Best Adapted Screenplay
Photo depicts Oscar® winners from 2019-2023. Kevin Winter/Getty Images; Michael Baker/AMPAS; David M. Benett/Getty Images; Rob Latour/Shutterstock)
Gender
Out of 565 nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay, 12% were women. Of the 67 women nominated, 9 have won.* The category reached gender parity in 1992 when half the nominees (4 in total) were women. The only other year when 4 women were nominated was in 2021. That year, 3 of those 4 women co-wrote the same film (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm). Only 4 individual women of color have been nominated in this category. Three were nominated in or after 2018. All 9 women who won this award were white.
Men and women were equally likely to be nominated only once in this category (81% of men vs. 82% of women). However, the numbers for those with multiple nominations diverge notably. Ten women and 74 men were nominated more than once in this category. The most-nominated woman (Ruth Prawer Jhabvala) earned 3 nods while the most-nominated man had 6 (Eric Roth). In 2026, Chloé Zhao became the 9th woman to be nominated twice in this category– only 3 of those women have won an Oscar. There have been 56 men nominated twice, 20 of whom have won at least once.
of 565 nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay were women
- Gender parity in nominations has been reached in only one year: 1992
- Only 4 women of color have been nominated in this category
- 9 white women have won the OSCAR for Best Adapted Screenplay
Race & Ethnicity
Thirty-eight nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay were from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups.