In the history of the Oscars, there have been several occasions where actors have proven their skills at screenwriting. With the 96th ceremony just around the corner, there are high predictions on who will win the prestigious awards at the 2025 Oscars. Three actors, Jesse Eisenberg, Brady Corbet, and Mona Fastvold are among those who have received Oscar nominations; however, they have been nominated for their work in screenwriting, rather than acting. Jesse Eisenberg received a Best Original Screenplay nomination for the comedy-drama, A Real Pain, his second directorial feature, while Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold were nominated for The Brutalist.

Originally known as the Award for Best Screenplay Based On Material From Another Medium, the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay was first awarded in 1929 to the drama 7th Heaven. The Oscar category for Best Original Screenplay was established in 1940 with its first award going to the comedy The Great McGinty. Woody Allen holds the record for most nominations, having been nominated 16 times, and winning three, including for Annie Hall, which is considered one of Allen’s best movies. The 2025 Oscar screenplay nominees could join the list of actors who won Oscars for their screenwriting work.

1

Orson Welles (1941)

Best Original Screenplay For Citizen Kane

Considered by many to be the greatest movie of all time, Citizen Kane follows the life of business and political tycoon, Charles Foster Kane, who dies a recluse and estranged from the world, with his last word being “Rosebud.” As news of Kane’s death spreads, reporter, Jerry Thompson, is tasked with finding out the meaning of “Rosebud” and its relevance to Kane’s life. Through interviews with former friends and associates, Thompson uncovers how Kane rose from a young boy playing in the snow on his sled to eventually becoming one of the richest men in the world.

Orson Welles starred in Citizen Kane as Charles Foster Kane, and also served as the movie’s director and producer. He also served as co-writer of the movie’s screenplay alongside Herman K. Mankiewicz. Citizen Kane was released to critical acclaim and has since been cited as one of the greatest American movies in history (via The Guardian). Citizen Kane was nominated for eight Oscars, with Welles and Mankiewicz winning for Best Original Screenplay in 1941. In the years following the movie’s release, there have been studies and speculations about Welles and Mankiewicz’s contributions to the screenplay (via Variety).

2

Emma Thompson (1995)

Best Adapted Screenplay For Sense And Sensibility

Ranked as one of Emma Thompson’s best movies, Sense and Sensibility is set in England during the 19th century, and follows the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, who are polar opposites to each other, but support and love each other after their father dies, and the family is left financially destitute. After moving to a cottage, the sensible Elinor finds herself harboring feelings towards the loyal Edward Ferrars, while Marianne is caught between two different loves. Sense and Sensibility is considered one of the best adaptations of the Jane Austen novel, and is credited for reviving interest in Austen’s works.

Thompson spent five years working on the screenplay for Sense and Sensibility, and credits the movie’s producer, Lindsay Doran, for helping her understand the process. Thompson stated that Doran was able to “help me, nourish me and mentor me through that process … I learned about screenwriting at her feet” (via Philadelphia Inquirer). Thompson adapted Austen’s novel into a screenplay that focused on the relationship between the Dashwood sisters alongside their love interests. Her work resulted in winning the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1995; she is the only person to win Oscars for both acting and screenwriting (via Independent).

3

Billy Bob Thornton (1996)

Best Adapted Screenplay For Sling Blade

Billy Bob Thornton’s directorial debut, Sling Blade, follows Karl Childers, a man suffering from a psychological disability, who is released from a mental hospital after he murdered his mother and her lover years before. While attempting to rebuild his life, Karl befriends a young boy, Frank, and his mother, Linda, who offer Karl the kindness he wasn’t given when he was a child. As their friendship deepens, Karl notices the escalating abusive behavior of Linda’s partner, Doyle, and vows to find a way to save Frank and Linda from the life of misery he was forced to endure.

Thornton created the character of Karl while working on the 1987 movie, The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains, and eventually played the character in his 1994 short movie, Some Folks Call It A Sling Blade, which also starred Molly Ringwald. The short movie was expanded and became the basis of the screenplay for Sling Blade. The movie was widely praised upon release, with critics calling it “a masterpiece of Southern storytelling” (via Washington Post). Regarded as one of Thornton’s best movies, he received a nomination for Best Actor and won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Sling Blade.

