A Century of Film

Original Screenplay

It’s a bit difficult to write the history of original screenplays on film.  First of all, it’s been hard to determine, a lot of times, over the years, if a film truly is original or not.  When the old oscars.org site existed they listed films by a source author which was really helpful for determining if something was adapted or not but not perfect as sometimes the “source” was just a screen story or an idea.  There were also occasions where they didn’t list anything, the same way that sometimes the IMDb or Wikipedia don’t list a source material and I end up considering something original until someone points out that it’s not.

There is also the way that Hollywood functioned in the Studio Era, with writers paid to sit around and come up with “screen stories” that would then be turned into a script by some other writer.  The Academy used to distinguish that with its “Original Story” writing category.  But even that didn’t work perfectly.  After all, the winner in 1941 was Here Comes Mr. Jordan, which was based on a play and a nominee in 1942 was The Pride of the Yankees, based, not only on the life of Lou Gehrig but on his actual published biography.

The Academy wasn’t the only one to cause problems with this, though.  There is not an awards group that has not complicated this matter.  To that end, I am waiting until the next post (Adapted Screenplay) to do any of the points lists that normally appear on these posts and combining them all into one list.  I am also not even including the Golden Globes in this post since they are the one group that has steadfastly refused to divide their Screenplay category.

What’s more, nearly all of the writers moved across the boundary at least once.  Of the numerous writers who appear at least 10 times in my total list, only three of them worked entirely in Original (Chaplin, Mike Leigh) or Adapted (John Huston).  All the rest of them did both, getting original even if they were known as adapters like Stanley Kubrick (2001) or Orson Welles (Citizen Kane) or adapting something even if most of their work is blindingly original like Woody Allen (Play It Again Sam – his own play), Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal – again his own play), Tarantino (Jackie Brown) or Nolan (The Dark Knight).

My Top 5 Original Screenplays in Film History:

  1. Sunset Blvd.
  2. Chinatown
  3. Children of Paradise
  4. Pulp Fiction
  5. Citizen Kane

The other 9 Point Screenplays (chronological):

  • Modern Times
  • The Grand Illusion
  • Sullivan’s Travels
  • The Third Man
  • On the Waterfront
  • Smiles of a Summer Night
  • Wild Strawberries
  • Ikiru
  • The Apartment
  • Through a Glass Darkly
  • Bonnie and Clyde
  • The Producers
  • Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
  • The Wild Bunch
  • The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
  • Cries and Whispers
  • Scenes from a Marriage
  • Annie Hall
  • Raiders of the Lost Ark
  • Fanny & Alexander
  • The Big Chill
  • The Purple Rose of Cairo
  • Hannah and Her Sisters
  • A Fish Called Wanda
  • Running on Empty
  • When Harry Met Sally…
  • The Crying Game
  • Four Weddings and a Funeral
  • The Usual Suspects
  • Lone Star
  • Fargo
  • Boogie Nights
  • Shakespeare in Love
  • American Beauty
  • Magnolia
  • Being John Malkovich
  • Almost Famous
  • The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain
  • Memento
  • Talk to Her
  • Y tu mamá tambien
  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
  • Good Night and Good Luck

note:  I rate all aspects of film on a 9 point scale.  They also correspond to the 100 point scale for Best Picture.  Films above *** (76-99) all land on the scale.  1 point is for 76-79, just worth mentioning.  2 points is for 80-83, a weak mention, 3 points is for 84-87, near great, 4 points is for 88-89 (which is ****), a solid nominee, 5 points is for 90-91, a very solid nominee, 6 points is for 92-93, a weak winner, a 7 points is for 94-95, a worthwhile winner, 8 points is 96-97, the kind of winner you can’t complain about even if it’s not your #1 choice and 9 points is for 98-99, the very best of all-time.  The above list are my 9 point films for Sound through 2011, listed chronologically.

The Writers

Charlie Chaplin

The first great talent to do it all himself, writing, directing and starring.  His writing is spot on and continues to resonate.
Key Films:  Modern Times, The Gold Rush, The Great Dictator, City Lights

Preston Sturges

The first of the great screenwriters in the Studio Era to be allowed to turn to directing.  He won an Oscar for the script for his directorial debut after working as a writer through the thirties and in 1944 had the rare distinction of being nominated against himself for Original Screenplay at the Oscars.
Key Films:  The Miracle of Morgan Creek, Hail the Conquering Hero, The Great McGinty

Billy Wilder

He had directed one film in Europe but he was stuck as a writer in Hollywood for almost a decade before finally having enough of directors ignoring the script (namely Mitchell Leisen in Hold Back the Dawn).  He would go on to win three Oscars for writing (one in adapted) and was first in Oscar points from 1950 until 2004 and at the WGA from 1957 to 1993.  The best writer ever for film endings.  Probably the writer above all others who worked most perfectly in both original and adapted.  He also worked with collaborators and most of the points for both Charles Brackett and I.A.L. Diamond (both of whom rank quite well among various groups) came from working with Wilder.
Key Films:  Sunset Blvd., The Apartment, Ace in the Hole

Ingmar Bergman

The great serious original filmmaker, with almost all of his films being original (even one of his rare adapted ones, The Seventh Seal, was based on his own play).  Nominated for five Oscars though they never thought to actually give him one.
Key Films:  Cries and Whispers, Wild Strawberries, Smiles of a Summer Night, Fanny & Alexander

Akira Kurosawa

Equally adept with both adapted and original films.  His samurai films were mostly original while he mostly did adapted works in other genres.
Key Films:  Seven Samurai, Ikiru, The Hidden Fortress, Stray Dog

Woody Allen

Whatever you think of him personally, he’s the most celebrated screenwriter of all-time.  He’s #1 in Oscar points (by quite a ways) and has won three Oscars.  He dominates the BAFTAs with close to triple the points of any other writer.  He’s #1 at the WGA with more than twice as many points as anyone except Wilder and Ernest Lehman and he did it mostly in an era with fewer nominees.  He’s also #1 at the Globes (breaking a tie in 2011 after having been in a four way tie since 2005) where they make no distinction between original and adapted.
Key Films:  Hannah and her Sisters, Annie Hall, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Midnight in Paris

The Coen Brothers

The most original screenwriters of our time and the rare ones on this list who didn’t write scripts before their directorial debut (they actually came up as editors, not writers).
Key Films:  Blood Simple, Fargo, Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink

Mike Leigh

As one of just two writers to reach double-digits on my list without having an adapted script among the bunch, I can’t pass him by even if he’s not quite on the same level as the other writers on this list.  And he does have 3 BAFTA nominations, 4 Nighthawk nominations and 5 Oscar nominations which is nothing to pass over.
Key Films:  Topsy-Turvy, Secrets & Lies, Happy-Go-Lucky, Life is Sweet

Quentin Tarantino

The consummate master of dialogue, apparent since that opening scene in Reservoir Dogs.  It will be interesting to see how many Oscars he wins (and nominations he earns) before it’s all over.
Key Films:  Pulp Fiction, Inglorious Basterds, Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs

The Academy Awards

Summary:

This category was made endlessly complicated by the way the Academy couldn’t decide how it functioned.  I include a long history of it here with a lot of statistics about it (some of which are repeated down below with almost no changes because that post ran through 2009).  And I don’t even mention much how many of the scripts of the early 70’s would actually be considered Adapted by the Academy today because of their bizarre rule about “Based on Factual Material” aspect of the category.   For statistics below, I consider the Story category as part of Original Screenplay.

Directors:

Woody Allen dominates here, of course, with over twice as many points for his films than any other director (3 wins, 15 total noms).  Interestingly, he’s followed next by Elia Kazan, who didn’t write his films.  Of the large group (seven directors) tied for third with 240 points (any combination of wins and noms that add up to six) only Billy Wilder was also a writer.

Franchises:

A franchise, by definition, can’t earn a nomination here.  Once it becomes a franchise, it stops being original and no longer qualifies.  Which isn’t to say that a film can’t spawn a franchise.  Though none of them are “franchises”, per se, five winners of the award between 1962 and 1974 ended up with sequels.  A number of films have earned nominations that became franchises, most notably Rocky and Star Wars while more recently three different Pixar films have earned noms and then later received sequels.  I believe (though I could potentially be wrong) that Toy Story is the only film to receive an Original Screenplay nomination that would then have a sequel go on to be nominated for Adapted Screenplay.

Genres:

Every genre has earned at least one nomination, even Documentary (The Quiet One) and Short (The Red Balloon).  The latter, a 35 minute French film that has almost no dialogue, is one of the strangest winners in any category in Oscar history (and couldn’t win today, since there’s a 45 minute requirement for the feature film awards).  It also means that a Short has won the Oscar while Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi and Horror have yet to do so through 2011.  That’s not really so surprising since those four genres have combined for just 13 nominations out of almost 500 (the only Horror nominee was Sixth Sense).  Kids had a win for its only nomination prior to 1995 (Miracle on 34th Street) until Pixar started racking up noms (six – literally all the Kids noms other than Miracle).  It’s no surprise that Drama (39.43%) and Comedy (27.52%) dominate the nominations and dominate the winners even more (over 45% for Drama, almost 27% for Comedy).  Fantasy, like Kids and Short, won in its first try (Ghost).  Sci-Fi waited until 1968 for its first nom, then earned five in less than 20 years, than waited 25 years for its next nom (Inception).  Through 1957 (just one year after Original Story ended as a category), Musicals accounted for almost 13% of the nominations; since then, it’s accounted for just under 3%, many of which wouldn’t be considered Musicals by many people (including it’s only post-1955 win Almost Famous).  Drama once dominated the wins (eight in a row from 32-39 and both categories in both 44 and 45) but since 1946, the only streaks more than two are Comedy from 71-73, Drama from 81-84 and Crime from 94-96.  Since the reduction to the one category, several times there have been four Dramas nominated (1978, 1990, 2002) but Comedy managed four nominations in 1998.

Best Picture:

As documented in the linked article above, this has always been the little brother to Adapted Screenplay when it comes to Best Picture.  Consider this fact: until 1952, every winner of Adapted Screenplay was nominated for Picture.  But only one of the first six winners in Original was nominated for Picture and no film won both awards until 1944 (and that was for the Story category, not actually for Original Screenplay – it really didn’t happen the first time until 1951).  Indeed, by 1934, more films had won Original Screenplay without another nomination in any category than have ever won Adapted Screenplay without a Picture nomination.  Only 16 of the Best Picture winners have also won Original Screenplay (and five of those didn’t win Director) with 9 more Picture winners earning Screenplay noms.  Or perhaps it’s best summed up by this stat: through 2011, 24 films have won Picture, Director, Screenplay and either Actor or Actress but only 8 of those films were Original.  In total, 130 films have been nominated for both Picture and Original Screenplay, just under half of the numbers for Adapted.  From 1955-57 there were 25 Screenplay nominees (two categories for two of those years) and none of them were nominated for Picture.  There has never been a year without an Adapted nominee being nominated for Picture and from 1938 to 1942 every Adapted nominee was nominated for Picture.

Foreign Films:

This is where Original Screenplay shines.  By 1969, only four Adapted nominees were Foreign and no Foreign film has ever won the Oscar.  But four of them had won Original (with another in 2002) and by 1969 there had been 36 Foreign nominees.  In fact, from 1959 to 1976 there was at least one foreign nominee every year.  Through 2011, there have been a whopping 59 Foreign nominees in this category including five for Bergman and four for Fellini.  Of the five Foreign films to win the Oscar, only A Man and a Woman also won Foreign Film (indeed, the other four weren’t even nominated).

Single Nominations:

A stunning 17 films have won the Oscar without any other nominations, a ridiculously high amount for any category, though none has done so since 1957.  In total, 178 films have earned no other nominations aside from Original Screenplay including four for Woody Allen.

Other Categories:

Surprisingly, Screenplay matches almost as well with Director (123) as with Picture (130).  No other category matches up more than 100 times.  Animated Film (5) and Makeup (7) have the lowest cross-over (and no films have won both for either category though every Animated Film nominee nominated for Screenplay won Animated Film).  Even with two categories for both for a long time, only five films have managed to win Original Screenplay and Original Score: Sunset Blvd., An American in Paris, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Chariots of Fire, Shakespeare in Love.  No film has ever won Screenplay and Visual Effects with two Screenplay winners earning noms and five VE winners earning Screenplay noms.  Only Hurt Locker has won both Screenplay and Sound Editing.  Only Going My Way and Butch & Sundance have won Screenplay and Song.

