All Seasons |
| 1965 | Frederic Raphael Darling | Robert Bolt Doctor Zhivago |
| 1964 | S.H. Barnett, Peter Stone & Frank Tarloff Father Goose | Edward Anhalt Becket |
| 1963 | James R. Webb How the West Was Won | John Osborne Tom Jones |
| 1962 | Ennio DeConcini, Alfredo Giannetti & Pietro Germi Divorce - Italian Style | Horton Foote To Kill a Mockingbird |
| 1961 | William Inge Splendor in the Grass | Abby Mann Judgment at Nuremberg |
| 1960 | Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond The Apartment | Richard Brooks Elmer Gantry |
| 1959 | Russell Rouse, Clarence Greene, Stanley Shapiro & Maurice Richlin Pillow Talk | Neil Peterson Room at the Top |
| 1958 | Nathan E. Douglas & Harold Jacob Smith The Defiant Ones | Alan Jay Lerner Gigi |
| 1957 | George Wells Designing Woman | Pierre Boule, Carl Foreman & Michael Wilson The Bridge on the River Kwai |
| | Motion Picture story | Original Screenplay | Adapted Screenplay
| 1956 | Dalton Trumbo The Brave One (Dalton Trumbo used the name Robert Rich in this film's credits.) | Albert Lamorisse The Red Baloon | James Poe, John Farrow & S.J. Perelman Around the World in 80 Days
| | Motion Picture Story | Screenplay | Story and Screenplay
| 1955 | Daniel Fuchs Love Me or Leave Me | Paddy Chayevsky Marty | Betty Comden & Adolph Green Interrupted Melody
| 1954 | Philip Yordan Broken Lance | George Seaton The Country Girl | Budd Schulberg Down on the Waterfront
| 1953 | Dalton Trumbo Roman Holiday | Daniel Taradash From Here to Eternity | Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch & Richard Breen Titanic
| 1952 | Frederic M. Frank, Theodore St. John & Frank Cavett The Greatest Show on Earth | Charles Schnee The Bad and the Beautiful | T.E.B. Clarke The Lavender Hill Mob
| 1951 | Paul Dehn & James Bernard Seven Days to Noon | Michael Wilson & Harry Brown A Place in the Sun | Alan Jay Lerner An American in Paris
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