4

Matt Damon (1997)

Best Original Screenplay For Good Will Hunting

Directed by Gus Van Sant, Good Will Hunting stars Matt Damon as a young man named Will Hunting, working as a janitor at MIT, who is secretly a mathematical genius. His mathematics skills are discovered by a college professor, who offers Will the opportunity to study under his tuition, provided he seeks psychological help to manage his anger issues. The movie was critically acclaimed upon release, receiving praise for its direction, acting and screenplay. Good Will Hunting is regarded as one of the career-defining movies of Robin Williams’ career, and he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as Dr. Sean Maguire.

Matt Damon wrote the original draft of Good Will Hunting’s screenplay while studying at Harvard University; he later stated that the only scene that remained original was when his character, Will, meets Sean Maguire for the first time (via Boston Magazine). Damon later developed the script with fellow actor, Ben Affleck, and the two eventually sold their screenplay to Miramax Films. Damon received a Best Actor nomination for his performance as Will Hunting, and was the co-winner of Best Original Screenplay with Ben Affleck.

5

Ben Affleck (1997)

Best Original Screenplay For Good Will Hunting

Ben Affleck starred alongside Matt Damon and Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting; Affleck starred as Chuckie Sullivan, one of Will’s closest friends. Throughout the movie, Chuckie does his best to support Will and tries to steer him to make good decisions in life. Chuckie eventually challenges Will about his resistance to seize any good opportunities that come his way and urges him to make the most of life, rather than be stuck in the past.

Ben Affleck had previously worked with Matt Damon on the 1989 drama, Field of Dreams, and the 1992 movie, School Ties. The two worked together on the script for Good Will Hunting, which saw the two win their first Oscars. In his award acceptance speech, Affleck joked that “losing would suck and winning would be really scary, and it’s really, really scary.” Affleck was 25 when he won the Oscar, making him the youngest person to win for Best Original Screenplay. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have collaborated on other movies, since Good Will Hunting, including Dogma and Air.

6

Jim Rash (2011)

Best Adapted Screenplay For The Descendants

Jim Rash, best known for his acting in the NBC sitcom, Community, served as co-writer of the 2011 drama, The Descendants. Starring George Clooney, The Descendants follows the King family, with its patriarch, Matt, struggling with pressure from his family to sell their trust, and how to cope with his wife Elizabeth’s brain-death from a boating accident. As time passes, Matt is forced to come to terms with the revelation that his wife was keeping secrets from him. The Descendants is one of Alexander Payne’s best movies as director and is ranked as one of the best movies of 2011.

Rash explained that Payne thought “our tone might be a great fit for the adaptation of [Kaui Hart Hemmings’] The Descendants.“

Alongside Payne and Nat Faxon, Jim Rash adapted the screenplay from the 2007 novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings. In an interview, Rash stated that he had been working with Faxon on another project which caught Payne’s attention. Rash explained that Payne thought “our tone might be a great fit for the adaptation of [Kaui Hart Hemmings’] The Descendants” (via TIME). Out of five Oscar nominations, Payne, Faxon and Rash won the award for Best Adapted Screenplay; Payne thanked Hemmings in their speech, calling her “our beautiful Hawaiian flower” for allowing them to adapt her novel.

7

Jordan Peele (2017)

Best Original Screenplay For Get Out

Serving as Jordan Peele’s directorial debut, Get Out is a psychological horror movie that follows Jordan Williams, a young man who travels with his girlfriend, Rose Armitage, to meet her family for the first time. At first, Jordan dismisses Rose’s family’s behavior as an attempt to accept their interracial relationship, but soon comes to discover their most sinister intentions. The movie received highly positive reviews, with praise going towards its acting, portrayal of interracial tensions, and plot twists; Allison Williams’ Rose Armitage has been ranked as one of the most underrated female movie villains of all time.

While he gained recognition for his work in comedy, Jordan Peele chose to direct a horror movie due to his love of the genre; he stated his belief that horror and comedy have “a lot of similarities between the genres. So much of it is pacing, so much of it reveals” (via Forbes). Peele’s direction and screenplay were critically acclaimed, and he received two Oscar nominations for directing and screenplay, winning for Best Original Screenplay. With his win for Get Out, Jordan Peele became the first African-American in history to win an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (via CNN).