Points:

Because the two screenwriting categories are not only fluid but also overlap depending on how the script is categorized, I keep just one point spreadsheet for both writing categories.  That means for this, and all the other groups, the Top 10 in points will only appear in the forthcoming Adapted Screenplay post.

Top 5 Oscar Winners:

  1. Sunset Blvd.
  2. Chinatown
  3. Pulp Fiction
  4. Citizen Kane
  5. Hannah and Her Sisters

note:  That four of these are in my Top 5 ever says good things about the Academy in this category.

Worst 5 Oscar Winners:

  1. The Champ  (Story)
  2. Wilson
  3. The Greatest Show on Earth  (Story)
  4. How the West Was Won
  5. Boys Town  (Story)

Worst 5 Oscar Nominees:

  1. The Champ  (Story)
  2. Never on Sunday
  3. Braveheart
  4. 100 Men and a Girl
  5. Young Winston

Top 5 Oscar Years:

  1. 1999  (American Beauty, Magnolia, Being John Malkovich, Topsy-Turvy, Sixth Sense)
  2. 2001  (Gosford Park, Amelie, Memento, Royal Tenenbaums, Monster’s Ball)
  3. 1994  (Pulp Fiction, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Red, Heavenly Creatures, Bullets over Broadway)
  4. 1988  (Rain Man, A Fish Called Wanda, Running on Empty, Bull Durham, Big)
  5. 2003  (Lost in Translation, In America, Finding Nemo, Dirty Pretty Things, Barbarian Invasions)

Top 5 Oscars Years by Oscar Score:

  1. 2001  –  100  (Gosford Park, Amelie, Memento, Royal Tenenbaums, Monster’s Ball)
  2. 1959  –  100  (Pillow Talk, Wild Strawberries, 400 Blows, North by Northwest, Operation Petticoat)
  3. 1994  –  97.5  (Pulp Fiction, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Red, Heavenly Creatures, Bullets over Broadway)
  4. 2003  –  97.1  (Lost in Translation, In America, Finding Nemo, Dirty Pretty Things, Barbarian Invasions)
  5. 1999  –  95.2 (American Beauty, Magnolia, Being John Malkovich, Topsy-Turvy, Sixth Sense)

note:  The difference between this list and the previous one is that the first one is a flat total based on my 9 point scale.  In this one, it’s comparing my top five films to the ones the Oscars actually nominated.  So, in the first one, it’s how good are the nominees.  In this one it’s how good are the nominees compared to what else was eligible.
note:  The score for 1959 is deceptive as only three original scripts make my own list but all three were nominated, thus leading to a perfect score.

Worst 5 Oscar Years:

  1. 1934  (Manhattan Melodrama, Hide-Out, Richest Girl in the World)
  2. 1940  (Arise My Love, Westerner, Comrade X, Edison the Man, My Favorite Wife)
  3. 1951  (Seven Days to Noon, Bullfighter and the Lady, Here Comes the Groom, Frogmen, Teresa)
  4. 1952  (Greatest Show on Earth, My Son John, Narrow Margin, Pride of St. Louis, Snipe)
  5. 1935  (Scoundrel, Broadway Melody of 1936, Gay Deception)

note:  These are also the 5 worst by score as they all score a zero.
note:  These are all Original Story categories.  The worst Original Screenplay category is 1945.  The worst since the categories were reduced just to Adapted and Original was 1990.

Top 5 Films to win the Oscar (based on quality of film not writing):

  1. Sunset Blvd.
  2. Chinatown
  3. Citizen Kane
  4. Pulp Fiction
  5. On the Waterfront

Worst 5 Films to win the Oscar  (based on quality of film not writing):

  1. The Champ
  2. The Greatest Show on Earth
  3. Wilson
  4. How the West Was Won
  5. Interrupted Melody

Worst 5 Films to earn an Oscar nomination (based on quality of film not writing):

  1. The Champ
  2. Above and Beyond
  3. The Private War of Major Benson
  4. The Broadway Melody of 1936
  5. Never on Sunday

Years in Which the Worst of the Nominees Won the Oscar:

  • 1932 (Story):  The Champ over What Price Hollywood, Lady and Gent, Star Witness
  • 1943:  Princess O’Rourke over In Which We Serve, Air Force, North Star, So Proudly We Hail
  • 1944:  Wilson over Hail the Conquering Hero, Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, Two Girls and a Sailor, A Wing and a Prayer
  • 1946:  Seventh Veil over Children of Paradise, Notorious, Blue Dahlia, Road to Utopia
  • 1947:  Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer over A Double Life, Shoeshine, Monsieur Verdoux, Body and Soul
  • 1949 (Story):  The Stratton Story over White Heat, It Happens Every Spring, Sands of Iwo Jima, Come to the Stable
  • 1955:  Interrupted Melody over Mr Hulot’s Holiday, Seven Little Foys, It’s Always Fair Weather, Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell
  • 1957:  Designing Women over Tin Star, I Vitelloni, Man of a Thousand Faces, Funny Face
  • 1959:  Pillow Talk over Wild Strawberries, 400 Blows, North by Northwest, Operation Petticoat
  • 1963:  How the West Was Won over 8 1/2, Love with the Proper Stranger, Four Days of Naples, America America
  • 1964:  Father Goose over A Hard Day’s Night, That Man from Rio, Organizer, One Potato Two Potato
  • 1967:  Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner over Bonnie and Clyde, Two for the Road, La Guerre est Finie, Divorce American Style
  • 1982:  Gandhi over Tootsie, Diner, ET, An Officer and a Gentleman
  • 1983:  Tender Mercies over Fanny & Alexander, Big Chill, Silkwood, Wargames
  • 1987:  Moonstruck over Broadcast News, Hope and Glory, Au Revoir Les Enfants, Radio Days
  • 1988:  Rain Man over A Fish Called Wanda, Bull Durham, Running on Empty, Big
  • 2005:  Crash over Good Night and Good Luck, Syriana, Match Point, Squid and the Whale
  • 2006:  Little Miss Sunshine over Pan’s Labyrinth, Queen, Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima

note:  By far the most painful of these is 1959 when a Rock Hudson-Doris Day comedy wins over Bergman, Truffaut and what is possibly Hitchcock’s best-written film.

Oscar Scores By Decade:

  • 1930’s:  31.9  (Story)
  • 1940’s:  53.7  /  55.8  (Story)
  • 1950’s:  59.3  /  60.3  (Story)
  • 1960’s:  59.5
  • 1970’s:  79.3
  • 1980’s:  76.0
  • 1990’s:  72.3
  • 2000’s:  82.8
  • 2010’s:  86.7
  • All-Time:  72.1

The BAFTA Awards

Summary:

In some ways, possibly even more of a nightmare than the Oscars.  The award began as Best British Screenplay in 1954 and continued that way until 1967 (I only count it towards the Consensus in that stretch if it’s for a film that already has other nominations).  It is interesting to note that in that stretch they gave the award to four films that won Best Picture at the Oscars including one (Lawrence of Arabia) that didn’t win the Oscar (the other three were Bridge on the River Kwai, Tom Jones, A Man for all Seasons).  Then, in 1968, the year that they changed their awards system (dropping the British categories), they changed it to just Screenplay with no regard for whether it was original or adapted (an odd choice at the same time the WGA was finally making that split).  From 1968 to 1982, it was a four nominee, one award category and interesting to note that in that 15 year stretch, with no British requirement, only two Oscar winners for Best Picture won (Midnight Cowboy, Annie Hall).  Then in 1983, it finally broke into original and adapted as separate categories though it would continue to have four nominees (with some exceptions) until 1999.  During the four nominee stretch, it continued to be very British with only three films winning the Oscar and the BAFTA in that stretch (and ironically none of those three films – Hannah and Her Sisters, Pulp Fiction, Usual Suspects – won Picture at the Oscars) and three British films winning the BAFTA without even an Oscar nom (Wish You Were Here, A World Apart, Nil by Mouth).  Since the current system started in 2000 though, it’s been much more an agreement.  Only one film has won the BAFTA without an Oscar nom (Station Agent) and eight films in twelve years have won both awards.

For the following categories, I will only discuss the Original Screenplay category that began in 1983.  For the category as a whole before that, it will be discussed in the Adapted Screenplay post.

Genres:

Since the Original Screenplay category began, there have been 130 nominees with Drama and Comedy tied with 49 each (37.7%).  Comedy however has far more wins (14 to 9), partially because Woody Allen has won four times.  Of the 14 genres, all have had at least one nomination except Adventure with just one each for Action (Se7en), Mystery (Lone Star) and Western (Unforgiven).  But, of the 29 winners the only non-Drama / Comedy are three for Crime (Pulp Fiction, Usual Suspects, In Bruges) and one each for Fantasy (Eternal Sunshine), Musical (Almost Famous) and War (Hurt Locker).

Best Picture:

This category has an odd history with Best Picture.  The first film to win both Picture and Original Screenplay was Purple Rose of Cairo in 1985.  But, for the next two decades after that, nothing.  Eight more films would win Picture and earn a nomination for Original Screenplay but they would all lose Screenplay.  It wouldn’t be until 2009 that another film would win both Picture and Original Screenplay (Hurt Locker), the start of three straight years it would happen (King’s Speech, Artist).  It’s actually much more likely for a film to win Original Screenplay without even getting a Picture nomination (14 times).  Nil by Mouth won Screenplay and British Film without even a Picture nomination.  From 1994 to 2006 though, the same period where seven films won Picture but lost Screenplay, nine films won Screenplay and earned a Picture nom.

Single Nominees:

Only 19 films in 29 years have earned a nomination in Original Screenplay with no other nominations and only three films did it in the first eight years, all in 1984 (with Broadway Danny Rose even winning).  They have always come in bunches with three more in 1995 and two each in 2003, 2005, 2009 and 2011.  Groundhog Day is the only other film to win the BAFTA.  Thirteen of the 19 films with no other nominations are Comedies.

Foreign Films:

There have been 11 Foreign films to earn nominations (all of which earned Foreign Film noms as well), three of which have won the BAFTA (Cinema Paradiso, Amelie, Talk to Her).  Six films have won Foreign Film and earned Screenplay noms including three years in a row from 2006-08 (Pan’s Labyrinth, Lives of Others, I’ve Loved You So Long).

Other Categories:

Three categories overlap much more than any other.  There are 57 films that overlap with Picture noms (though only four win both awards), 53 films overlap with Director noms (only four win both awards and only two win Picture as well – Hurt Locker and Artist) and, surprisingly, 56 films overlap with Editing noms (only three overlapping winners – Usual Suspects, Eternal Sunshine, Hurt Locker).

Top 5 BAFTA Winners:

  1. Pulp Fiction
  2. Hannah and her Sisters
  3. The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain
  4. The Usual Suspects
  5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Worst 5 BAFTA Winners:

  1. Nil by Mouth
  2. Little Miss Sunshine
  3. Crash
  4. Wish You Were Here
  5. King of Comedy

Worst 5 BAFTA Nominees:

  1. The Iron Lady
  2. Se7en
  3. Shine
  4. Sleepless in Seattle
  5. Gladiator

Top 3 BAFTA Years  (4 Nominees):

  1. 1985  (The Purple Rose of Cairo, Back to the Future, My Beautiful Laundrette, Witness)
  2. 1994  (Pulp Fiction, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Adventures of Priscilla, Philadelphia)
  3. 1989  (When Harry Met Sally, Dead Poets Society, Rain Man, Sex Lies and Videotape)

Top 3 BAFTA Years  (5 Nominees):

  1. 1999  (Being John Malkovich, American Beauty, All About My Mother, Sixth Sense, Topsy-Turvy)
  2. 2001  (Amelie, Gosford Park, Moulin Rouge, The Others, Royal Tenenbaums)
  3. 2009  (Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Up, A Serious Man, Hangover)

note:  1999 is the best year by a considerable margin.

