The Top 25 Best Original Screenplay Winners So Far (Updated for 2026)

Moving right along folks, as we only have the big four categories to go after this one! Continuing a tradition I’ve been keen on for years, I’m ranking the new crop of Academy Award winners. For nearly all of the Oscar categories, you’ll see me list the top 25 recipients of that prize. Sometimes, our newest winner will appear. Other times, they’ll be relegated to the Honorable Mention category. Who knows, maybe one or two won’t even make the cut? It’s a list series that I’ll do each and every single year, in the weeks after the ceremony concludes. So, while this is a fun way to think about the Oscars in the aftermath of the latest telecast, it’s also a beginning for another column here on the site. Of course, definitely show us your own lists as well, in the comments section below. We’re definitely keen to know what you think!

Traditionally, I make Best Original Screenplay an early ranking, but I held it back this year, for no good reason, as it’s one of my favorites categories. This category has often been very good to film fans, with some real creative cinema emerging victorious. Last year saw Sean Baker win for Anora, with recent winners also including Anatomy of a Fall , Everything Everywhere All At Once, Belfast, Promising Young Woman, Parasite, Get Out, her, Manchester by the Sea, and Spotlight. This year, it was Ryan Coogler taking home the gold for Sinners. Those of you who pay attention know that I’m often a huge fan of the Original Screenplay winners. In fact, some of the recent ones come in pretty highly here. Read on to find out just where Sinner wound up placing, but spoiler alert, it comes in pretty high, much like Anora the year prior…

Here now are what I consider to be the 25 best winners of the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, to date:

25. Little Miss Sunshine (Michael Arndt)

24. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet and Arthur Harari)

23. Juno (Diablo Cody)

22. Dog Day Afternoon (Frank Pierson)

21. Spotlight (Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer)

20. Sinners (Ryan Coogler)

19. Hannah and her Sisters (Woody Allen)

18. Chinatown (Robert Towne)

17. Everything Everywhere All At Once (The Daniels)

16. On the Waterfront (Budd Schulberg)

15. Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan)

14. The Apartment (I. A. L. Diamond and Billy Wilder)

13. Anora (Sean Baker)

12. Network (Paddy Chayefsky)

11. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)

10. Parasite (Bong Joon Ho and Jin Won Han)

9. Good Will Hunting (Ben Affleck and Matt Damon)

8. Citizen Kane (Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles)

7. Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell)

6. Annie Hall (Woody Allen)

5. her (Spike Jonze)

4. The Producers (Mel Brooks)

3. Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe)

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Pierre Bismuth, Michel Gondry, and Charlie Kaufman)

1. Pulp Fiction (Roger Avary and Quentin Tarantino)

Honorable Mention: Belfast (Kenneth Branagh), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (William Goldman), The Candidate (Jeremy Larner), Get Out (Jordan Peele), The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal), and Pillow Talk (Clarence Greene, Maurice Richlin, Russell Rouse, and Stanley Shapiro)

Stay tuned for another category later on this week or early next week!