8

Taika Waititi (2019)

Best Adapted Screenplay For Jojo Rabbit

Set towards the end of World War II, Jojo Rabbit follows a young boy, Johannes Betzler, nicknamed Jojo, who is determined to prove himself worthy of joining the Deutsches Jungvolk, a junior section of the Hitler Youth. His Nazi beliefs are shaken when he discovers that his mother is hiding a young Jewish girl in their home, and he is forced to confront the realities of war and the realization that everything he believed in could be wrong. Throughout the movie, Taika Waititi portrays a comedic version of Hitler, who appears as Jojo’s imaginary friend and acts as Jojo’s confidant.

Waititi created Jojo Rabbit after reading Christine Leunens’ novel Caging Skies; he decided to create the movie to show how children were affected during the war. He explained in an interview that he was taking a risk by adding comedy to a war movie, as he understood that “the subject matter is very sensitive, and I knew I had to get it right” (via Vanity Fair). Despite receiving criticism for its comedic portrayal of Nazism, Jojo Rabbit has since been ranked as one of Taika Waititi’s best movies and earned him the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2020.

9

Emerald Fennell (2020)

Best Original Screenplay For Promising Young Woman

Starring Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman depicts Cassie, a young woman who dropped out of medical school after her best friend, Nina, committed suicide, following a public assault. Upon learning Nina’s attacker is about to get married, Cassie vows to get revenge on the man she deems responsible for her best friend’s death. Promising Young Woman has been listed as one of the greatest movies with a badass female lead, and received five Oscar nominations in 2021, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Carey Mulligan.

Emerald Fennell was seven months pregnant with her second child, while serving as the director of Promising Young Woman.

Fennell previously gained attention for her acting work in TV series including Call the Midwife and The Crown, before she transitioned into directing and screenwriting; she explained she wanted to create a movie that took “a “very established genre, like a revenge movie or a thriller” and upending the audience expectations that come with it” (via IndieWire). Fennell was seven months pregnant with her second child, while serving as the director of Promising Young Woman (via People). Fennell won her first Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the movie, and also received two nominations for Best Picture and Best Director.

10

Kenneth Branagh (2021)

Best Original Screenplay For Belfast

Set during the beginning of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Belfast is told from the point of view of Buddy, whose childhood innocence is shattered forever after his street is attacked by Protestant loyalists during the 1969 August riots. As the turmoil increases between Catholics and Protestants across the country, Buddy and his family have to make a choice about whether to stay or leave for England, where they are offered safety. Belfast included incredible performances by Judi Dench, Ciarán Hinds, and Jamie Dornan and was described by critics as a harrowing insight into the Troubles of Northern Ireland.

Belfast was inspired by director, Kenneth Branagh’s real experiences, growing up as a young boy in Northern Ireland, before moving to England with his family, at the age of nine. Branagh called Belfast his “most personal” project, and he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his work on the movie. In his acceptance speech, Branagh described the movie as “the search for joy in the face of violence and loss,” and paid tribute to those who lost their lives during the Troubles. Belfast has been listed as one of the best movies about Irish history.

11

Arthur Harari (2023)

Best Original Screenplay For Anatomy Of A Fall

Directed by Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall is a French legal drama movie that sees a writer being arrested on suspicion of murder after her husband is found dead from an apparent fall. The cast of Anatomy of a Fall features Sandra Hüller and Samuel Theïs and explores the themes of family, guilt and trauma, through the story of how jealousy can impact relationships and can occasionally lead to tragedy. Reviews of Anatomy of a Fall called the movie “a sensational court drama” that challenges the perception of truth in the justice system.

Justine Triet wrote the screenplay with her partner, Arthur Harari, who appeared in Anatomy of a Fall, as a literary critic. In an interview, Triet explained their fascination with the Amanda Knox case inspired them to write the script (via Paris Match). Triet further revealed that during production, she and Harari “didn’t divvy the writing up in a gendered way” and it was “was interesting to get him into my territory” (via The New Yorker). Among many other accolades, Harari and Triet won the award for Best Original Screenplay at the 2024 Oscars.

Source: The Guardian, Variety, Philadelphia Inquirer, Independent, Washington Post, Boston Magazine, TIME, Forbes, CNN, Vanity Fair, IndieWire, People, Paris Match, The New Yorker