JEWISH RECIPIENTS OF THE ACADEMY AWARD
 FOR BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY*

(39% of recipients)

JINFO.ORG

Listed below are recipients of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay* who were, or are, Jewish (or of half-Jewish descent, as noted).  For lists of Jewish novelists, playwrights, screenwriters, poets, and other Jewish writers, see Jews in Literature.
  • Herman J. Mankiewicz (1941), Citizen Kane
  • Michael Kanin (1942), Woman of the Year
  • Norman Krasna (1943), Princess O'Rourke
  • Sidney Sheldon (1947), The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
  • Robert Pirosh (1949), Battleground
  • Billy Wilder (1950), Sunset Boulevard
  • Alan Jay Lerner (1951), An American in Paris
  • Walter Reisch (1953), Titanic
  • Budd Schulberg (1954), On the Waterfront
  • Sonya Levien (1955), Interrupted Melody
  • William Ludwig (1955), Interrupted Melody
  • Nathan E. Douglas 1 (1958), The Defiant Ones
  • Clarence Greene (1959), Pillow Talk
  • Maurice Richlin (1959), Pillow Talk
  • Stanley Shapiro (1959), Pillow Talk
  • I. A. L. Diamond (1960), The Apartment
  • Billy Wilder (1960), The Apartment
  • Sanford Barnett (1964), Father Goose
  • Peter Stone (1964), Father Goose
  • Frank Tarloff (1964), Father Goose
  • Frederic Raphael (1965), Darling
  • Claude Lelouch (1966), A Man and a Woman
  • Mel Brooks (1968), The Producers
  • William Goldman (1969), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
  • Paddy Chayefsky (1971), Hospital
  • Jeremy Larner (1972), The Candidate
  • Robert Towne (1974), Chinatown
  • Paddy Chayefsky (1976), Network
  • Woody Allen (1977), Annie Hall
  • Marshall Brickman (1977), Annie Hall
  • Bo Goldman (1980), Melvin and Howard
  • Woody Allen (1986), Hannah and Her Sisters
  • Ronald Bass (1988), Rain Man
  • Tom Schulman (1989), Dead Poets Society
  • Bruce Joel Rubin (1990), Ghost
  • Ethan Coen (1996), Fargo
  • Joel Coen (1996), Fargo
  • Sir Tom Stoppard (1998), Shakespeare in Love
  • Pierre Bismuth (2004), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
  • Charlie Kaufman (2004), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
  • Mark Boal (2009), The Hurt Locker
  • David Seidler (2010), The King's Speech
  • Woody Allen (2011), Midnight in Paris
  • Spike Jonze 2 (2013), Her
  • Josh Singer (2015), Spotlight
  • Kenneth Lonergan 3 (2016), Manchester By The Sea
  • Arthur Harari (2023), Anatomy of a Fall
NOTES
1. Pseudonym of Nedrick Young.
2. Born Adam Spiegel; Jewish father, non-Jewish mother.
3. Jewish mother and step-father, non-Jewish biological father.

*
Between the years 1927 and 1956, Oscars were also awarded in the separate category of Best Original Motion Picture Story.  Jewish recipients, who won approximately one-third of these awards, included:
  • Ben Hecht (1927/1928), Underworld
  • Arthur Caesar (1934), Manhattan Melodrama
  • Ben Hecht (1935), The Scoundrel
  • Dore Schary (1938), Boys Town
  • Benjamin Glazer (1940), Arise, My Love
  • Harry Segall (1941), Here Comes Mr. Jordan
  • Emeric Pressburger (1942), The Invaders
  • David Wechsler (1948), The Search
  • Edward Anhalt (1950), Panic in the Streets
  • Paul Dehn (1951), Seven Days to Noon
  • Philip Yordan (1954), Broken Lance
  • Daniel Fuchs (1955), Love Me or Leave Me

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