The Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay – Motion Picture is an accolade that honors best screenplay of a film. It is presented annually during the Golden Globe Awards ceremony conducted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), an organization that comprise of journalists and photographers covering the US entertainment industry for publications mainly in non-US media markets. This accolade is bestowed to recognize and honor excellence of a screenwriter in producing a well-written screenplay that becomes the very foundation of the story and structure of a film paving way for its director, actors, and other crew members in bringing the story to life on the big screen.

The category of Best Screenplay – Motion Picture was presented for the first time in 1948 during the 5th Golden Globe Awards ceremony. American screenwriter, film director and producer, playwright and theater director George Seaton was conferred with the award as its first recipient for his screenplay work in the American Christmas comedy-drama film Miracle on 34th Street.

Over the years, several notable artists won this award including English playwright Robert Bolt in 1966 for Doctor Zhivago, in 1967 for A Man for All Seasons and in 1987 for The Mission; American film director, producer, and screenwriter Francis Ford Coppola and American author and screenwriter Mario Puzo in 1973 for co-writing the screenplay of The Godfather, considered a landmark film of the gangster genre; Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard and American screenwriter, novelist and playwright Marc Norman in 1999 for co-writing Shakespeare in Love; British screenwriter Simon Beaufoy in 2009 for Slumdog Millionaire; and American film director, screenwriter and producer Damien Chazelle in 2017 for La La Land.

Some of the all time great movies that were nominated in the category but missed the award include Sunset Boulevard in 1951, Jaws and Nashville in 1976, Rocky in 1977, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in 1983, Braveheart in 1996, Titanic in 1998 and Saving Private Ryan in 1999.

List of Winners - Golden Globes Best Screenplay Motion Picture

Year

Film

Winner

1965

Doctor Zhivago

Robert Bolt

1966

A Man for All Seasons

Robert Bolt

1967

In the Heat of the Night

Sterling Silliphant

1968

Charly

Stirling Silliphant

1969

Anne of the Thousand Days

Bridget Boland, John Hale and Richard Sokolove

1970

Love Story

Erich Segal

1971

The Hospital

Paddy Chayefsky

1972

The Godfather

Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo

1973

The Exorcist

William Peter Blatty

1974

Chinatown

Robert Towne

1975

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman

1976

Network

Paddy Chayefsky

1977

The Goodbye Girl

Neil Simon

1978

Midnight Express

Oliver Stone

1979

Kramer vs. Kramer

Robert Benton

1980

The Ninth Configuration

William Peter Blatty

1981

On Golden Pond

Ernest Thompson

1982

Gandhi

John Briley

1983

Terms of Endearment

James L. Brooks

1984

Amadeus

Peter Shaffer

1985

The Purple Rose of Cairo

Woody Allen

1986

The Mission

Robert Bolt

1987

The Last Emperor

Bernardo Bertolucci, Mark Peploe and Enzo Ungari

1988

Running on Empty

Naomi Foner

1989

Born on the Fourth of July

Oliver Stone and Ron Kovic

1990

Dances with Wolves

Michael Blake

1991

Thelma & Louise

Callie Khouri

1992

Scent of a Woman

Bo Goldman

1993

Schindler's List

Steven Zaillian

1994

Pulp Fiction

Quentin Tarantino

1995

Sense and Sensibility

Emma Thompson

1996

The People vs. Larry Flynt

Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski

1997

Good Will Hunting

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon

1998

Shakespeare in Love

Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard

1999

American Beauty

Alan Ball

2000

Traffic

Stephen Gaghan

2001

A Beautiful Mind

Akiva Goldsman

2002

About Schmidt

Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor

2003

Lost in Translation

Sofia Coppola

2004

Sideways

Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor

2005

Brokeback Mountain

Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana

2006

The Queen

Peter Morgan

2007

No Country for Old Men

Ethan and Joel Coen

2008

Slumdog Millionaire

Simon Beaufoy

2009

Up in the Air

Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner