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 Academy 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 Nick 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