Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay

An annual Academy Award honoring a film screenplay adapted from previously published or produced material. It recognizes the writers responsible for transforming an existing work into a feature-film script.

Academy Awards: Annual awards presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for achievements in filmmaking. The adapted-screenplay prize is one category within this broader awards program.
Screenplay: A written plan for a film that specifies dialogue, action, and other elements for production. The award honors screenplays, rather than the films or their source works as a whole.
The Godfather: A 1972 crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and adapted from Mario Puzo’s novel. Its screenplay won the award by reshaping a sprawling popular novel into a film narrative.
Academy Award for Best Director: An Academy Award honoring achievement in directing a film. Its winners sometimes overlap with adapted-screenplay winners, but it recognizes a distinct creative contribution.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: A professional organization that recognizes achievements in film and administers the Academy Awards. Its members nominate and vote on the category’s winners.
Adaptation: The transformation of a work from one medium, form, or context into another. The category recognizes screenwriting built from material that already existed in another form.
The Social Network: A 2010 drama film written by Aaron Sorkin and based on Ben Mezrich’s book about Facebook’s founding. Its win shows that nonfiction books can provide source material for the category.
BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay: A British Academy Film Award honoring a screenplay adapted from existing material. Comparing its winners with the Academy’s reveals differences in national voting bodies and awards outcomes.
1929 Academy Awards: The first Academy Awards ceremony, held in 1929 to honor films released in 1927 and 1928. The category’s lineage begins with the award for Best Writing, Adaptation.
Source material: The preexisting work or body of material on which a new work is based. Its publication or prior production can make a screenplay eligible as adapted.

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