Years in Which the Worst of the Nominees Won the BAFTA:

  • 1983:  King of Comedy over Zelig, Local Hero, Trading Places
  • 1987:  Wish You Were Here over Hope and Glory, Radio Days, Personal Services
  • 2005:  Crash over Cinderella Man, Good Night and Good Luck, Hotel Rwanda, Mrs. Henderson Presents
  • 2006:  Little Miss Sunshine over Babel, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Queen, United 93

The Broadcast Film Critics Awards  (Critics Choice)

Summary:

The Screenplay award came into existence with the first BFCA Awards in 1995.  However, for the first several years it was just an award (with no nominees) and it was a single award, regardless of the source.  In 1997, they started splitting the award into Adapted and Original but it was still just one winner each.  Then in 2001 they got strange, adding nominees, but combining it back into just one award.  It started with three nominees, went to four the next year (perhaps because of the double winner for Charlie Kauffman’s two scripts) then to five, and moved back and forth between five and six until 2008.  Then in 2009 they finally split into two separate award nominations although the number of nominees continued to be inconsistent.

As with other groups, the point leaders will be listed under Adapted Screenplay, especially since the history of this award has been so very strange.

  • Best Winner (Combined):  Memento
  • Best Winner (Original):  American Beauty
  • Worst Winner (Combined):  Little Miss Sunshine
  • Weakest Winner (Original):  The King’s Speech
  • Worst Nominee:  My Big Fat Greek Wedding
  • Best Year for Nominees:  2009 (Original)  (Inglorious Basterds, A Serious Man, Up, The Hurt Locker, (500) Days of Summer)
  • Weakest Year for Nominees:  2011 (Original)  (Midnight in Paris, The Artist, Young Adult, Win Win, 50/50)
  • Lowest Critical Acclaim for a BFCA Winner:  Inglourious Basterds
  • Highest Critical Acclaim for a BFCA Nominee:  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
  • Lowest Critical Acclaim for a BFCA nominee:  Win Win  /  Young Adult
  • Highest Critical Acclaim for a BFCA snub:  Gosford Park
  • Best Screenplay for a BFCA snub:  The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain
  • Best Screenplay for an English Language BFCA snub:  Wall-E
  • Best BFCA Nominee Not Nominated by Any Other Group:  n/a *

note:  Every BFCA nominee that is an Original Screenplay has been nominated by at least one other awards group.

Writers Guild of America (WGA)

Summary:

This should be the pre-eminent award for writers and it’s not and the writers have no one but themselves to blame.  First, when they began in 1948, they had five different categories, covering four genres and a “Best Written Film Concerning Problems in the American Scene”, which was mostly filled with scripts nominated in another category as well.  Second, they seemed to have no limit on nominations in that first year so there were 50 total nominations that first year.  Third, they didn’t have rules about where things belong so Treasure of the Sierra Madre won the Western category and lost in the Drama category.  For the first three years, things continued the same, though, at least by 1950, they had the nominees under control with a limit for five in most categories.  In 1951, Westerns were dropped for a new “Low-Budget” film category which was thankfully dropped in 1952 along with the “Problem” category.  So, by 1952 they were at least down to three categories with five nominees in each.  But Musical (a category often filled with subpar nominees as is detailed in my Adapted Screenplay post laments from 1952 to 1968 though at least after 1964 it never again had five nominees).

By 1967, long after the Academy had mostly fixed their problems, the WGA finally addressed theirs and made things worse.  They added an Original category but didn’t drop anything else, so Bonnie and Clyde became the first film since 1949 to win two WGA awards.  Finally in 1969, they actually got quite clever and broke things up into Adapted and Original, divided by Comedy and Drama.  That works for me, although I sometimes question their classifications (Butch Cassidy is a Drama?  Catch-22 is a Drama?  Patton, explicitly based on a book, is Original?  Terms of Endearment is a Comedy?)  Also, unlike the Globes, they never explicitly named their category Comedy / Musical which makes it stupid to list Cabaret which is a Musical but is definitely not a Comedy.  The other problem, of course, which I am well aware of from my own Nighthawk Awards, is that there are not a plethora of awards-worthy Adapted Comedies.  By 1983, the last year of that category division, it had been five years since Adapted Comedy had the same number of nominees as Adapted Drama (not helped by considering a film like World According to Garp as a Drama).

So in 1984, the WGA made one final adjustment and ended up with categories just like the Oscars and the BAFTAs (though the BAFTAs had only been doing it for a year at that point): Adapted and Original.  Of course, the problems weren’t done and for this, I will break my “2011” curtain for a moment, and act like it’s 2020, which it is.  The first problem is that the WGA doesn’t have the same considerations about what makes an adapted screenplay as the Academy does.  That’s how The Last Emperor is nominated as Original at the WGA but wins Adapted at the Oscars or Moonlight actually wins the WGA in Original but Adapted at the Oscars.  In 2005, they went the opposite way, considering Syriana Adapted while the Academy decided it was Original.  The second thing is that the WGA is first and foremost a union.  Unlike the other guilds who give the awards based on what they think is the best work of the year, the WGA refuses to acknowledge scripts that are written by people who aren’t a guild member (any Tarantino script, which is why Pulp Fiction didn’t technically sweep all the awards) or don’t hold to the guild standards (which is why none of the Pixar films have ever been nominated in spite of their numerous Oscar nominations).  The WGA, I’m sure, thinks this makes them look strong and united while I think it makes them look insular, weak and petty.  That’s why there was a five year stretch where three films (King’s Speech, Artist, Birdman) won the PGA and DGA and weren’t WGA nominated (two of them going on to win the Screenplay Oscar).  Every year we have to decide going into the Oscar nominations which films might have taken a hit by being passed over by the WGA and which films simply weren’t eligible for their privileged award.

The Critics Awards

Summary:

The first critics group to present a Screenplay award was the NBR in 1948.  They gave it for three years then put it away for almost 50.  It took almost a decade before the NYFC revived the idea in 1959.  Like the NBR, they didn’t bother to distinguish between an original or an adapted script; the NBR gave its first two awards to adapted and then to an original while the NYFC went with an adapted the first year and an original the next year.  Other awards groups as they would follow will do the same with the NSFC starting in 1967, the LAFC in their first year of 1975 and the BSFC in their first year of 1980.  The CFC would start with a single award in 1990.  The NBR revived their dormant award in 1998 and then expanded it in 2003 to encompass separate original and adapted awards with the CFC following suit in 2006.

Multiple Wins:

Bonnie and Clyde won the initial NSFC as well as the NYFC becoming the first film to win two awards.  Several others would do that before Annie Hall would become the first to sweep all three existing awards in 1977.  Several films would win three awards but Bull Durham would be the only film to win four during the decade when there were just four awards.  Pulp Fiction was the first to win all five existing awards and L.A. Confidential would also do it in the last year of five awards.  Sideways would become the only film to win all six awards while since then The Social Network has managed to win five of the six but you may notice that the last three films mentioned are all adapted.

Multiple Films:

It’s rare for an award to go to more than one film.  There have been a couple of ties but the only case of a writer winning an award for multiple films was 2002 when the NBR (in their last year before the split awards) gave it to Charlie Kauffman for Adaptation, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Human Nature.

Foreign Films:

My Night at Maud’s was the first to win an award, actually winning both existing awards at the time (NYFC / NBR) as did Cries and Whispers and Scenes from a Marriage as well.  From 1970 to 1983 six films won a combined nine awards.  After that, it took until 2011 for A Separation to become the next Foreign film to win an award (winning two).

Single Awards:

Through 2011, 131 films have won a combined 226 Screenplay awards.  Of those 131 films, 36 of them won nothing but a Screenplay award.  Of those 36, 27 of them won a single award, five of them won two awards, three films (Unmarried Woman, Memento, A Serious Man) won three awards and The Squid and the Whale won four awards.

Other Awards:

If you can do math, you know that 95 films have won Screenplay and additional critics awards.  Of those, 48 won only one Screenplay award but those single winners include some of the biggest films ever at critics awards including (in points order) GoodFellas, Schindler’s List, Hurt Locker, Silence of the Lambs and Terms of Endearment.  Those five films won a combined five writing awards but 23 Picture awards, 19 Director awards and 28 acting awards.  The only other comparable group are those that won five or more Screenplay awards because those four films (listed above) won a combined 21 writing awards but also 20 Picture awards, 19 Director awards and 16 acting awards.  Overall, 52 films have won Screenplay and Picture, the biggest overlap (followed closely by Director with 49).  Aside from Squid and the Whale (exempted above), the only films with four Screenplay wins without a Picture win are Adaptation and The Queen.  Screenplay awards have overlapped with every critics award (even Art Direction though just once – Inception).

Best by Group

  • NYFC:  Pulp Fiction, 1994
  • LAFC:  Pulp Fiction, 1994
  • NSFC:  Pulp Fiction, 1994
  • BSFC:  Pulp Fiction, 1994
  • CFC:  Pulp Fiction, 1994
  • NBR:  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2004

Worst by Group

  • NYFC:  An Unmarried Woman, 1978
  • LAFC:  Nashville, 1975
  • NSFC:  An Unmarried Woman, 1978
  • BSFC:  Repo Man, 1984
  • CFC:  Crash, 2010
  • NBR:  Buried, 2010

10 Best Screenplays that Didn’t Win any Critics Awards (post-1966):

  1. Chinatown
  2. The Producers
  3. A Fish Called Wanda
  4. Raiders of the Lost Ark
  5. The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain
  6. American Beauty
  7. Lone Star
  8. Boogie Nights
  9. Fanny & Alexander
  10. When Harry Met Sally…

5 Most Acclaimed Post-1966 Screenplays to not Win a Critics Award (based on Consensus Awards percentage):

  1. Thelma and Louise
  2. The Producers
  3. Good Will Hunting
  4. American Beauty
  5. The Hospital

Least Acclaimed Scripts to Win the Critics by Group

  • NYFC:  Rachel Getting Married, 2008
  • LAFC:  Brazil, 1985
  • NSFC:  Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000, 1977
  • BSFC:  Big Night, 1996
  • CFC:  Wall-E, 2008
  • NBR:  Buried, 2010

Most Critically Acclaimed Screenplay Snubbed by a Critics Group:

  • NYFC:  Being John Malkovich, 1999
  • LAFC:  Melvin and Howard, 1980
  • NSFC:  Shakespeare in Love, 1998
  • BSFC:  The Piano, 1993
  • CFC:  The Piano, 1993
  • NBR:  Shakespeare in Love, 1998

Critical Oddities:

note:  These are the scripts that won multiple Critics Awards but failed to earn nominations from any of the awards groups.

  • Scenes from a Marriage, 1974
    • NYFC, NSFC
  • Mother, 1996
    • NYFC, NSFC

The Nighthawk Awards

note:  Because my awards go, retroactively, all the way back through 1912, there are a lot more nominees and winners than in the other awards.  But I don’t always have a full slate of nominees and some years I don’t have any nominees.

Directors:

The only director with at least five nominated films who was not also a writer is Hitchcock with two wins and eight nominations.  The rest are all about the writer-directors, most notably Allen (7 wins, 17 noms) and Bergman (6 wins, 17 noms).

Franchises:

As mentioned with the Oscars, franchises are ineligible here after the first film.  Although a number of films would earn sequels, the only true franchise starter to win the Nighthawk is Raiders.

Genres:

Drama and Comedy account for just over 2/3 of the nominees and the winners.  Comedy just edges Drama in noms (140 to 133) and wins (28 to 27).  The only genre without at least 5 noms is Adventure (it has one – Aguirre) and every genre has at least two wins except Horror and Adventure which have none.

Best Picture:

Of the 85 Picture winners, 25 of them win Original Screenplay with seven more earning Screenplay noms, five of them, interestingly enough in just over a decade from 68 to 79 (2001, Wild Bunch, Star Wars, Deer Hunter, Alien).  Eight films win Screenplay without a Picture nom, all of them in years with weak categories and strong Adapted categories, all of them making the Top 10 for the year.  In all, only 162 of the Screenplay nominees earn a Picture nomination, which is less than half.

