Oscar Winning Women Screenwriters
An Overview of Women Writers and the Academy Awards
Twenty-one women have won Oscars in screenwriting categories from 1929 through the year 2008. Awards for women make up 9% of all Oscars given for screenwriters by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Record for Multiple Oscars in Single Year by a Woman
Fran Walsh holds the record for multiple Oscars won by a woman in a single year. Her three Academy Awards in 2003 were given for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Song, and Best Picture, all for the film Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Walsh has been nominated for her writing twice before: Heavenly Creatures (1991) and Lord of the Rings (2001).
Fran Walsh is also among the six women nominated three different times for writing Oscars. The other women include Francis Marion (1929/30, 1931/32, 1932/33), Ruth Gordon (1947, 1950, 1952), Nora Ephron (1983, 1989, 1993), and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1982, 1986, 1993). Claudine West was also nominated for her screenplay work in 1939, and again in 1942 for her work on two scripts, Random Harvest and Mrs. Miniver. The latter script garnered her an Oscar statuette, as it also did for co-writers Arthur Wimperis, George Froeschel and James Hilton.
Woman with Most Screenwriting Nominations - Frances Goodrich
Frances Goodrich remains the woman with the most writing nominations. Her four nominations include two in the 1930’s for The Thin Man films, and two in the 1950’s with Father of the Bride and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. The latter included Dorothy Kingsley and Albert Hackett as co-writers. Hackett, Goodrich’s husband and frequent collaborator, co-wrote her other three nominated films. The Goodrich and Hackett team also wrote for the stage. In 1956 they won the Tony Award for their play, The Diary of Anne Frank. The writing team later adapted the play into the film of the same name. The 1959 film garnered nominations in eight categories and won three Oscars. The writers, however, were not nominated for their screenplay by the Academy.
1st Women Nominated for Writing Awards
The 1st women considered by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for writing awards were Bess Meredyth and Josephine Lovett. These two unofficial nominations were considered for the 2nd Academy Awards in 1928/29. Both were nominated for silent films, and had both written well over 20 films by 1928. Lovett was considered for writing Dancing for Our Daughters, Joan Crawford’s breakout film role. Meredyth was considered for her work on two films, A Woman of Affairs and Wonder of Women. The latter film was a partial-talkie and no footage remains today. A Woman of Affairs was a silent romantic story, and starred Greta Garbo and John Gilbert. Meredyth continued to write films though the 1940’s.
Women Writers with Most Oscars - Frances Marion and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
The 3rd Academy Awards honored Frances Marion who became the 1st woman to receive the Oscar statuette for film writing. Marion was the highest paid and one of the most prolific screenwriters until Ben Hecht eclipsed her on both counts by the end of the 1930’s. Between 1929 and 1933 Marion was nominated three times for the Academy Award, and she received two of them. In addition to her Oscar in Best Writing, Achievement for The Big House, she also received the Best Writing, Story Oscar for The Champ. No other woman writer has won more than two Oscars. Published in 1937, Marion wrote one of the first how-to books on screenwriting, How to Write and Sell Film Stories.
It took 50 years for a woman to match Frances Marion’s record for two Oscar wins. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala won her 1st Academy Award in 1986 for her adaptation of A Room With a View. Her 2nd nomination in 1992 for Howard’s End brought Jhabvala a 2nd Oscar. In 1993 she was nominated but did not win for her work on Remains of the Day. A novelist, as well as a screenwriter, in 1975 Jhabvala won the prestigious Booker Prize for her novel Heat and Dust. Jhabvala later adapted her novel into a film. Nearly all of her film work has been for the production company Merchant-Ivory.
The complete list of 21 Oscar-winning women screenwriters can be found in the graphic below.
Sources:
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Database (www.oscars.org)
- Without Lying Down, by Cari Beachamp (ISBN 0684802139)
- The Women Who Write the Movies, by Marsha McCreadie (ISBN 1559722517)
List of Award Winning Women Screenwriters
|
What do you think about this article?
More in Film & TV
Latest Articles