Best Motion Picture Screenplay

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