Foreign Film:

There are 21 Foreign Films that win Original Screenplay, including six Bergman, three Kurosawa and two Fellini.  Of those 21, I Vitelloni actually doesn’t even manage a Foreign Film nom (it’s in a really weak year for Original Screenplay).  Of the other 20, 14 of them win Foreign Film.  In all, 108 Foreign Films earn a Screenplay nom, far more than at the Oscars.

Single Nominations:

I Vitelloni is not only the only Foreign film to win Screenplay without a Foreign Film nom, but it’s one of just two to win Screenplay without any other nominations (The Man Who Knew Too Much is the other).  In all, 72 films earn Screenplay noms without any other noms including a whopping five from Woody Allen.

Other Categories:

Picture (162) has the biggest overlap followed by Editing (160) and Director (155).  Editing is not surprising since a good script needs a good sense of timing so those two categories can help each other out.  The last overlap is in Visual Effects (22 overlapping noms, six films win both and Animated Film (8 overlapping noms, all of which win Animated Film, two films win both).

Top 5 Films to win the Nighthawk (based on quality of film not writing):

  1. Sunset Blvd.
  2. The Wizard of Oz
  3. Children of Paradise
  4. Rashomon
  5. Touch of Evil

Weakest 5 Films to win the Nighthawk (based on quality of film not writing):

  1. Mauvaise Graine
  2. I Vitelloni
  3. The Fortune Cookie
  4. The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna
  5. Drunken Angel

Weakest 5 Films to earn a Nighthawk nomination  (based on quality of film not writing):

  1. Killer’s Kiss
  2. A Foreign Affair
  3. Our Man Flint
  4. The Out-of-Towners
  5. A Day at the Races

Top 5 6th Place Finishers at the Nighthawks:

  1. Topsy-Turvy
  2. Heavenly Creatures
  3. Monster’s Ball
  4. Truly, Madly, Deeply
  5. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

5 Best Years:

  1. 1999  (American Beauty, Magnolia, Being John Malkovich, All About My Mother, Three Kings)
  2. 2001  (Amelie, Memento, Gosford Park, Royal Tenenbaums, Amores Perros)
  3. 1974  (Chinatown, Scenes from a Marriage, Day for Night, Blazing Saddles, The Conversation)
  4. 1996  (Lone Star, Fargo, In the Bleak Midwinter, Secrets & Lies, Jerry Maguire)
  5. 1994  (Pulp Fiction, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Clerks, Red, Bullets over Broadway)

The Nighthawk Winners:

  • 1925-26:  The Gold Rush
  • 1927-28:  Metropolis
  • 1928-29:  Steamboat Bill, Jr.
  • 1929-30:  The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna
  • 1930-31:  City Lights
  • 1931-32:  A nous la liberte
  • 1932-33:  M
  • 1934:  Mauvaise Graine
  • 1935:  The Man Who Knew Too Much
  • 1936:  Modern Times
  • 1937:  A Star is Born  (Oscar)
  • 1938:  The Grand Illusion
  • 1939:  Mr. Smith Goes to Washington  (Oscar)
  • 1940:  The Great Dictator  (Oscar)
  • 1941:  Citizen Kane  (Oscar)
  • 1942:  Sullivan’s Travels
  • 1943:  Shadow of a Doubt  (Oscar)
  • 1944:  Hail the Conquering Hero  (Oscar)
  • 1945:  The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
  • 1946:  Children of Paradise  (Oscar)
  • 1947:  Stairway to Heaven
  • 1948:  Red River  (Oscar, WGA)
  • 1949:  A Canterbury Tale
  • 1950:  Sunset Blvd.  (Oscar, WGA, Globe)
  • 1951:  Ace in the Hole  (Oscar)
  • 1952:  Singin in the Rain  (WGA)
  • 1953:  Roman Holiday  (Oscar, WGA)
  • 1954:  On the Waterfront  (Oscar, WGA)
  • 1955:  Rebel without a Cause  (Oscar)
  • 1956:  Seven Samurai
  • 1957:  I Vitelloni  (Oscar)
  • 1958:  Smiles of a Summer Night
  • 1959:  Wild Strawberries  (Oscar)
  • 1960:  Ikiru
  • 1961:  La Dolce Vita  (Oscar)
  • 1962:  Through a Glass Darkly  (Oscar)
  • 1963:  Winter Light
  • 1964:  A Hard Day’s Night  (Oscar)
  • 1965:  Drunken Angel
  • 1966:  The Fortune Cookie  (Oscar, WGA)
  • 1967:  Bonnie and Clyde  (Oscar, WGA, Globe, NYFC, NSFC)
  • 1968:  The Producers  (Oscar, WGA, Globe)
  • 1969:  Butch Cassiday and the Sundance Kid  (Oscar, WGA, Globe, BAFTA)
  • 1970:  Five Easy Pieces  (Oscar, WGA, Globe)
  • 1971:  Sunday Bloody Sunday  (Oscar, WGA, BAFTA, NYFC, NSFC)
  • 1972:  The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie  (Oscar, BAFTA)
  • 1973:  Cries and Whispers  (Oscar, NYFC, NSFC)
  • 1974:  Chinatown  (Oscar, WGA, Globe, BAFTA)
  • 1975:  Dog Day Afternoon  (Oscar, WGA, Globe, BAFTA)
  • 1976:  Network  (Oscar, WGA, Globe, BAFTA, NYFC, LAFC)
  • 1977:  Annie Hall  (Oscar, WGA, Globe, BAFTA, NYFC, LAFC, NSFC)
  • 1978:  Autumn Sonata  (Oscar)
  • 1979:  Manhattan  (Oscar, WGA, BAFTA)
  • 1980:  Stardust Memories  (WGA)
  • 1981:  Raiders of the Lost Ark  (WGA)
  • 1982:  Tootsie  (Oscar, WGA, Globe, NYFC, LAFC, NSFC)
  • 1983:  Fanny & Alexander  (Oscar)
  • 1984:  This is Spinal Tap
  • 1985:  The Purple Rose of Cairo  (Oscar, WGA, Globe, BAFTA, NYFC, BSFC)
  • 1986:  Hannah and Her Sisters  (Oscar, WGA, Globe, BAFTA, LAFC, BSFC)
  • 1987:  Au Revoir, Les Enfants  (Oscar, BAFTA)
  • 1988:  A Fish Called Wanda  (Oscar, WGA, BAFTA)
  • 1989:  When Harry Met Sally  (Oscar, WGA, Globe, BAFTA)
  • 1990:  Miller’s Crossing
  • 1991:  The Fisher King  (Oscar, WGA, BAFTA)
  • 1992:  The Crying Game  (Oscar, WGA, BAFTA, NYFC, BSFC)
  • 1993:  A Perfect World
  • 1994:  Pulp Fiction  (Oscar, Globe, BAFTA, NYFC, LAFC, NSFC, BSFC)
  • 1995:  The Usual Suspects  (Oscar, BAFTA)
  • 1996:  Lone Star  (Oscar, WGA, Globe, BAFTA)
  • 1997:  Boogie Nights  (Oscar, WGA, BAFTA)
  • 1998:  Shakespeare in Love  (Oscar, WGA, Globe, BAFTA, BFCA, NYFC)
  • 1999:  American Beauty  (Oscar, WGA, Globe, BAFTA, BFCA)
  • 2000:  Almost Famous  (Oscar, WGA, Globe, BAFTA, BFCA, BSFC)
  • 2001:  The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain  (Oscar, BAFTA)
  • 2002:  Talk to Her  (Oscar, BAFTA)
  • 2003:  Lost in Translation  (Oscar, WGA, Globe, BAFTA, BFCA)
  • 2004:  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind  (Oscar, WGA, Globe, BAFTA, BFCA, NBR)
  • 2005:  Good Night and Good Luck  (Oscar, WGA, Globe, BAFTA, BFCA)
  • 2006:  Pan’s Labyrinth  (Oscar, BAFTA, CFC)
  • 2007:  Ratatouille  (Oscar, BSFC)
  • 2008:  Wall-E  (Oscar, CFC)
  • 2009:  Inglorious Basterds  (Oscar, Globe, BAFTA, BFCA)
  • 2010:  Inception  (Oscar, WGA, Globe, BAFTA, BFCA, CFC)
  • 2011:  Midnight in Paris  (Oscar, WGA, Globe, BAFTA, BFCA)

Consensus Awards

Most Awards (not including the Nighthawk):

  • Pulp Fiction  (Oscar, Globe, BAFTA, NYFC, LAFC, NSFC, BSFC, CFC)

Pulp Fiction won every award it could; the NBR didn’t have an award at the time, the BFCA didn’t exist yet and it wasn’t WGA eligible.  One film has tied this (L.A. Confidential) and two films have more awards (Sideways, Social Network) but they are all adapted.  No Original Screenplay has ever swept all six critics groups.  Through 2011, only Pulp Fiction has won five awards with Being John Malkovich and The Queen each winning four.  No Original Screenplay has ever swept all five awards groups.  The three films that have won the Oscar, Globe, WGA and BFCA all lost the BAFTA (Shakespeare in Love, American Beauty, Midnight in Paris).  Two films, however, did win the Oscar, Globe, WGA and BAFTA before the BFCA existed (The Hospital, Chinatown) although neither won any critics awards.

Consensus Chart

note:  The chart below I imported from Excel and I hope it isn’t too confusing.  It’s about as big as I could make to still have it fit.

