Jewish Recipients of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay

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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
George Wells [b. George Kahn] ¹ (1957), Designing Woman
Nathan E. Douglas² (1958), The Defiant Ones
Harold Jacob Smith (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
Edmund North³ (1970), Patton
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
Marc Norman (1998), Shakespeare in Love
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 [b. Adam Spiegel]⁴ (2013), Her
Josh Singer (2015), Spotlight
Kenneth Lonergan⁵ (2016), Manchester By The Sea
Arthur Harari (2023), Anatomy of a Fall

NOTES
1. Jewish father, script writer for stage, screen, and radio Billy K. Wells (b. Marcus Kahn)
2. Pseudonym of Nedrick Young.
3. Jewish father, film producer Ruben "Bobby" North.
4. Jewish father, non-Jewish mother.
5. 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 half of these awards, included:

Ben Hecht (1927/1928), Underworld
Robert Lord [b. Robert Leven] (1932/1333), One Way Passage
Arthur Caesar (1934), Manhattan Melodrama
Ben Hecht (1935), The Scoundrel
Dore Schary (1938), Boys Town
Benjamin Glazer (1940), Arise, My Love
John Toldy [b. János Székely] (1940), Arise, My Love
Harry Segall (1941), Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Emeric Pressburger (1942), The Invaders
Valentine Davies (1947), Miracle on 34th Street
David Wechsler (1948), The Search
Douglas Morrow [b. Harry Mandel] (1949), The Stratton Story
Edward Anhalt (1950), Panic in the Streets
Paul Dehn (1951), Seven Days to Noon
Frederic Frank (1952), The Greatest Show on Earth
Philip Yordan (1954), Broken Lance
Daniel Fuchs (1955), Love Me or Leave Me

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