Academy Award — Best Original Screenplay
Jewish recipients of the Academy Award — Best Original Screenplay documented in the ThankJews directory. Jews are about 41% of all recipients — while making up roughly 0.2% of the world's population.
63 documented recipients
Herman J. Mankiewicz1941
Co-wrote Citizen Kane (Academy Award 1941)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Michael Kanin1942
Screenwriter of Woman of the Year (Academy Award 1942)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Norman Krasna1943
Screenwriter of Princess O'Rourke (Academy Award 1943)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Sidney Sheldon1947
Academy Award screenwriter (The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer) turned bestselling novelist; created I Dream of Jeannie
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Robert Pirosh1949
Screenwriter of Battleground (Academy Award 1949) and A Day at the Races
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Billy Wilder1944
Film Director
Source: Double Indemnity
Alan Jay Lerner1918
Lyricist and librettist of My Fair Lady, Gigi and Camelot
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Music
Walter Reisch1953
Screenwriter of Ninotchka, Gaslight and Titanic (Academy Award 1953)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Budd Schulberg1954
Screenwriter of On the Waterfront (Academy Award 1954); novelist of What Makes Sammy Run?
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Sonya Levien1955
Pioneering woman screenwriter; Interrupted Melody (Academy Award 1955)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
William Ludwig1955
Co-wrote Interrupted Melody (Academy Award 1955)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
George Wells1957
Screenwriter of Designing Woman (Academy Award 1957)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish recipients of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
Nathan E. Douglas
Academy Award — Best Original Screenplay
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish Recipients of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
Harold Jacob Smith1958
Co-writer of The Defiant Ones (Academy Award 1958)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish recipients of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
Clarence Greene1959
Co-writer of Pillow Talk (Academy Award 1959)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish recipients of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
Maurice Richlin1959
Co-wrote Pillow Talk (Academy Award 1959) and The Pink Panther
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Stanley Shapiro1959
Co-wrote Pillow Talk (Academy Award 1959)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
I. A. L. Diamond1960
Billy Wilder's co-writer: Some Like It Hot, The Apartment (Academy Award 1960)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Sanford Barnett1964
Screenwriter of Father Goose (Academy Award 1964)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Peter Stone1964
Screenwriter of Charade and Father Goose (Academy Award 1964); wrote 1776
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Frank Tarloff1964
Co-wrote Father Goose (Academy Award 1964)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Frederic Raphael1965
Screenwriter of Darling (Academy Award 1965) and Eyes Wide Shut
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Claude Lelouch1966
French director from an Algerian Jewish family; Oscar-winning A Man and a Woman
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Lelouch
Mel Brooks1974
Writer-director and comedian behind The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein; EGOT winner.
Source: Wikipedia
William Goldman1969
Two-time Academy Award screenwriter: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men; The Princess Bride
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Edmund North1970
Co-wrote Patton (Academy Award 1970); The Day the Earth Stood Still
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish recipients of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
Paddy Chayefsky1976
Only solo writer with three screenwriting Academy Awards: Marty, The Hospital, Network
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Jeremy Larner1972
Screenwriter of The Candidate (Academy Award 1972)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Robert Towne1974
Screenwriter of Chinatown (Academy Award 1974), often called the greatest screenplay ever
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish recipients of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
Woody Allen1977
Film Director
Source: Annie Hall
Marshall Brickman1977
Co-wrote Annie Hall (Academy Award 1977) and Manhattan with Woody Allen
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Bo Goldman1975
Two-time Academy Award screenwriter: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Melvin and Howard
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Ronald Bass1988
Screenwriter of Rain Man (Academy Award 1988)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish recipients of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
Tom Schulman1989
Screenwriter of Dead Poets Society (Academy Award 1989)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Bruce Joel Rubin1990
Screenwriter of Ghost (Academy Award 1990)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Ethan Coen1957
American filmmaker and one half of the Coen brothers.
Source: IMDb (Jewish Actors list)
Joel Coen1954
American filmmaker and one half of the Coen brothers.
Source: IMDb (Jewish Actors list)
Marc Norman1998
Co-writer of Shakespeare in Love (Academy Award 1998)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish recipients of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
Tom Stoppard1937
British playwright ('Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead', 'Arcadia')
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Literature
Pierre Bismuth2004
French artist; co-created Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Academy Award 2004)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish recipients of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
Charlie Kaufman2004
Screenwriter of Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Academy Award 2004)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Mark Boal2009
Journalist-screenwriter of The Hurt Locker (two Academy Awards 2009) and Zero Dark Thirty
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
David Seidler2010
Screenwriter of The King's Speech (Academy Award 2010), drawing on his own stutter
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Spike Jonze2013
Writer-director of Her (Academy Award 2013) and Being John Malkovich
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Josh Singer2015
Screenwriter of Spotlight (Academy Award 2015)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish recipients of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
Kenneth Lonergan2016
Writer-director of Manchester by the Sea (Academy Award 2016)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish recipients of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
Arthur Harari2023
French co-writer of Anatomy of a Fall (Academy Award 2023)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish recipients of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
Ben Hecht1893
Playwright and pioneering Hollywood screenwriter ('The Front Page')
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Literature
Robert Lord1933
Screenwriter of One Way Passage (Academy Award 1933); born Robert Leven
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish recipients of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
Arthur Caesar1934
Screenwriter of Manhattan Melodrama (Academy Award 1934)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Dore Schary1938
Screenwriter of Boys Town (Academy Award 1938); later head of MGM
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Benjamin Glazer1927
Winner of the first screenwriting Academy Award for Seventh Heaven (1927)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
John Toldy1940
Co-writer of Arise, My Love (Academy Award 1940); born János Székely
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish recipients of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
Harry Segall1941
Screenwriter of Here Comes Mr. Jordan (Academy Award 1941)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Emeric Pressburger1942
With Michael Powell created The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death; Academy Award for 49th Parallel
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Valentine Davies1947
Writer of Miracle on 34th Street (Academy Award 1947)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish recipients of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
David Wechsler1896
Psychologist who created the Wechsler intelligence scales
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Psychology
Douglas Morrow1949
Writer of The Stratton Story (Academy Award 1949); born Harry Mandel
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish recipients of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
Edward Anhalt1964
Screenwriter of Becket (Academy Award 1964) and Panic in the Streets (1950)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Paul Dehn1964
Screenwriter of Goldfinger and the Planet of the Apes sequels
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Frederic Frank1952
Co-writer of The Greatest Show on Earth (Academy Award 1952)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish recipients of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
Philip Yordan1954
Screenwriter of Broken Lance (Academy Award 1954); fronted for blacklisted colleagues
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters
Daniel Fuchs1955
Novelist-screenwriter of Love Me or Leave Me (Academy Award 1955)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish screenwriters