YEAR FILM AA WGA GG BFT BFC crit Pts WT N W % Rk
1948 Search 120 80 200 184 3 2 17.29% 1
1948 Naked City 40 80 120 120 2 1 11.28% 2
1948 Easter Parade 80 80 80 1 1 7.52% 3
1948 Paleface 80 80 80 1 1 7.52% 3
1948 Louisiana Story 40 40 80 80 2 0 7.52% 3
1948 Red River 40 40 80 80 2 0 7.52% 3
1948 Foreign Affair 40 40 80 80 2 0 7.52% 3
1948 Berlin Express 40 40 40 1 0 3.76% x
1948 Emperor Waltz 40 40 40 1 0 3.76% x
1948 Man from Colorado 40 40 40 1 0 3.76% x
1948 Mating of Millie 40 40 40 1 0 3.76% x
1948 No Minor Vices 40 40 40 1 0 3.76% x
1948 On an Island with You 40 40 40 1 0 3.76% x
1948 Street With No Name 40 40 40 1 0 3.76% x
1948 You Were Meant for Me 40 40 40 1 0 3.76% x
1948 Luxury Liner 40 40 40 1 0 3.76% x
1949 Battleground 80 40 80 200 184 3 2 19.66% 1
1949 Stratton Story 80 80 80 1 1 8.55% 2
1949 Come to the Stable 40 40 80 80 2 0 8.55% 2
1949 It Happens Every Spring 40 40 80 80 2 0 8.55% 2
1949 Barkleys of Broadway 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% x
1949 Every Girl Should Be Married 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% x
1949 Gal Who Took the West 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% x
1949 Take Me Out to the Ball Game 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% x
1949 Paisan 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% x
1949 Passport to Pimlico 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% x
1949 Quiet One 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% x
1949 Sands of Iwo Jima 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% x
1949 White Heat 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% x
1949 Rope of Sand 40 40 32 1 0 3.42% x
1950 Sunset Boulevard 80 80 40 200 192 3 2 16.11% 1
1950 Panic in the Streets 80 80 160 160 2 2 13.42% 2
1950 Men 40 120 160 160 3 1 13.42% 2
1950 Adam’s Rib 40 80 120 120 2 1 10.07% 4
1950 Gunfighter 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.71% 5
1950 No Way Out 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.71% 5
1950 Devil’s Doorway 40 40 40 1 0 3.36% x
1950 My Blue Heaven 40 40 40 1 0 3.36% x
1950 Summer Stock 40 40 40 1 0 3.36% x
1950 Three Little Words 40 40 40 1 0 3.36% x
1950 Ticket to Tomahawk 40 40 40 1 0 3.36% x
1950 West Point Story 40 40 40 1 0 3.36% x
1950 Bitter Rice 40 40 40 1 0 3.36% x
1950 Caged 40 40 40 1 0 3.36% x
1950 Mystery Street 40 40 40 1 0 3.36% x
1950 When Willie Comes Marching Home 40 40 40 1 0 3.36% x
1951 American in Paris 80 80 160 160 2 2 16.00% 1
1951 Steel Helmet 80 80 80 1 1 8.00% 2
1951 Seven Days to Noon 80 80 80 1 1 8.00% 2
1951 Here Comes the Groom 40 40 80 80 2 0 8.00% 2
1951 Well 40 40 80 80 2 0 8.00% 2
1951 Angels in the Outfield 40 40 40 1 0 4.00% x
1951 Five 40 40 40 1 0 4.00% x
1951 Fourteen Hours 40 40 40 1 0 4.00% x
1951 Little Big Horn 40 40 40 1 0 4.00% x
1951 That’s My Boy 40 40 40 1 0 4.00% x
1951 Ace in the Hole 40 40 40 1 0 4.00% x
1951 Bullfighter and the Lady 40 40 40 1 0 4.00% x
1951 David and Bathsheba 40 40 40 1 0 4.00% x
1951 Frogmen 40 40 40 1 0 4.00% x
1951 Go for Broke 40 40 40 1 0 4.00% x
1951 Teresa 40 40 40 1 0 4.00% x
1952 Lavender Hill Mob, The 80 64 144 144 2 2 15.38% 1
1952 Singin in the Rain 80 80 80 1 1 8.55% 2
1952 Greatest Show on Earth 80 80 80 1 1 8.55% 2
1952 Pat and Mike 40 40 80 80 2 0 8.55% 2
1952 Hans Christian Anderson 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% 3
1952 Marrying Kind 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% 3
1952 With a Song in My Heart 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% 3
1952 I’ll See You in My Dreams 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% 3
1952 Atomic City 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% 3
1952 My Son John 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% 3
1952 Narrow Margin 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% 3
1952 Pride of St Louis 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% 3
1952 Sniper 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% 3
1952 Sound Barrier 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% 3
1952 Viva Zapata 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% 3
1952 Thief 40 40 32 1 0 3.42% x
1953 Roman Holiday 120 80 200 200 3 2 25.00% 1
1953 Titanic 80 80 80 1 1 10.00% 2
1953 Above and Beyond 40 40 80 80 2 0 10.00% 2
1953 Band Wagon 40 40 80 80 2 0 10.00% 2
1953 Little Fugitive 40 40 80 80 2 0 10.00% 2
1953 Martin Luther 40 40 40 1 0 5.00% x
1953 Captain’s Paradise 40 40 40 1 0 5.00% x
1953 Desert Rats 40 40 40 1 0 5.00% x
1953 Naked Spur 40 40 40 1 0 5.00% x
1953 Take the High Ground 40 40 40 1 0 5.00% x
1954 On the Waterfront 80 80 160 160 2 2 21.05% 1
1954 Broken Lance 80 80 80 1 1 10.53% 2
1954 Barefoot Contessa 40 40 80 80 2 0 10.53% 2
1954 Glenn Miller Story 40 40 80 80 2 0 10.53% 2
1954 Knock on Wood 40 40 80 80 2 0 10.53% 2
1954 There’s No Business Like Show Business 40 40 80 80 2 0 10.53% 2
1954 It Should Happen to You 40 40 40 1 0 5.26% x
1954 Bread Love and Dreams 40 40 40 1 0 5.26% x
1954 Genevieve 40 40 40 1 0 5.26% x
1954 Night People 40 40 40 1 0 5.26% x
1955 Love Me or Leave Me 120 80 200 200 3 2 29.41% 1
1955 Interrupted Melody 80 80 80 1 1 11.76% 2
1955 It’s Always Fair Weather 40 40 80 80 2 0 11.76% 2
1955 Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell 40 40 40 1 0 5.88% 4
1955 Mr Hulot’s Holiday 40 40 40 1 0 5.88% 4
1955 Private War of Major Benson 40 40 40 1 0 5.88% 4
1955 Rebel Without a Cause 40 40 40 1 0 5.88% 4
1955 Seven Little Foys 40 40 40 1 0 5.88% 4
1955 Sheep Has 5 Legs 40 40 40 1 0 5.88% 4
1955 Strategic Air Commad 40 40 40 1 0 5.88% 4
1956 Ladykillers 40 80 120 120 2 1 15.79% 1
1956 Brave One 80 80 80 1 1 10.53% 2
1956 Red Balloon 80 80 80 1 1 10.53% 2
1956 Eddy Duchin Story 40 40 80 80 2 0 10.53% 2
1956 Meet Me in Las Vegas 40 40 40 1 0 5.26% x
1956 Bold and the Brave 40 40 40 1 0 5.26% x
1956 Julie 40 40 40 1 0 5.26% x
1956 La Strada 40 40 40 1 0 5.26% x
1956 Umberto D 40 40 40 1 0 5.26% x
1957 Designing Woman 80 40 120 120 2 1 30.00% 1
1957 Les Girls 80 80 80 1 1 20.00% 2
1957 Funny Face 40 40 80 80 2 0 20.00% 2
1957 Operation Mad Ball 40 40 40 1 0 10.00% 4
1957 Man of a Thousand Faces 40 40 40 1 0 10.00% 4
1957 Tin Star 40 40 40 1 0 10.00% 4
1957 Vitelloni 40 40 40 1 0 10.00% 4
1958 Defiant Ones 80 80 160 160 2 2 36.36% 1
1958 Houseboat 40 40 80 80 2 0 18.18% 2
1958 Teacher’s Pet 40 40 80 80 2 0 18.18% 2
1958 Girl Most Likely 40 40 40 1 0 9.09% 4
1958 Goddess 40 40 40 1 0 9.09% 4
1958 Sheepman 40 40 40 1 0 9.09% 4
1959 Pillow Talk 80 40 120 120 2 1 27.27% 1
1959 Five Pennies 80 80 80 1 1 18.18% 2
1959 North by Northwest 40 40 80 80 2 0 18.18% 2
1959 Operation Petticoat 40 40 80 80 2 0 18.18% 2
1959 Private’s Affair 40 40 40 1 0 9.09% 4
1959 Say One for Me 40 40 40 1 0 9.09% 4
1959 400 Blows 40 40 40 1 0 9.09% 4
1959 Wild Strawberries 40 40 40 1 0 9.09% 4
1960 Apartment 80 80 80 240 240 3 3 35.29% 1
1960 Angry Silence 40 40 80 80 2 0 11.76% 2
1960 Facts of Life 40 40 80 80 2 0 11.76% 2
1960 GI Blues 40 40 40 1 0 5.88% 4
1960 Let’s Make Love 40 40 40 1 0 5.88% 4
1960 Ocean’s Eleven 40 40 40 1 0 5.88% 4
1960 Hiroshima Mon Amour 40 40 40 1 0 5.88% 4
1960 Never on Sunday 40 40 40 1 0 5.88% 4
1961 Splendor in the Grass 80 80 80 1 1 25.00% 1
1961 Blue Hawaii 40 40 40 1 0 12.50% 2
1961 Ballad of a Soldier 40 40 40 1 0 12.50% 2
1961 General Della Rovere 40 40 40 1 0 12.50% 2
1961 La Dolce Vita 40 40 40 1 0 12.50% 2
1961 Lover Come Back 40 40 40 1 0 12.50% 2
1962 That Touch of Mink 40 80 120 120 2 1 27.27% 1
1962 Divorce – Italian Style 80 80 80 1 1 18.18% 2
1962 Freud 40 40 80 80 2 0 18.18% 2
1962 Hey Let’s Twist 40 40 40 1 0 9.09% 4
1962 Last Year at Marienbad 40 40 40 1 0 9.09% 4
1962 Through a Glass Darkly 40 40 40 1 0 9.09% 4
1963 How the West Was Won 80 80 80 1 1 20.00% 1
1963 America America 40 40 80 80 2 0 20.00% 1
1963 Love with the Proper Stranger 40 40 80 80 2 0 20.00% 1
1963 Thrill of It All 40 40 40 1 0 10.00% 4
1963 8 1/2 40 40 40 1 0 10.00% 4
1963 Four Days of Naples 40 40 40 1 0 10.00% 4
1964 Father Goose 80 40 120 120 2 1 18.75% 1
1964 One Potato Two Potato 40 40 80 80 2 0 12.50% 2
1964 Kissin Cousins 40 40 40 1 0 6.25% 4
1964 Pink Panther 40 40 40 1 0 6.25% 4
1964 Robin and the 7 Hoods 40 40 40 1 0 6.25% 4
1964 Roustabout 40 40 40 1 0 6.25% 4
1964 Hard Day’s Night, A 40 40 40 1 0 6.25% 4
1964 Organizer 40 40 40 1 0 6.25% 4
1964 That Man from Rio 40 40 40 1 0 6.25% 4
1965 Darling 80 80 160 160 2 2 36.36% 1
1965 Great Race 40 40 40 1 0 9.09% 2
1965 What’s New Pussycat 40 40 40 1 0 9.09% 2
1965 Casanova 70 40 40 40 1 0 9.09% 2
1965 Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines 40 40 40 1 0 9.09% 2
1965 Train 40 40 40 1 0 9.09% 2
1965 Umbrellas of Cherbourg 40 40 40 1 0 9.09% 2
1966 Man and a Woman, A 80 80 80 1 1 25.00% 1
1966 Fortune Cookie 40 40 80 80 2 0 25.00% 1
1966 Our Man Flint 40 40 40 1 0 12.50% 3
1966 Blow-Up 40 40 40 1 0 12.50% 3
1966 Khartoum 40 40 40 1 0 12.50% 3
1966 Naked Prey 40 40 40 1 0 12.50% 3
1967 Bonnie and Clyde 40 160 40 152 392 384 6 4 41.03% 1
1967 Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner 80 80 40 200 192 4 1 20.51% 2
1967 Thoroughly Modern Millie 80 80 80 1 1 8.55% 3
1967 Two for the Road 40 40 80 80 2 0 8.55% 3
1967 Divorce American Style 40 40 80 80 2 0 8.55% 3
1967 Guide for the Married Man 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% x
1967 President’s Analyst 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% x
