Although film is considered a director's medium, it's equally dependent on writers. Thus, from their inception, the Academy Awards honored screenplays. Following is a look at selected Oscar-winning and -losing scripts based on other works.
Gay George Cukor's superb "Little Women" (1933) benefitted enormously from Victor Heerman's and Sarah Y. Mason's cinematic, Oscar-winning adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel. Charles Brackett and Jane Murfin also helped pen it. Robert Riskin won for adapting Samuel Hopkins Adams' "It Happened One Night" (1934), which became the first (and for 40 years, the only) film to earn Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay.
"Gone With the Wind" was 1939's big winner, collecting eight statues, including one for Sidney Howard's screenplay. But Ben Hecht and John Van Druten, among others, helped adapt Margaret Mitchell's bestseller. Still, the film shortchanges the novel. Next year, Donald Ogden Stewart won for "The Philadelphia Story," based on Philip Barry's play, but Robert E. Sherwood's and Joan Harrison's more cinematic version of "Rebecca," directed by Alfred Hitchcock and based on bisexual Daphne DuMaurier's suspenseful novel, was better.
"Casablanca" (1943) won Best Picture, Director, and for writers Julius J. Epstein's, Philip G. Epstein's, and Howard Koch's adaption of Murray Burnett's and Joan Alison's unproduced play "Everybody Comes to Rick's." Uncredited Casey Robinson penned some scenes, and at times it seemed almost every writer at Warners worked on it. Amazingly, the film appears seamless. In 1944, the Academy erred big time by honoring Frank Butler and Frank Cavett for the treacly, now unwatchable "Going My Way," based on Leo McCarey's story, which also won for Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Supporting Actor. Far better in most of those categories was Billy Wilder's "Double Indemnity," which he and Raymond Chandler adapted from James M. Cain's novel. Wilder's "The Lost Weekend" (1945) would earn Best Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay, by Wilder and Charles Bracket. It was based on Charles R. Jackson's searing novel about alcoholism.
In 1950, Joseph L. Mankiweicz transformed Mary Orr's "The Wisdom of Eve" into "All About Eve," winning six Oscars, including Best Adapted Screenplay. In 1951, Michael Wilson and Harry Brown won for "A Place In the Sun," improving Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy," but the Oscar should have gone to gay Tennessee Williams' adaptation of his seminal play "A Streetcar Named Desire."
Williams lost again in 1956 when his "shocking" version of his "27 Wagons Full of Cotton" became "Baby Doll." Instead, James Poe, John Farrow, and S.J. Perelman won for the dated rendering of Jules Verne's "Around the World in 80 Days." In 1958, Alan Jay Lerner's script for gay Vincente Minnelli's "Gigi," derived from Collette's novel, became the first musical to win. In 1959, Wilder and I.A.L Diamond's "Some Like It Hot" inexplicably lost to Neil Patterson for "Room at the Top," based on John Braine's novel.
In 1962, Horton Foote's screenplay of Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" earned him the prize. A conservative Academy honored Robert Bolt for adapting his "A Man for All Seasons" (1966), rather than Ernest Lehman for his version of gay Edward Albee's groundbreaking play "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" In 1968, Roman Polanski's inspired screenplay based on Ira Levin's "Rosemary's Baby" lost to James Goldman's adaptation of his pretentious, anachronistic play "The Lion in Winter."
The 70s began well with Ring Lardner, Jr. winning for "MASH," adapted from Richard Hooker's novel. But in 1971, Ugo Pirro and Vittorio Bonicelli's beautiful rendering of Giorgio Bassani's novel "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis" lost to Ernest Tidyman's tiresome "The French Connection," taken from Robin Moore's book. In 1972, Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" and Bob Fosse's "Cabaret" dominated the awards. The former won Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay by Mario Puzo (based on his novel) and Coppola, edging out Jay Allen's dazzling version of gay Christopher Isherwood's "Berlin Stories." Coppola and Puzo won again for 1974's "The Godfather Part II." Next year, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" joined "It Happened One Night" in garnering six major awards, including one for Lawrence Haubman and Bo Goldman's adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel. In 1979, the Academy was again cautious, selecting Robert Benton for "Kramer vs. Kramer," taken from Avery Corman's novel, rather than Francis Veber, Edouard Molinaro, Marcello Danon, and Jean Poiret for their hilarious look at a gay male couple's marriage in "La Cage Aux Folles."
James L. Brooks' adaptation of Larry McMurtry's "Terms of Endearment" won the 1981 writing award, part of a sweep. Peter Shaffer's dazzling screen version of his play "Amadeus" earned him the 1983 Oscar. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's splendid screenplay of gay E.M. Forster's "A Room With a View" garnered her 1986's award. Christopher Hampton won for his 1988 adaptation of his play "Dangerous Liaisons," based on Choderlos de Laclos' magnificent novel.
Michael Blake won in 1990 for adapting his "Dances with Wolves," but Donald Westlake deserved it for scripting his "The Grifters." In 1992, Jhabvala won again for another Forster novel, "Howard's End." Steven Zaillan collected 1993's prize for transforming Thomas Kennealy's "Schindler's List." James Ellroy's gripping novel "L.A. Confidential" deservedly earned Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland's brilliant screenplay the Oscar. Bill Condon's haunting adaptation of Christopher Bram's novel about gay director James Whale won the 1998 award.
The new century has favored screenplays about gay men. In 2004, Larry McMurtry's and Diana Ossana's powerful script for the landmark tragic gay romance "Brokeback Mountain," taken from Annie Proulx's story, garnered the award. Graham Moore's poignant "The Imitation Game" (2013), based on Andrew Hodges' book about prosecuted gay genius "Alan Turing: The Enigma," collected the prize. Tarell Alvin McCraney's gay coming-of-age play "In Moonlight All Black Boys Look Alike" was beautifully adapted by Barry Jenkins and McCraney, retitled "Moonlight," and won them and the film Oscars.
Will James Ivory's exquisite adaptation of Andre Aciman's "Call Me By Your Name" make it two years in a row for a gay love story?