Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay

The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best script not based upon previously published material. It was created for 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the Oscars for 1957, the two categories were combined to honor only the screenplay. In 2002, the name of the award was changed from Writing (Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen) to Writing (Original Screenplay).

Notable nominees

Noted novelists and playwrights who have received nominations in this category include: John Steinbeck, Noël Coward, Raymond Chandler, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Edward Bond, Arthur C. Clarke, Lillian Hellman, Neil Simon, Tom Stoppard, and Terence Rattigan.

Special winners

Woody Allen has the most nominations in this category with 16, and the most awards with 3. He also holds the record as the oldest winner (at age 76 for Midnight in Paris, 2011).

Ben Affleck is the youngest winner, at the age of 25 for Good Will Hunting; he co-wrote the screenplay with Matt Damon (age 27 at the time of their award).

Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work by screenwriters for a film, video game, or television program. These screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated. A play for television is also known as a teleplay.

Format and style

The format is structured in a way that one page usually equates to one minute of screen time. In a "shooting script", each scene is numbered, and technical direction may be given. In a "spec" or a "draft" in various stages of development, the scenes are not numbered, and technical direction is at a minimum. The standard font for a screenplay is 12 point, 10 pitch Courier Typeface.

The major components are action and dialogue. The "action" is written in the present tense. The "dialogue" are the lines the characters speak. Unique to the screenplay (as opposed to a stage play) is the use of slug lines.

A slug line, also called a master scene heading, occurs at the start of every scene, and is usually made up of three parts. Part one states whether the scene is set inside (interior/INT.) outside (exterior/EXT.), or both. Part two states location of the scene. Part three, separated from Part two by a hyphen, refers to the time of the scene. Each slug line begins a new scene. In a shooting script, the slug lines are numbered consecutively. These scene numbers serve as mile-post markers in a script. This allows any part of the script to be referred to by scene number.