1967 La Guerre Est Finie 40 40 40 1 0 4.27% x
1968 Producers 80 120 40 240 232 4 2 31.18% 1
1968 Faces 40 40 72 152 152 3 1 20.43% 2
1968 I Love You Alice B Toklas 80 80 80 1 1 10.75% 3
1968 Hot Millions 40 40 80 80 2 0 10.75% 3
1968 Brotherhood 40 40 40 1 0 5.38% 5
1968 Buona Sera Mrs Campbell 40 40 40 1 0 5.38% 5
1968 Star 40 40 40 1 0 5.38% 5
1968 2001: A Space Odyssey 40 40 40 1 0 5.38% 5
1968 Battle of Algiers 40 40 40 1 0 5.38% 5
1969 Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice 40 80 40 152 312 312 5 3 29.55% 1
1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 80 80 40 80 280 272 4 3 25.76% 2
1969 Easy Rider 40 40 80 80 2 0 7.58% 3
1969 If It’s Tuesday This Must Be Belgium 40 40 80 72 2 0 6.82% 4
1969 If 40 40 40 1 0 3.79% 5
1969 Me Natalie 40 40 40 1 0 3.79% 5
1969 Popi 40 40 40 1 0 3.79% 5
1969 Support Your Local Sheriff 40 40 40 1 0 3.79% 5
1969 Take the Money and Run 40 40 40 1 0 3.79% 5
1969 Damned 40 40 40 1 0 3.79% 5
1969 Wild Bunch 40 40 40 1 0 3.79% 5
1970 My Night at Maud’s 40 152 192 192 3 2 20.00% 1
1970 Patton 80 80 160 160 2 2 16.67% 2
1970 Love Story 40 40 80 160 144 3 1 15.00% 3
1970 Five Easy Pieces 40 40 40 120 112 3 0 11.67% 4
1970 Out of Towners 80 80 80 1 1 8.33% 5
1970 Kes 40 40 40 1 0 4.17% x
1970 Cheyenne Social Club 40 40 40 1 0 4.17% x
1970 Private Life of Sherlock Holmes 40 40 40 1 0 4.17% x
1970 Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx 40 40 40 1 0 4.17% x
1970 Start the Revolution Without Me 40 40 40 1 0 4.17% x
1970 Joe 40 40 40 1 0 4.17% x
1970 Husbands 40 40 32 1 0 3.33% x
1971 Sunday Bloody Sunday 40 80 40 152 312 312 5 3 27.86% 1
1971 Hospital 80 80 80 80 320 304 4 4 27.14% 2
1971 Klute 40 40 40 120 112 3 0 10.00% 3
1971 Taking Off 40 40 80 80 2 0 7.14% 4
1971 Summer of 42 40 40 80 80 2 0 7.14% 4
1971 Bananas 40 40 40 1 0 3.57% x
1971 Carnal Knowledge 40 40 40 1 0 3.57% x
1971 Hellstrom Chronicle 40 40 40 1 0 3.57% x
1971 Made for Each Other 40 40 40 1 0 3.57% x
1971 Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion 40 40 40 1 0 3.57% x
1971 Mary Queen of Scots 40 40 32 1 0 2.86% x
1972 Candidate 80 80 160 160 2 2 23.53% 1
1972 Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 40 80 120 120 2 1 17.65% 2
1972 What’s Up Doc 80 80 80 1 1 11.76% 3
1972 Bad Company 40 40 40 1 0 5.88% 4
1972 Culpepper Cattle Co 40 40 40 1 0 5.88% 4
1972 Get to Know Your Rabbit 40 40 40 1 0 5.88% 4
1972 Great Northfield Minnesota Raid 40 40 40 1 0 5.88% 4
1972 Hammersmith is Out 40 40 40 1 0 5.88% 4
1972 Images 40 40 40 1 0 5.88% 4
1972 Minnie and Moskowitz 40 40 40 1 0 5.88% 4
1972 Murmur of the Heart 40 40 40 1 0 5.88% 4
1973 American Graffiti 40 40 152 232 232 4 2 20.57% 1
1973 Cries and Whispers 40 152 192 192 3 2 17.02% 2
1973 Touch of Class 40 80 40 40 200 192 4 1 17.02% 2
1973 Sting 80 40 40 160 152 3 1 13.48% 4
1973 Save the Tiger 40 80 120 120 2 1 10.64% 5
1973 Gumshoe 40 40 40 1 0 3.55% x
1973 Blume in Love 40 40 40 1 0 3.55% x
1973 Mean Streets 40 40 40 1 0 3.55% x
1973 Payday 40 40 40 1 0 3.55% x
1973 Sleeper 40 40 40 1 0 3.55% x
1973 Slither 40 40 40 1 0 3.55% x
1973 Way We Were 40 40 40 1 0 3.55% x
1974 Chinatown 80 80 80 80 320 304 4 4 23.75% 1
1974 Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore 40 40 80 160 160 3 1 12.50% 2
1974 Scenes from a Marriage 152 152 152 2 2 11.88% 3
1974 Conversation 40 40 40 40 160 152 4 0 11.88% 3
1974 Blazing Saddles 80 40 120 120 2 1 9.38% 5
1974 Harry and Tonto 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.25% x
1974 Woman Under the Influence 40 40 80 72 2 0 5.63% x
1974 California Split 40 40 40 1 0 3.13% x
1974 Claudine 40 40 40 1 0 3.13% x
1974 Phantom of the Paradise 40 40 40 1 0 3.13% x
1974 Sugarland Express 40 40 40 1 0 3.13% x
1974 Day for Night 40 40 40 1 0 3.13% x
1975 Dog Day Afternoon 80 80 40 40 240 232 4 2 27.10% 1
1975 Nashville 40 40 40 80 200 192 4 1 22.43% 2
1975 Shampoo 40 80 72 192 192 3 2 22.43% 2
1975 Lacombe Lucien 40 40 40 1 0 4.67% x
1975 Hearts of the West 40 40 40 1 0 4.67% 5
1975 Smile 40 40 40 1 0 4.67% 5
1975 Wind and the Lion 40 40 40 1 0 4.67% 5
1975 Amarcord 40 40 40 1 0 4.67% 5
1975 And Now My Love 40 40 40 1 0 4.67% 5
1975 Lies My Father Told Me 40 40 40 1 0 4.67% 5
1976 Network 80 80 80 40 160 440 424 6 5 34.19% 1
1976 Rocky 40 40 40 40 160 152 4 0 12.26% 2
1976 Bugsy Malone 80 80 80 1 1 6.45% 3
1976 Bad News Bears 80 80 80 1 1 6.45% 3
1976 Front 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.45% 3
1976 Taxi Driver 40 40 80 72 2 0 5.81% x
1976 Murder by Death 40 40 40 1 0 3.23% x
1976 Next Stop Greenwich Village 40 40 40 1 0 3.23% x
1976 Omen 40 40 40 1 0 3.23% x
1976 Silent Movie 40 40 40 1 0 3.23% x
1976 Silver Streak 40 40 40 1 0 3.23% x
1976 Cousin Cousine 40 40 40 1 0 3.23% x
1976 Seven Beauties 40 40 40 1 0 3.23% x
1977 Annie Hall 80 80 40 80 232 512 504 7 6 42.28% 1
1977 Goodbye Girl 40 40 80 40 200 184 4 1 15.44% 2
1977 Turning Point 40 80 40 160 152 3 1 12.75% 3
1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind 40 40 40 120 112 3 0 9.40% 4
1977 Late Show 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.71% 5
1977 Star Wars 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.71% 5
1977 Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000 72 72 72 1 1 5.81% x
1977 Slap Shot 40 40 40 1 0 3.36% x
1978 An Unmarried Woman 40 40 40 232 352 344 6 3 28.86% 1
1978 Coming Home 80 80 40 200 192 3 2 16.11% 2
1978 Deer Hunter 40 40 40 40 160 152 4 0 12.75% 3
1978 Interiors 40 40 40 120 112 3 0 9.40% 4
1978 Movie Movie 80 80 80 1 1 6.71% 5
1978 Wedding 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.71% 5
1978 Animal House 40 40 40 1 0 3.36% x
1978 Days of Heaven 40 40 40 1 0 3.36% x
1978 House Calls 40 40 40 1 0 3.36% x
1978 Once in Paris 40 40 40 1 0 3.36% x
1978 Autumn Sonata 40 40 40 1 0 3.36% x
1978 Foul Play 40 40 32 1 0 2.68% x
1979 Breaking Away 80 80 40 152 352 344 5 4 40.19% 1
1979 China Syndrome 40 80 40 40 200 192 4 1 22.43% 2
1979 Manhattan 40 40 80 160 160 3 1 18.69% 3
1979 Yanks 40 40 40 1 0 4.67% 4
1979 “10” 40 40 40 1 0 4.67% 4
1979 All That Jazz 40 40 40 1 0 4.67% 4
1979 And Justice for All 40 40 40 1 0 4.67% 4
1980 Melvin and Howard 80 80 224 384 384 5 5 42.48% 1
1980 Return of the Secaucus Seven 40 80 120 120 2 1 13.27% 2
1980 Private Benjamin 40 80 120 120 2 1 13.27% 2
1980 Fame 40 40 80 80 2 0 8.85% 5
1980 My Bodyguard 40 40 40 1 0 4.42% x
1980 Nine to Five 40 40 40 1 0 4.42% x
1980 Stardust Memories 40 40 40 1 0 4.42% x
1980 Brubaker 40 40 40 1 0 4.42% x
1980 Mon Oncle D’Amerique 40 40 40 1 0 4.42% x
1981 Atlantic City 40 40 40 232 352 352 6 3 30.14% 1
1981 Reds 40 80 40 160 152 3 1 13.01% 2
1981 Chariots of Fire 80 40 120 120 2 1 10.27% 3
1981 Arthur 40 80 120 120 2 1 10.27% 3
1981 Absence of Malice 40 40 40 120 112 3 0 9.59% 5
1981 Gregory’s Girl 80 80 80 1 1 6.85% x
1981 My Dinner with Andre 72 72 72 1 1 6.16% x
1981 Four Seasons 40 40 80 72 2 0 8.91% x
1981 Body Heat 40 40 40 1 0 3.42% x
1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark 40 40 40 1 0 3.42% x
1981 SOB 40 40 40 1 0 3.42% x
1982 Tootsie 40 80 40 40 232 432 424 7 4 38.13% 1
1982 ET 40 80 40 40 200 192 4 1 17.27% 2
1982 Gandhi 80 80 40 200 184 3 2 16.55% 3
1982 Diner 40 40 72 152 152 3 1 13.67% 4
1982 Officer and a Gentleman 40 40 80 80 2 0 7.19% 5
1982 My Favorite Year 40 40 40 1 0 3.60% x
1982 Shoot the Moon 40 40 40 1 0 3.60% x
1983 Local Hero 40 152 192 192 3 2 17.52% 1
1983 Big Chill 40 80 40 40 200 192 4 1 17.52% 1
1983 Tender Mercies 80 80 160 160 2 2 14.60% 3
1983 King of Comedy 80 80 80 1 1 7.30% 4
1983 Zelig 40 40 80 80 2 0 7.30% 4
1983 Silkwood 40 40 80 80 2 0 7.30% 4
1983 Wargames 40 40 80 80 2 0 7.30% 4
1983 Pauline at the Beach 72 72 72 1 1 6.57% x
1983 Comfort and Joy 40 40 40 1 0 3.65% x
1983 Trading Places 40 40 40 1 0 3.65% x
1983 Risky Business 40 40 40 1 0 3.65% x
1983 Fanny and Alexander 40 40 40 1 0 3.65% x
1984 Places in the Heart 80 40 40 80 240 232 4 2 25.00% 1
1984 Broadway Danny Rose 40 80 80 200 200 3 2 21.55% 2
1984 Splash 40 40 72 152 152 3 1 16.38% 3
1984 El Norte 40 40 80 80 2 0 8.62% 4
1984 Lost in America 72 72 72 1 1 7.76% 5
1984 Repo Man 72 72 72 1 1 7.76% 5
1984 Paris Texas 40 40 40 1 0 4.31% x
1984 Romancing the Stone 40 40 40 1 0 4.31% x
1984 Beverly Hills Cop 40 40 40 1 0 4.31% x
1985 Purple Rose of Cairo 40 40 80 80 152 392 376 6 4 36.15% 1
1985 Witness 80 80 40 40 240 232 4 2 22.31% 2
1985 Back to the Future 40 40 40 40 160 152 4 0 14.62% 3
1985 Brazil 40 80 120 120 2 1 11.54% 4
1985 Private Function 40 40 40 1 0 3.85% 5
1985 Cocoon 40 40 40 1 0 3.85% 5
1985 Mask 40 40 40 1 0 3.85% 5
1985 Official Story 40 40 40 1 0 3.85% 5
1986 Hannah and Her Sisters 80 80 40 80 152 432 424 6 5 34.87% 1
1986 My Beautiful Laundrette 40 40 152 232 232 4 2 19.08% 2
1986 Mona Lisa 40 40 40 120 112 3 0 9.21% 3
1986 Platoon 40 40 40 120 112 3 0 9.21% 3
1986 Mission 80 40 120 104 2 1 8.55% 5
1986 Crocodile Dundee 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.58% x
1986 Salvador 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.58% x
1986 Blue Velvet 40 40 80 72 2 0 5.92% x
1987 Hope and Glory 40 40 40 40 152 312 304 6 2 26.39% 1
1987 Broadcast News 40 40 40 152 272 264 5 2 22.92% 2
1987 Moonstruck 80 80 40 40 240 232 4 2 20.14% 3
1987 Radio Days 40 40 40 120 120 3 0 10.42% 4
1987 Wish You Were Here 80 80 80 1 1 6.94% 5
1987 Au Revoir Les Enfants 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.94% 5
1987 Personal Services 40 40 40 1 0 3.47% x
