Film & Television

Best Original Screenplay Academy Award Winners Trivia Word Search

85 original clues · new puzzle every time you play

Test your knowledge of Best Original Screenplay Academy Award Winners with a free trivia word search from thewordfind.com. Read each clue, work out the answer, then find it hidden in the letter grid — every puzzle is freshly generated, so no two plays are ever quite the same. Don't know an answer? Tap the hint button in-game to reveal the first letter, or just scan the grid — every answer is hiding in there somewhere. Between the clues and the full answer key below, this topic doubles as a quick study guide — good for a trivia night, a classroom quiz, or just picking up something new about Best Original Screenplay Academy Award Winners along the way.

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A few sample clues

This writer's screenplay for the London-set drama 'Darling' won the 1965 Oscar.

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A husband-and-wife writing duo, Muriel and Sydney _ _ _, won the 1946 Oscar for the psychological drama 'The Seventh Veil.'

A grieving man becomes his nephew's guardian in this writer's 2016 winner, 'Manchester by the Sea.'

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This writer's screenplay for the political satire 'The Candidate' won the 1972 Oscar.

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This comedy legend won his first Oscar in 1968 for writing 'The Producers.'

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All 85 questions in this topic, with answers — use it to study, or just browse. Every actual play of the puzzle only pulls a random handful of these into one game, so knowing them all here won't spoil which ones show up or where they're hidden in the grid. Play it here.

This writer's biopic about India's independence leader, 'Gandhi,' won the 1982 Oscar.

BRILEY

This writer's tale of two outlaws, 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,' won the 1969 Oscar.

GOLDMAN

Two lonely Americans connect in this Japanese capital in the 2003 winning script, 'Lost in Translation.'

TOKYO

A dysfunctional family road-trips to a beauty pageant in this 2006 winner, 'Little Miss Sunshine.'

ARNDT

This Texas-born playwright won the 1983 Oscar for 'Tender Mercies.'

FOOTE

This 1942 winner (with Michael Kanin) scripted the Tracy-Hepburn comedy 'Woman of the Year.'

LARDNER

A pregnant teenager's story won this former stripper-turned-writer the 2007 Oscar for 'Juno.'

CODY

Interlocking Los Angeles storylines about race won this writer's script the 2005 Oscar, 'Crash.'

HAGGIS

A woman avenges her friend by targeting predatory men in this 2020 winner, 'Promising Young Woman.'

FENNELL

A suicidal chief of medicine faces a spate of mysterious deaths in this writer's 1971 winning satire, 'The Hospital.'

CHAYEFSKY

Best Original Screenplay's 1941 winner co-wrote and starred as the title tycoon in 'Citizen Kane.'

WELLES

This anxious New York comedian won his first Oscar in 1977 for co-writing 'Annie Hall.'

ALLEN

This lyricist-screenwriter won the 1951 Oscar for the Gene Kelly musical 'An American in Paris.'

LERNER

A fashion-world comedy, 'Designing Woman,' brought this writer the 1957 Original Screenplay Oscar.

WELLS

Two friends flee across the Southwest in this writer's 1991 winner, 'Thelma & Louise.'

KHOURI

A lonely man falls for his AI operating system in this writer-director's 2013 winner, 'Her.'

JONZE

Adapting a sprawling Western saga into 'How the West Was Won' won this writer the 1963 Oscar.

WEBB

This director's nonlinear crime saga 'Pulp Fiction' won the 1994 Original Screenplay Oscar.

TARANTINO

A British soldier and an IRA captive's bond drives this writer's 1992 winner, 'The Crying Game.'

JORDAN

A stripper's whirlwind marriage to a Russian oligarch's son unravels in this 2024 winner, 'Anora.'

BAKER

Half of the directing duo known as 'the Daniels' won the 2022 Oscar for 'Everything Everywhere All at Once.'

KWAN

This Spanish filmmaker won the 2002 Oscar for the drama 'Talk to Her.'

ALMODOVAR

The 1943 Best Original Screenplay winner penned the wartime romantic comedy 'Princess O'Rourke.'

KRASNA

Co-writing the Doris Day-Rock Hudson comedy 'Pillow Talk' earned this writer the 1959 Oscar.

SHAPIRO

A murdered man's ghost tries to protect his love in this 1990 winning script, 'Ghost.'

RUBIN

A playwright by trade, this writer won the 1961 Oscar for 'Splendor in the Grass.'

INGE

This celebrated playwright co-wrote the 1998 winner 'Shakespeare in Love.'

STOPPARD

Co-writing the war biopic 'Patton' earned this filmmaker (before his 'Godfather' fame) the 1970 Oscar.

COPPOLA

A WWII beachcomber turned coastwatcher meets a French teacher and her pupils in 1964's winning script, 'Father Goose.'

STONE

This comedian-turned-filmmaker's social thriller 'Get Out' won the 2017 Oscar.

PEELE

Co-writing Billy Wilder's 'Sunset Boulevard' earned this producer-writer the 1950 Oscar.

BRACKETT

Its script coined the line 'I'm mad as hell,' and this 1976 satire about TV news won the Oscar.

NETWORK

A Brooklyn baker falls for her fiance's brother in this writer's 1987 winner, 'Moonstruck.'

