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 political satire 'The Candidate' won the 1972 Oscar.

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

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

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

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

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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.

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

SCHWEIZER

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

SALT

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

STOPPARD

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

WELLAND

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

KRASNA

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

PEELE

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

ALMODOVAR

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

JORDAN

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

PARIS

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

SHANLEY

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

BONG

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

ROSE

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

FOOTE

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

TOKYO

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

MCQUARRIE

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

WELLES

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

MCCARTHY

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

SHELDON

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

BASS

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

BAKER

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

JONZE

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

TESICH

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

SHAPIRO

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

BALL

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

STONE

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

TROTTI

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

BENTON

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

FARRELLY

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

GERMI

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

ALLEN

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

AFFLECK

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

PIERSON

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

BRANAGH

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

INARRITU

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

COPPOLA

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

LEVIEN

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

KAUFMAN

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

WEBB

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

FELLOWES

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

BRILEY

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

WELLS

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

BOX

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

SCHULBERG

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

CLARKE

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

BOAL

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

LERNER

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

PIROSH

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

SEIDLER

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

LAMORISSE

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

COEN

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

KWAN

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

HAGGIS

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

BROOKS

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

COOGLER

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

TOWNE

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

GOLDMAN

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

SCHULMAN

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

STURGES

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

TARANTINO

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

LARDNER

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

LONERGAN

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

ARNDT

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

YOUNG

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

FENNELL

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

HANNAH

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

RUBIN

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

TRIET

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

CAMPION

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

CODY

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

NETWORK

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

KHOURI

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

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

WARD

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

DIAMOND

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

MELVIN

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

RAPHAEL

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

LELOUCH

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

REISCH

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

BLACK
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