List of common film awards categories

This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.

Best Actor/Best Actress

Best Adapted Screenplay

A "Best Adapted Screenplay" award is generally issued for the best achievement in transferring a written work from another genre, such as a novel or comic book, in whole or in part, to a feature film.

Best Original Screenplay

Film adaptation

A film adaptation is the transfer of a written work, in whole or in part, to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.

A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film. Other works adapted into films include non-fiction (including journalism), autobiography, comic books, scriptures, plays, historical sources, and even other films. From the earliest days of cinema, in nineteenth-century Europe, adaptation from such diverse resources has been a ubiquitous practice of filmmaking. Between 1994 and 2013, 58% of the top grossing films in the world were adaptations.

Novel adaptations

Novels are frequently adapted for films. For the most part, these adaptations attempt either to appeal to an existing commercial audience (the adaptation of best sellers and the "prestige" adaptation of works) or to tap into the innovation and novelty of a less well known author. Inevitably, the question of "faithfulness" arises, and the more high profile the source novel, the more insistent are the questions of fidelity.

Writers Guild of America Award

The Writers Guild of America Awards for outstanding achievements in film, television, radio, and videogames (added in 2008) writing, including both fiction and non-fiction categories, have been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949. In 2004, the awards show was broadcast on television for the first time.

Eligibility

The screen awards are for films that were exhibited theatrically in the Los Angeles area during the preceding calendar year. The television awards are for series that were produced and aired between December 1 and November 30, regardless of how many episodes aired during this time period.

Additionally, scripts must be produced under the jurisdiction of the WGA or under a collective bargaining agreement in Canada, Ireland, New Zealand or the U.K.

Lifetime Achievement Awards

Each year at the awards, two lifetime achievement awards are presented. One is for screenwriting and the other is for TV writing:

Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay

The Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is one of the three screenwriting Writers Guild of America Awards, one that is specifically for film. The Writers Guild of America began making the distinction between an original screenplay and an adapted screenplay in 1970, when Waldo Salt, screenwriter for Midnight Cowboy, won for "Best Adapted Drama" and Arnold Schulman won "Best Adapted Comedy" for his screenplay of Goodbye, Columbus. Separate awards for dramas and comedies continued until 1985.

Winners and nominated films

The following lists the nominated films.

1970s

Best Adapted Drama