Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay

The Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source (usually a novel or play).

1980s

• 1980 Ordinary People - Alvin Sargent from the novel by Judith Guest
• Breaker Morant - Jonathan Hardy, David Stevens, Bruce Beresford from the play by Kenneth Ross
• Coal Miner's Daughter - Tom Rickman from the autobiography by Loretta Lynn and George Vecsey
• The Elephant Man - Christopher De Vore, Eric Bergren, David Lynch from the book The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences by Sir Frederick Treves and by Ashley Montagu
• The Stunt Man - Lawrence B. Marcus, Richard Rush from the novel by Paul Brodeur
• 1981 On Golden Pond - Ernest Thompson from his play
• The French Lieutenant's Woman - Harold Pinter from the novel by John Fowles
• Pennies From Heaven - Dennis Potter from his miniseries
• Prince of the City - Jay Presson Allen, Sidney Lumet from the book by Robert Daley
• Ragtime - Michael Weller from the novel by E.L. Doctorow
• 1982 Missing - Constantin Costa-Gavras, Donald Stewart from the book by Thomas Hauser
• Das Boot - Wolfgang Petersen from the novel by Lothar G. Buchheim
• Sophie's Choice - Alan J. Pakula from the novel by William Styron
• The Verdict - David Mamet from the novel by Barry Reed
• Victor/Victoria - Blake Edwards from the earlier film screenplay by Reinhold Schünzel
• 1983 Terms of Endearment - James L. Brooks from the novel by Larry McMurtry
• The Betrayal - Harold Pinter from his play
• The Dresser - Ronald Harwood from his play
• Educating Rita - Willy Russell from his play
• Reuben, Reuben - Julius J. Epstein from the novel by Peter De Vries and the play Spoonford by Herman Shumlin
• 1984 Amadeus - Peter Shaffer from his play
• ' - P.H. Vazak, Michael Austin from the novel Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
• The Killing Fields - Bruce Robinson from the article The Death and Life of Dith Pran by Sydney Schanberg
• A Passage to India - David Lean from the novel by E.M. Forster
• A Soldier's Story - Charles Fuller from the his play A Soldier's Play
• 1985 Out of Africa - Kurt Luedtke from the memoirs of Isak Dinesen, book Silence Will Speak by Errol Trzebinski
• The Color Purple - Menno Meyjes from the novel by Alice Walker
• Kiss of the Spider Woman - Leonard Schrader from the novel by Manuel Puig
• Prizzi's Honor - Richard Condon, Janet Roach from the novel by Richard Condon
• The Trip to Bountiful - Horton Foote from his play
• 1986 A Room with a View - Ruth Jhabvala from the novel by E.M. Forster
• Children of a Lesser God - Hesper Anderson, Mark Medoff from the play by Mark Medoff
• The Color of Money - Richard Price from the novel by Walter Tevis
• Crimes of the Heart - Beth Henley from her play
• Stand by Me - Raynold Gideon, Bruce A. Evans from the novella The Body by Stephen King
• 1987 The Last Emperor - Bernardo Bertolucci, Mark Peploe from the autobiography ' by Henry Pu Yi
• The Dead - Tony Huston from the story by James Joyce
• Fatal Attraction - James Dearden from the screenplay by James Dearden (This film was a re-make of an earlier, made-for-tv British film)
• Full Metal Jacket - Gustav Hasford, Michael Herr, Stanley Kubrick from the novel The Short Timers by Gustav Hasford
• Mitt liv som hund - Brasse Brännström, Per Berglund, Lasse Hallström, Reidar Jönsson from the novel by Reidar Jönsson
• 1988 Dangerous Liaisons - Christopher Hampton from the novel by Choderlos de Laclos and the play by Christopher Hampton
• The Accidental Tourist - Frank Galati, Lawrence Kasdan from the novel by Anne Tyler
• Gorillas in the Mist - Anna Hamilton Phelan from the article by Harold T.P. Hayes
• Little Dorrit - Christine Edzard from the novel by Charles Dickens
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Jean-Claude Carrière, Philip Kaufman from the novel by Milan Kundera
• 1989 Driving Miss Daisy - Alfred Uhry from the play by Alfred Uhry
• Born on the Fourth of July - Ron Kovic, Oliver Stone from the autobiography by Ron Kovic
• ' - Paul Mazursky, Roger L. Simon from the novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer
• Field of Dreams - Phil Alden Robinson from the novel Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella
• My Left Foot - Shane Connaughton, Jim Sheridan from the autobiography by Christy Brown