SHANLEY

A group of working-class friends chase belonging in this writer's 1979 winner, 'Breaking Away.'

TESICH

A police lineup unravels into a legendary con in this writer's 1995 winner, 'The Usual Suspects.'

MCQUARRIE

Filmmaking siblings won the 1996 Oscar for the snowy crime comedy 'Fargo.'

COEN

This South Korean director's class-satire thriller 'Parasite' won the 2019 Oscar.

BONG

This writer-director's Texas family drama 'Places in the Heart' won the 1984 Oscar.

BENTON

This writer's biopic about assassinated gay-rights leader Harvey Milk won the 2008 Oscar.

BLACK

This British writer's Olympic drama 'Chariots of Fire' won the 1981 Oscar.

WELLAND

This filmmaker's vampire-horror period piece 'Sinners' won the 2025 Original Screenplay Oscar.

COOGLER

This writer's screenplay for 'On the Waterfront' won the 1954 Oscar and features 'I coulda been a contender.'

SCHULBERG

A Swiss neutrality drama, 'Marie-Louise,' brought this writer the 1945 Original Screenplay Oscar.

SCHWEIZER

Decades before his hit TV shows, this writer won the 1947 Oscar for 'The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.'

SHELDON

This actor-director's film about 1960s Northern Ireland, 'Belfast,' won the 2021 Oscar.

BRANAGH

Blacklisted and writing under a pseudonym, this Oscar winner scripted 1958's 'The Defiant Ones.'

YOUNG

A pair of grifters running a long con drives this writer's 1973 winner, 'The Sting.'

WARD

This writer's grim World War II combat drama 'Battleground' won the 1949 Oscar.

PIROSH

Journalists uncover a church abuse scandal in this writer-director's 2015 winner, 'Spotlight.'

MCCARTHY

This New Zealand filmmaker's period drama 'The Piano' won the 1993 Oscar.

CAMPION

One of three credited writers on 1953's 'Titanic' script, sharing that year's Oscar.

REISCH

A botched bank robbery inspired this writer's 1975 winning script, 'Dog Day Afternoon.'

PIERSON

This French director's courtroom drama 'Anatomy of a Fall' won the 2023 Oscar.

TRIET

This longtime Billy Wilder collaborator won the 1960 Oscar for 'The Apartment.'

DIAMOND

This Italian director-writer won the 1962 Oscar for the farce 'Divorce Italian Style.'

GERMI

A washed-up superhero actor stages a Broadway comeback in this 2014 winner, 'Birdman.'

INARRITU

Adapting an opera singer's true story for 'Interrupted Melody' won this co-writer the 1955 Oscar.

LEVIEN

King George VI's stutter is the subject of this 2010 winning script, 'The King's Speech.'

SEIDLER

A Black pianist and his Italian-American driver tour the Deep South in this 2018 winner, 'Green Book.'

FARRELLY

An English country-house murder mystery, 'Gosford Park,' won this writer the 2001 Oscar.

FELLOWES

A suburban dad's midlife unraveling drives this 1999 winning script, 'American Beauty.'

BALL

An unconventional teacher inspires prep-school boys in this 1989 winner, 'Dead Poets Society.'

SCHULMAN

This 1980 Oscar-winning script tells of a gas-station owner who claimed Howard Hughes left him a fortune.

MELVIN

Woody Allen's ensemble comedy-drama about three sisters in New York won the 1986 Oscar.

HANNAH

This writer-director's script about a teen rock journalist, 'Almost Famous,' won the 2000 Oscar.

CROWE

A dinner clash over interracial marriage anchors 1967's Oscar winner, 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.'

ROSE

A savant and his brother's road trip inspired this 1988 Original Screenplay Oscar, 'Rain Man.'

BASS

This writer's drama about a paralyzed veteran, 'Coming Home,' shared the 1978 Oscar.

SALT

A journalist embedded with an Iraq bomb squad informed this writer's 2009 winner, 'The Hurt Locker.'

BOAL

A freed slave turned bounty hunter seeks his wife in this writer-director's 2012 winner.

DJANGO

An Amish murder witness drives this writer's 1985 winning script, 'Witness.'

KELLEY

This French filmmaker's nearly wordless fantasy 'The Red Balloon' took the 1956 Oscar.

LAMORISSE

A comic bank-heist caper, 'The Lavender Hill Mob,' won this British writer the 1952 Oscar.

CLARKE

This writer's 1944 winning script chronicled Woodrow Wilson's presidency in the biopic 'Wilson.'

TROTTI

This writer's noir mystery set in 1930s Los Angeles, 'Chinatown,' won the 1974 Oscar.

TOWNE

A couple erases each other from memory in this 2004 winner, 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.'

KAUFMAN

Co-writing 'Good Will Hunting' with his friend Matt Damon won this actor the 1997 Oscar.

AFFLECK

The first-ever Best Original Screenplay Oscar, awarded in 1940, honored the satire 'The Great McGinty.'

STURGES

This French director's romance 'A Man and a Woman' won the 1966 Original Screenplay Oscar.

LELOUCH

A nostalgic novelist time-travels each midnight to the 1920s in this Woody Allen-written 2011 Oscar winner.

PARIS
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