All Winners of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
by christophershobris | created - 13 Feb 2020 | updated - 13 Feb 2020 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Great McGinty (1940)
Passed | 82 min | Comedy
Dan McGinty has great success in his chosen field of crooked politics, but he endangers it all in one crazy moment of honesty.
Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Brian Donlevy, Muriel Angelus, Akim Tamiroff, Allyn Joslyn
Votes: 4,395
2. Citizen Kane (1941)
PG | 119 min | Drama, Mystery
Following the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scramble to uncover the meaning of his final utterance: 'Rosebud.'
Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead
Votes: 464,016 | Gross: $1.59M
3. Woman of the Year (1942)
Passed | 114 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Rival reporters Sam and Tess fall in love and get married, only to find their relationship strained when Sam comes to resent Tess' hectic lifestyle.
Director: George Stevens | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Fay Bainter, Reginald Owen
Votes: 10,947
4. Princess O'Rourke (1943)
Passed | 94 min | Comedy, Romance
A pilot falls in love with a woman he believes is heading cross country to become a maid, little suspecting that she's actually a princess.
Director: Norman Krasna | Stars: Olivia de Havilland, Robert Cummings, Charles Coburn, Jack Carson
Votes: 1,539
5. Wilson (1944)
Passed | 154 min | Biography, Drama, History
A chronicle of the political career of US President Woodrow Wilson.
Director: Henry King | Stars: Alexander Knox, Charles Coburn, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 1,686 | Gross: $2.00M
6. Marie-Louise (1944)
Approved | 93 min | Drama
Amidst the Nazi invasion of France in 1942, a young girl is evacuated to Switzerland but is still haunted by the terrors she has witnessed.
Directors: Leopold Lindtberg, Hermann Haller, Franz Schnyder | Stars: Josiane Hegg, Germaine Tournier, Heinrich Gretler, Anne-Marie Blanc
Votes: 159
7. The Seventh Veil (1945)
Approved | 94 min | Drama, Music
A concert pianist with amnesia fights to regain her memory.
Director: Compton Bennett | Stars: James Mason, Ann Todd, Herbert Lom, Hugh McDermott
Votes: 2,340
8. The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)
Approved | 95 min | Comedy, Romance
A high school girl falls for a playboy artist, with screwball results.
Director: Irving Reis | Stars: Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Shirley Temple, Rudy Vallee
Votes: 9,569
9. Battleground (1949)
Approved | 118 min | Action, Drama, History
True tale about a squad of the 101st Airborne Division coping with being trapped by the Germans in the besieged city of Bastogne, Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944.
Director: William A. Wellman | Stars: Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy
Votes: 7,825 | Gross: $10.29M
10. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson
Votes: 235,253
11. An American in Paris (1951)
Passed | 114 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
Three friends struggle to find work in Paris. Things become more complicated when two of them fall in love with the same woman.
Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guétary
Votes: 36,680 | Gross: $4.50M
12. The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)
Approved | 78 min | Comedy, Crime
A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipment of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbor to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country as miniature Eiffel Towers.
Director: Charles Crichton | Stars: Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sidney James, Alfie Bass
Votes: 15,450
13. Titanic (1953)
Not Rated | 98 min | Drama, History, Romance
An unhappily married couple struggle to deal with their problems while on board the luxurious, ill-fated RMS Titanic.
Director: Jean Negulesco | Stars: Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Wagner, Audrey Dalton
Votes: 7,614 | Gross: $4.91M
14. On the Waterfront (1954)
Approved | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
An ex-prize fighter turned New Jersey longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses, including his older brother, as he starts to connect with the grieving sister of one of the syndicate's victims.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger
Votes: 163,905 | Gross: $9.60M
15. Interrupted Melody (1955)
Passed | 106 min | Biography, Drama, Music
This movie chronicles Australian-born opera star Marjorie Lawrence's success, her battle with polio, and her eventual career comeback.
Director: Curtis Bernhardt | Stars: Glenn Ford, Eleanor Parker, Roger Moore, Cecil Kellaway
Votes: 1,181
16. Designing Woman (1957)
Approved | 118 min | Comedy, Romance
A sportswriter and a fashion-designer marry after a whirlwind romance, and discover they have little in common.
Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Gregory Peck, Lauren Bacall, Dolores Gray, Sam Levene
Votes: 5,432
17. The Defiant Ones (1958)
Approved | 96 min | Crime, Drama
Two chained-together escaped convicts, White and Black, must learn to get along in order to elude capture.
Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, Cara Williams, Theodore Bikel
Votes: 17,672
18. Pillow Talk (1959)
Passed | 102 min | Comedy, Romance
An interior decorator and a playboy songwriter share a telephone party line and size each other up.
Director: Michael Gordon | Stars: Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall, Thelma Ritter
Votes: 19,090 | Gross: $18.75M
19. The Apartment (1960)
Approved | 125 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A Manhattan insurance clerk tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston
Votes: 195,569 | Gross: $18.60M
20. Splendor in the Grass (1961)
Not Rated | 124 min | Drama, Romance
The love of high school sweethearts Deanie and Bud is weighed down by the oppressive expectations of their parents and society in smalltown Kansas in 1928, threatening the future of their relationship.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Pat Hingle, Audrey Christie
Votes: 22,545 | Gross: $8.72M
21. Divorce Italian Style (1961)
Not Rated | 105 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A married Sicilian baron falls in love with his cousin and vows to wed her, but with divorce illegal he must concoct a crime of passion to do away with his wife.
Director: Pietro Germi | Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Daniela Rocca, Stefania Sandrelli, Leopoldo Trieste
Votes: 14,079
22. How the West Was Won (1962)
G | 164 min | Adventure, War, Western
A family saga covering several decades of Westward expansion in the 19th century, including the Gold Rush, the Civil War, and the building of the railroads.
Directors: John Ford, Henry Hathaway, George Marshall, Richard Thorpe | Stars: James Stewart, John Wayne, Gregory Peck, Henry Fonda
Votes: 23,173 | Gross: $46.50M
23. Father Goose (1964)
Approved | 118 min | Adventure, Comedy, Romance
During World War II, a man persuaded to live on an isolated island and spot aircraft finds himself responsible for a teacher and several students, all female.
Director: Ralph Nelson | Stars: Cary Grant, Leslie Caron, Trevor Howard, Jack Good
Votes: 12,258 | Gross: $12.50M
24. Darling (1965)
TV-MA | 128 min | Drama, Romance
Beautiful but amoral model Diana Scott sleeps her way to the top of the London fashion scene at the height of the Swinging Sixties.
Director: John Schlesinger | Stars: Julie Christie, Dirk Bogarde, Laurence Harvey, José Luis de Vilallonga
Votes: 7,865
25. A Man and a Woman (1966)
Approved | 102 min | Drama, Romance
A widow and a widower find their relationship developing into love, but their past tragedies prove hard to overcome, causing them to proceed with utmost delicacy.
Director: Claude Lelouch | Stars: Anouk Aimée, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Pierre Barouh, Valérie Lagrange
Votes: 11,696
26. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
Approved | 108 min | Comedy, Drama
A couple's attitudes are challenged when their daughter introduces them to her African-American fiancé.
Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn, Katharine Houghton
Votes: 48,708 | Gross: $56.70M
27. The Producers (1967)
PG | 88 min | Comedy, Music
A stage-play producer devises a plan to make money by producing a sure-fire flop.
Director: Mel Brooks | Stars: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn, Kenneth Mars
Votes: 59,459 | Gross: $0.11M
28. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
PG | 110 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
In 1890s Wyoming, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid lead a band of outlaws. When a train robbery goes wrong, they find themselves on the run with a posse hard on their heels. After considering their options, they escape to South America.
Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, Strother Martin
Votes: 226,053 | Gross: $102.31M
29. Patton (1970)
GP | 172 min | Biography, Drama, War
The World War II phase of the career of controversial American general George S. Patton.
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Stephen Young, Michael Strong
Votes: 107,582 | Gross: $61.70M
30. The Hospital (1971)
PG-13 | 103 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
A hospital's chief-of-staff struggles to find meaning in his life during a spate of staff deaths.