1987 House of Games 40 40 32 1 0 2.78% x
1988 Bull Durham 40 80 232 352 352 5 4 34.11% 1
1988 Rain Man 80 40 40 40 200 192 4 1 18.60% 2
1988 Fish Called Wanda 40 40 40 120 120 3 0 11.63% 3
1988 Running on Empty 40 80 120 104 2 1 10.08% 4
1988 World Apart 80 80 80 1 1 7.75% 5
1988 Big 40 40 80 80 2 0 7.75% 5
1988 Working Girl 40 40 80 72 2 0 6.98% x
1988 Mississippi Burning 40 40 32 1 0 3.10% x
1989 When Harry Met Sally 40 40 40 80 200 192 4 1 23.76% 1
1989 Dead Poets Society 80 40 40 40 200 192 4 1 23.76% 1
1989 Crimes and Misdemeanors 40 80 40 160 160 3 1 19.80% 3
1989 Sex Lies and Videotape 40 40 40 40 160 152 4 0 18.81% 4
1989 Do the Right Thing 40 40 80 72 2 0 8.91% 5
1989 Fabulous Baker Boys 40 40 40 1 0 4.95% x
1990 Ghost 80 40 40 160 160 3 1 20.41% 1
1990 Avalon 40 80 40 160 152 3 1 19.39% 2
1990 Green Card 40 40 40 120 120 3 0 15.31% 3
1990 Cinema Paradiso 80 80 80 1 1 10.20% 4
1990 Pretty Woman 40 40 80 80 2 0 10.20% 4
1990 Alice 40 40 80 80 2 0 10.20% 4
1990 To Sleep with Anger 72 72 72 1 1 9.18% x
1990 Metropolitan 40 40 40 1 0 5.10% x
1991 Thelma and Louise 80 80 80 40 280 264 4 3 32.67% 1
1991 Bugsy 40 40 40 80 200 192 4 1 23.76% 2
1991 Fisher King 40 40 40 120 120 3 0 14.85% 3
1991 Grand Canyon 40 40 40 120 112 3 0 13.86% 4
1991 Boyz N the Hood 40 40 80 80 2 0 9.90% 5
1991 Hear My Song 40 40 40 1 0 4.95% x
1992 Unforgiven 40 40 40 40 152 312 304 6 2 30.89% 1
1992 Crying Game 80 80 40 80 280 280 4 3 28.46% 2
1992 Husbands Wives 40 40 80 160 160 3 1 16.26% 3
1992 Truly Madly Deeply 80 80 80 1 1 8.13% 4
1992 Lorenzo’s Oil 40 40 80 80 2 0 8.13% 4
1992 Passion Fish 40 40 80 80 2 0 8.13% 4
1993 Piano 80 80 40 40 232 472 464 7 5 45.67% 1
1993 Philadelphia 40 40 40 40 160 152 4 0 14.96% 2
1993 In the Line of Fire 40 40 40 120 120 3 0 11.81% 3
1993 Sleepless in Seattle 40 40 40 120 120 3 0 11.81% 3
1993 Groundhog Day 80 80 80 1 1 7.87% 5
1993 Dave 40 40 80 80 2 0 7.87% 5
1994 Pulp Fiction 80 80 80 368 608 592 8 8 51.75% 1
1994 Four Weddings and a Funeral 40 80 40 40 200 192 4 1 16.78% 2
1994 Bullets over Broadway 40 40 40 120 120 3 0 10.49% 3
1994 Adventures of Priscilla 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.99% 4
1994 Red 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.99% 4
1994 Heavenly Creatures 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.99% 4
1995 Usual Suspects 80 80 64 224 224 3 3 25.69% 1
1995 Braveheart 40 80 40 160 152 3 1 17.43% 2
1995 Clueless 40 72 112 112 2 1 12.84% 3
1995 Muriel’s Wedding 40 40 80 80 2 0 9.17% 4
1995 Mighty Aphrodite 40 40 80 80 2 0 9.17% 4
1995 American President 40 40 80 72 2 0 8.26% x
1995 Seven 40 40 40 1 0 4.59% x
1995 Nixon 40 40 40 1 0 4.59% x
1995 Toy Story 40 40 40 1 0 4.59% x
1995 Mr Holland’s Opus 40 40 32 1 0 3.67% x
1996 Fargo 80 80 40 40 144 384 376 6 4 30.92% 1
1996 Secrets and Lies 40 40 80 160 160 3 1 13.16% 2
1996 Mother 152 152 152 2 2 12.50% 3
1996 Lone Star 40 40 40 40 160 152 4 0 12.50% 3
1996 Shine 40 40 40 40 160 152 4 0 12.50% 3
1996 Jerry Maguire 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.58% x
1996 Big Night 72 72 72 1 1 5.92% x
1996 People vs Larry Flynt 80 80 64 1 1 5.26% x
1996 Brassed Off 40 40 40 1 0 3.29% x
1997 Good Will Hunting 80 40 80 80 280 248 4 3 28.44% 1
1997 As Good as It Gets 40 80 40 160 152 3 1 17.43% 2
1997 Boogie Nights 40 40 40 120 120 3 0 13.76% 3
1997 Full Monty 40 40 40 120 120 3 0 13.76% 3
1997 Nil by Mouth 80 80 80 1 1 9.17% 5
1997 Titanic 40 40 80 72 2 0 8.26% x
1997 Mrs Brown 40 40 40 1 0 4.59% x
1997 Deconstructing Harry 40 40 40 1 0 4.59% x
1998 Shakespeare in Love 80 80 80 40 80 144 504 472 7 6 40.69% 1
1998 Bulworth 40 40 40 80 200 192 4 1 16.55% 2
1998 Truman Show 40 40 40 80 200 192 4 1 16.55% 2
1998 Saving Private Ryan 40 40 40 120 112 3 0 9.66% 4
1998 Life is Beautiful 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.90% 5
1998 Elizabeth 40 40 40 1 0 3.45% x
1998 Opposite of Sex 40 40 40 1 0 3.45% x
1998 Happiness 40 40 32 1 0 2.76% x
1999 Being John Malkovich 40 40 40 80 288 488 480 8 5 40.00% 1
1999 American Beauty 80 80 80 40 80 360 328 5 4 27.33% 2
1999 Sixth Sense 40 40 40 40 160 152 4 0 12.67% 3
1999 Topsy-Turvy 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.67% 4
1999 Magnolia 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.67% 4
1999 All About My Mother 40 40 40 1 0 3.33% x
1999 Three Kings 40 40 40 1 0 3.33% x
2000 Almost Famous 80 40 40 80 80 136 456 432 7 5 36.73% 1
2000 You Can Count on Me 40 80 40 232 392 384 6 4 32.65% 2
2000 Billy Elliot 40 40 40 120 120 3 0 10.20% 3
2000 Erin Brockovich 40 40 40 120 120 3 0 10.20% 3
2000 Gladiator 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.80% 5
2000 Best in Show 40 40 40 1 0 3.40% x
2001 Gosford Park 80 80 40 40 152 392 384 6 4 29.27% 1
2001 Memento 40 40 80 216 376 352 6 4 26.83% 2
2001 Amelie 40 80 120 120 2 1 9.15% 3
2001 Royal Tenenbaums 40 40 40 120 120 3 0 9.15% 3
2001 Man Who Wasn’t There 40 40 40 120 104 3 0 7.93% 5
2001 Moulin Rouge 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.10% x
2001 Monsters Ball 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.10% x
2001 Others 40 40 40 1 0 3.05% x
2001 Mulholland Drive 40 40 32 1 0 2.44% x
2002 Talk to Her 80 80 160 160 2 2 19.80% 1
2002 Gangs of New York 40 40 40 120 120 3 0 14.85% 2
2002 My Big Fat Greek Wedding 40 40 40 120 112 3 0 13.86% 3
2002 Far from Heaven 40 40 40 120 112 3 0 13.86% 3
2002 Bowling for Columbine 80 80 80 1 1 9.90% 5
2002 Y Tu Mama Tambien 40 40 80 80 2 0 9.90% 5
2002 Human Nature 64 64 64 1 1 7.92% x
2002 Magdalene Sisters 40 40 40 1 0 4.95% x
2002 Antwone Fisher 40 40 40 1 0 4.95% x
2003 Lost in Translation 80 80 80 40 40 64 384 360 6 4 32.37% 1
2003 In America 40 40 40 80 64 264 240 5 2 21.58% 2
2003 Station Agent 40 80 120 120 2 1 10.79% 3
2003 Dirty Pretty Things 40 40 40 120 120 3 0 10.79% 3
2003 Barbarian Invasions 40 40 80 80 2 0 7.19% 5
2003 Finding Nemo 40 40 80 80 2 0 7.19% 5
2003 21 Grams 40 40 40 1 0 3.60% x
2003 Bend It Like Beckham 40 40 40 1 0 3.60% x
2003 Love Actually 40 40 32 1 0 2.88% x
2004 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 80 80 40 80 40 64 384 368 6 4 37.40% 1
2004 Aviator 40 40 40 40 40 200 184 5 0 18.70% 2
2004 Hotel Rwanda 40 40 40 120 120 3 0 12.20% 3
2004 Vera Drake 40 40 80 80 2 0 8.13% 4
2004 Kinsey 40 40 80 72 2 0 7.32% 5
2004 Collateral 40 40 40 1 0 4.07% x
2004 Ray 40 40 40 1 0 4.07% x
2004 Garden State 40 40 40 1 0 4.07% x
2004 Incredibles 40 40 40 1 0 4.07% x
2005 Squid and the Whale 40 40 40 296 416 408 7 4 29.82% 1
2005 Crash 80 80 40 80 80 64 424 400 6 5 29.24% 2
2005 Good Night and Good Luck 40 40 40 40 40 200 184 5 0 13.45% 3
2005 Syriana 40 40 64 144 144 3 1 10.53% 4
2005 Cinderella Man 40 40 80 80 2 0 5.85% 5
2005 Match Point 40 40 80 72 2 0 5.26% x
2005 Mrs Henderson Presents 40 40 40 1 0 2.92% x
2005 40 Year Old Virgin 40 40 40 1 0 2.92% x
2006 Queen 40 40 80 40 40 296 536 512 9 5 37.21% 1
2006 Little Miss Sunshine 80 80 80 80 320 304 4 4 22.09% 2
2006 Babel 40 40 40 40 40 200 184 5 0 13.37% 3
2006 Stranger Than Fiction 40 40 64 144 136 3 2 9.88% 4
2006 United 93 40 40 80 80 2 0 5.81% 5
2006 Pan’s Labyrinth 40 40 80 80 2 0 5.81% 5
2006 Lives of Others 40 40 40 1 0 2.91% x
2006 Letters from Iwo Jima 40 40 40 1 0 2.91% x
2007 Juno 80 80 40 80 80 128 488 464 7 6 36.94% 1
2007 Savages 40 40 152 232 232 4 2 18.47% 2
2007 Lars and the Real Girl 40 40 40 64 184 176 4 1 14.01% 3
2007 Michael Clayton 40 40 40 40 160 152 4 0 12.10% 4
2007 Ratatouille 40 72 112 112 2 1 8.92% 5
2007 American Gangster 40 40 40 1 0 3.18% x
2007 This is England 40 40 40 1 0 3.18% x
2007 Knocked Up 40 40 40 1 0 3.18% x
2008 Milk 80 80 40 40 72 312 304 5 3 25.68% 1
2008 Happy-Go-Lucky 40 152 192 192 3 2 16.22% 2
2008 In Bruges 40 80 120 120 2 1 10.14% 3
2008 Wall-E 40 64 104 104 2 1 8.78% 4
2008 Rachel Getting Married 80 80 80 1 1 6.76% 5
2008 Burn After Reading 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.76% 5
2008 Gran Torino 64 64 64 1 1 5.41% x
2008 Changeling 40 40 40 1 0 3.38% x
2008 I’ve Loved You So Long 40 40 40 1 0 3.38% x
2008 Vicky Cristina Barcelona 40 40 40 1 0 3.38% x
2008 Visitor 40 40 40 1 0 3.38% x
2008 Wrestler 40 40 40 1 0 3.38% x
2008 Frozen River 40 40 40 1 0 3.38% x
2009 Hurt Locker 80 80 40 80 40 64 384 368 6 4 28.75% 1
2009 Serious Man, A 40 40 40 40 208 368 360 7 3 28.13% 2
2009 Inglourious Basterds 40 40 40 80 200 176 4 1 13.75% 3
2009 Up 40 40 40 120 112 3 0 8.75% 4
2009 Hangover 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.25% 5
2009 500 Days of Summer 40 40 80 72 2 0 5.63% x
2009 Avatar 40 40 40 1 0 3.13% x
2009 Messenger 40 40 40 1 0 3.13% x
2009 It’s Complicated 40 40 32 1 0 2.50% x
2010 Inception 40 80 40 40 40 64 304 288 6 2 23.84% 1
2010 Kids are All Right 40 40 40 40 40 80 280 264 6 1 21.85% 2
2010 King’s Speech 80 40 80 80 280 256 4 3 21.19% 3
2010 Fighter 40 40 40 40 160 152 4 0 12.58% 4
2010 Black Swan 40 40 40 120 112 3 0 9.27% 5
2010 Another Year 40 40 80 72 2 0 5.96% x
2010 Buried 64 64 64 1 1 5.30% x
2010 Please Give 40 40 40 1 0 3.31% x
2011 Midnight in Paris 80 80 80 40 80 360 328 5 4 25.47% 1
2011 Artist 40 40 80 40 64 264 248 5 2 19.25% 2
2011 Separation, A 40 152 192 192 3 2 14.91% 3
2011 50/50 40 40 64 144 136 3 1 10.56% 4
2011 Bridesmaids 40 40 40 120 120 3 0 9.32% 5
2011 Win Win 40 40 80 72 2 0 5.59% x
2011 Young Adult 40 40 80 72 2 0 5.59% x
2011 Guard 40 40 40 1 0 3.11% x
2011 Iron Lady 40 40 40 1 0 3.11% x
2011 Margin Call 40 40 40 1 0 3.11% x

Lists

  • Best Oscar Winner Snubbed by the BAFTAs:  The Sting
  • Best BAFTA Winner Snubbed by the Oscars:  Truly Madly Deeply
  • Best Oscar Nominee Snubbed by the BAFTAs:  Memento
  • Best BAFTA Nominee Snubbed by the Oscars:  All About My Mother
  • Best Film Snubbed by the Oscars and BAFTAs but Nominated by WGA:  Raiders of the Lost Ark
  • Best Film Snubbed by all four groups:  Scenes from a Marriage
  • Worst Oscar Winner:  Wilson
  • Worst BAFTA Winner:  Nil by Mouth
  • Worst WGA Winner (post-1983):  Braveheart
  • Worst WGA Winner (Original Drama):  The Turning Point
  • Worst WGA Winner (Original Comedy):  The Bad News Bears
  • Most Oscar Points without a Screenplay Nom:  Titanic
  • Most BAFTA Points without a Screenplay Nom:  Oh What a Lovely War
  • Most Critics Points without a Screenplay Win:  Far from Heaven
  • Average Nighthawk Winner  (9 point scale):  7.87
  • Average Oscar Winner  (9 point scale):  3.66
  • Average BAFTA Winner  (9 point scale):  6.81
  • Average WGA Winner (1984-2011)  (9 point scale):  6.21
  • Average WGA Original Drama Winner (1969-1983):  4.13
  • Average WGA Original Comedy Winner (1969-1983):  3.60
  • Average Nighthawk 2nd Place  (9 point scale):  6.39
  • Average Nighthawk Nominee  (9 point scale):  5.77
  • Average Oscar Nominee  (9 point scale):  3.51
  • Average BAFTA Nominee  (9 point scale):  5.22
  • Average WGA Nominee  (9 point scale):  3.78
  • Total Oscar Score:  72.10
  • Average Oscar Winner Rank:  5.43
  • Average Oscar Winner Rank Among Nominees:  2.61

See It Only for the Writing

Writing is a key component of a film.  Not many films earn points in writing if they didn’t earn points for Picture, Director or acting.  There are 55 films that earned points for writing without any other points, all of them high level *** films.  Only one of them earns a 4 for its script but several more earn a 3.  The 4 is first while the rest are chronological.

  1. My Dinner with Andre  (1981)
  2. Monkey Business  (1931)
  3. Lost in America  (1985)
  4. High Hopes  (1988)
  5. Go Fish  (1994)
  6. In the Company of Men  (1997)
  7. The Wood  (1999)

Since 2011

Nighthawk Notes:  Comedy has increased its win lead by winning the last three Nighthawk Awards.  Marriage Story lands in the Top 5 Sixth Place finishers.

9 point Screenplays Since 2011:

  • The Grand Budapest Hotel
  • Lady Bird

Awards Notes:  All points updates will be in the Adapted Screenplay post although I’ll mention that Woody Allen has added another nomination.  Drama and Comedy still dominate, accounting for 70% of the nominees since 2011 and five of the eight wins.  But Fantasy earned just its third win, Western its first nomination since 1992 and first win since 1969, Mystery earned a nomination in 2019 (its first in 18 years) and Horror won the Oscar with just its second nomination ever (Get Out).  The category has been very strongly matched with Picture for the first time (four films won both though only two of those won Director and neither of those won an acting award) and almost 70% of the nominees were also Picture nominees.  But there were still a lot of single nominations with eight of the 13 films that were nominated for Picture failed to earn any other nominations at all (2013 was the only year without a single nominee).  There have only been three Foreign nominees since 2011 (all of which won Foreign Film and earned Picture noms) but Parasite was the first Foreign winner of the award since 2002 and only the second film to ever win Screenplay and Foreign Film (the first in over 50 years).  Interestingly enough, not only did no film win both Screenplay and Actress in the last eight years, but no Screenplay winner was even nominated for Actress.  That means the last film to win Screenplay and earn an Actress nomination was Juno and the last to win both was Shakespeare in Love.  There hasn’t been much cross over with the Tech categories at all with the eight winners combining for just 11 Tech noms and one win (Cinematography for Birdman).

BAFTA Notes:  Comedy continues to dominate, winning four of the eight awards since 2011.  Western has also won its first award (Django).  Drama has pulled ahead in total nominations with 52 to Comedy’s 51.  The Best Picture trend returned to its old ways, with four original films winning Picture but only Three Billboards also winning Screenplay.  Films with no other nominations continue their trend with only three since 2011 and two of them in the same year (Moonrise Kingdom, Knives Out, Booksmart).  There have been three more Foreign nominees (Amour, Roma, Parasite), all of them winning Foreign Film and the last also winning Screenplay.  2013 had the second best group of nominated films (American Hustle, Nebraska, Inside Llewyn Davis, Gravity, Blue Jasmine) while Three Billboards joins the list of winners weaker than the other nominees.  1917 would crush the record for most BAFTA points without a Screenplay nom.

Critics Notes:  Manchester by the Sea would become the first original script since Pulp Fiction to win five critics awards.  Zero Dark Thirty and Boyhood (both original) become the latest big Picture winners (four each) to win just one Screenplay award each.

The Nighthawk Winners:

  • 2012:  Django Unchained  (Oscar, BAFTA, Globe, BFCA)
  • 2013:  Inside Llewyn Davis  (BAFTA, BFCA, NBR)
  • 2014:  The Grand Budapest Hotel  (Oscar, WGA, BAFTA, Globe, BFCA, NYFC, LAFC, NSFC, CFC)
  • 2015:  Inside Out  (Oscar, BAFTA, BFCA)
  • 2016:  Manchester by the Sea  (Oscar, WGA, BAFTA, Globe, BFCA, NYFC, NSFC, BSFC, CFC, NBR)
  • 2017:  Lady Bird  (Oscar, WGA, BAFTA, Globe, BFCA, NSFC, BSFC)
  • 2018:  The Favourite  (Oscar, BAFTA, Globe, BFCA)
  • 2019:  Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood  (Oscar, BAFTA, Globe, BFCA, NYFC, BSFC)

Chart / Consensus Notes:

YEAR FILM AA WGA GG BFT BFC crit Pts WT N W % Rk
2012 Zero Dark Thirty 40 80 40 40 40 64 304 288 6 2 24.66% 1
2012 Django Unchained 80 80 80 80 320 288 4 4 24.66% 1
2012 Moonrise Kingdom 40 40 40 40 160 152 4 0 13.01% 3
2012 Looper 40 40 64 144 136 3 1 11.64% 4
2012 Master, The 40 40 40 120 112 3 0 9.59% 5
2012 Flight 40 40 40 120 112 3 0 9.59% 5
2012 Amour 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.85% x
2013 Her 80 80 80 80 64 384 352 5 5 26.67% 1
2013 American Hustle 40 40 40 80 40 80 320 304 6 2 23.03% 2
2013 Nebraska 40 40 40 40 40 200 184 5 0 13.94% 3
2013 Blue Jasmine 40 40 40 40 160 152 4 0 11.52% 4
2013 Inside Llewyn Davis 40 40 64 144 136 3 1 10.30% 5
2013 Dallas Buyers Club 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.06% x
2013 Enough Said 72 72 72 1 1 5.45% x
2013 Gravity 40 40 40 1 0 3.03% x
2014 Grand Budapest Hotel 40 80 40 80 40 296 576 560 9 6 39.11% 1
2014 Birdman 80 80 40 80 72 352 320 5 4 22.35% 2
2014 Boyhood 40 40 40 40 40 72 272 256 6 1 17.88% 3
2014 Nightcrawler 40 40 40 40 160 152 4 0 10.61% 4
2014 Foxcatcher 40 40 80 80 3 0 5.59% x
2014 LEGO Movie 64 64 64 1 1 4.47% x
2015 Spotlight 80 80 40 80 80 288 648 624 9 8 46.99% 1
2015 Hateful Eight 40 40 40 64 184 168 4 1 12.65% 2
2015 Bridge of Spies 40 40 40 40 160 152 4 0 11.45% 3
2015 Ex Machina 40 40 40 120 112 3 0 8.43% 4
2015 Inside Out 40 40 40 120 112 3 0 8.43% 4
2015 Straight Outta Compton 40 40 80 80 2 0 6.02% x
2015 Sicario 40 40 40 1 0 3.01% x
2015 Trainwreck 40 40 40 1 0 3.01% x
2016 Manchester by the Sea 80 40 40 80 80 352 672 648 10 8 49.39% 1
2016 La La Land 40 40 80 40 80 280 248 5 2 18.90% 2
2016 Hell or High Water 40 40 40 40 40 200 184 5 0 14.02% 3
2016 Lobster 40 40 80 160 152 3 1 11.59% 4
2016 I Daniel Blake 40 40 40 1 0 3.05% 5
2016 20th Century Women 40 40 40 1 0 3.05% 5
2017 Get Out 80 80 40 80 144 424 408 6 5 26.56% 1
2017 Lady Bird 40 40 40 40 40 144 344 328 7 2 21.35% 2
2017 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri 40 80 80 40 240 216 4 2 14.06% 3
2017 Shape of Water, The 40 40 40 40 40 200 184 5 0 11.98% 4
2017 Phantom Thread 144 144 144 2 2 9.38% 5
2017 Big Sick, The 40 40 40 120 112 3 0 7.29% x
2017 I Tonya 40 40 80 80 2 0 5.21% x
2018 First Reformed 40 80 208 328 312 5 4 20.31% 1
2018 Green Book 80 40 80 40 40 280 256 5 2 16.67% 3
2018 Favourite, The 40 40 80 40 200 184 4 1 11.98% 2
2018 Roma 40 40 40 40 40 200 184 5 0 11.98% 4
2018 Vice 40 40 40 40 40 200 184 5 0 11.98% 4
2018 Eighth Grade 80 40 120 112 2 1 7.29% x
2018 Quiet Place, A 40 40 80 72 2 0 4.69% x
2018 Cold War 40 40 40 1 0 2.60% x
2019 Parasite 80 80 40 80 40 320 304 5 3 19.79% 1
2019 Marriage Story 40 40 40 40 40 80 280 264 6 1 17.19% 2
2019 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 40 80 40 40 80 280 256 5 2 16.67% 3
2019 Knives Out 40 40 40 40 160 152 4 0 9.90% 4
2019 1917 40 40 80 80 2 0 5.21% 5
2019 Booksmart 40 40 80 80 2 0 5.21% 5
2019 Uncut Gems 64 64 64 1 1 4.17% x
2019 Farewell, The 40 40 32 1 0 2.08% x