Director: Arthur Hiller | Stars: George C. Scott, Diana Rigg, Barnard Hughes, Richard Dysart
Votes: 7,271 | Gross: $19.71M
31. The Candidate (1972)
PG | 110 min | Comedy, Drama
Bill McKay is a candidate for the U.S. Senate from California. He has no hope of winning, so he is willing to tweak the establishment.
Director: Michael Ritchie | Stars: Robert Redford, Peter Boyle, Melvyn Douglas, Don Porter
Votes: 11,850 | Gross: $0.12M
32. The Sting (1973)
PG | 129 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Two grifters team up to pull off the ultimate con.
Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning
Votes: 278,486 | Gross: $159.60M
33. Chinatown (1974)
R | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A private detective hired to expose an adulterer in 1930s Los Angeles finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez
Votes: 347,856
34. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
R | 125 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Three amateur bank robbers plan to hold up a bank. A nice simple robbery: Walk in, take the money, and run. Unfortunately, the supposedly uncomplicated heist suddenly becomes a bizarre nightmare as everything that could go wrong does.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Al Pacino, John Cazale, Penelope Allen, Sully Boyar
Votes: 271,991 | Gross: $50.00M
35. Network (1976)
R | 121 min | Drama
A television network cynically exploits a deranged former anchor's ravings and revelations about the news media for its own profit, but finds that his message may be difficult to control.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall
Votes: 169,639
36. Annie Hall (1977)
PG | 93 min | Comedy, Romance
Alvy Singer, a divorced Jewish comedian, reflects on his relationship with ex-lover Annie Hall, an aspiring nightclub singer, which ended abruptly just like his previous marriages.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane
Votes: 277,299 | Gross: $39.20M
37. Coming Home (1978)
R | 127 min | Drama, Romance, War
In 1968 California, a woman whose husband is a Marine officer fighting in Vietnam falls in love with a former high school classmate who suffered a paralyzing combat injury in the war.
Director: Hal Ashby | Stars: Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, Bruce Dern, Penelope Milford
Votes: 14,696 | Gross: $32.65M
38. Breaking Away (1979)
PG | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Sport
A working-class Indiana teen obsessed with the Italian cycling team vies for the affections of a college girl while searching for life goals with his friends.
Director: Peter Yates | Stars: Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Earle Haley
Votes: 25,339 | Gross: $16.42M
39. Melvin and Howard (1980)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama
The story of hard-luck Melvin E. Dummar, who claimed to have received a will naming him an heir to the fortune of Howard Hughes.
Director: Jonathan Demme | Stars: Paul Le Mat, Jason Robards, Elizabeth Cheshire, Mary Steenburgen
Votes: 5,267 | Gross: $4.31M
40. Chariots of Fire (1981)
PG | 125 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
Two British track athletes, one a determined Jew and the other a devout Christian, are driven to win in the 1924 Olympics as they wrestle with issues of pride and conscience.
Director: Hugh Hudson | Stars: Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nicholas Farrell, Nigel Havers
Votes: 65,560 | Gross: $58.97M
41. Gandhi (1982)
PG | 191 min | Biography, Drama, History
The life of the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British rule through his philosophy of nonviolent protest.
Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Ben Kingsley, John Gielgud, Rohini Hattangadi, Roshan Seth
Votes: 239,704 | Gross: $52.77M
42. Tender Mercies (1983)
PG | 92 min | Drama, Music
A broken-down, middle-aged country singer gets a new wife, reaches out to his long-lost daughter, and tries to put his troubled life back together.
Director: Bruce Beresford | Stars: Robert Duvall, Tess Harper, Betty Buckley, Wilford Brimley
Votes: 11,930 | Gross: $8.44M
43. Places in the Heart (1984)
PG | 111 min | Drama
In central Texas in the 1930s, a widow with two small children tries to save her small 40-acre farm with the help of a blind boarder and an itinerant black handyman.
Director: Robert Benton | Stars: Sally Field, Lindsay Crouse, Ed Harris, Amy Madigan
Votes: 13,228 | Gross: $34.90M
44. Witness (1985)
R | 112 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller