| Best Screenplay Award | |
|---|---|
| Prix du scénario (French) | |
 2025 recipients: Dardenne Brothers | |
| Awarded for | Best Achievement in Writing |
| Country | France |
| Presented by | Cannes Film Festival |
| First award | 1949 |
| Currently held by | Dardenne Brothers Young Mothers (2025) |
| Website | www |
The Best Screenplay Award (French : Prix du scénario) is an award presented by the Jury to the best screenwriter for their work on a film of the Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival.
It was first awarded to Alfred L. Werker, Eugene Ling & Virginia Shaler for Lost Boundaries (1949).
Winners Denys Arcand for The Barbarian Invasions (2003), Ryusuke Hamaguchi & Takamasa Oe for Drive My Car (2021) and Coralie Fargeat for The Substance were later nominated Academy Awards for their screenplays.
| Year | Screenwriter(s) | English Title |
|---|---|---|
| 1949 |  Alfred L. Werker , Eugene Ling and Virginia Shaler | Lost Boundaries |
| Year | Screenwriter(s) | English Title | Original Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 |  Terence Rattigan | The Browning Version | |
| 1952 |  Piero Tellini | Cops and Robbers | Guardie e ladri |
| 1958 | Pier Paolo Pasolini , Massimo Franciosa and Pasquale Festa Campanile | Young Husbands [A] | Giovani mariti |
| Year | Screenwriter(s) | English Title | Original Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 |  Dumitru Carabat, Henri Colpi and Yves Jamiaque | Codine | |
| 1965 | Ray Rigby | The Hill | |
| Pierre Schoendoerffer | The 317th Platoon | La 317ème section | |
| 1967 | Alain Jessua | The Killing Game | Jeu de massacre |
| Elio Petri | We Still Kill the Old Way | A ciascuno il suo | |
| Year | Screenwriter(s) | English Title |
|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Steven Spielberg , Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins | The Sugarland Express |
| Year | Screenwriter(s) | English Title | Original Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Furio Scarpelli , Agenore Incrocci and Ettore Scola [B] | La Terrazza | |
| 1981 |  István Szabó | Mephisto | |
| 1982 |  Jerzy Skolimowski | Moonlighting | |
| 1984 |  Thanassis Valtinos, Theo Angelopoulos and Tonino Guerra [C] | Voyage to Cythera | Ταξίδι στα Κύθηρα |
| Year | Screenwriter(s) | English Title | Original Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Michel Blanc | Grosse fatigue | |
| 1996 | Jacques Audiard and Alain Le Henry | A Self Made Hero | Un héros très discret |
| 1997 | James Schamus | The Ice Storm | |
| 1998 | Hal Hartley | Henry Fool | |
| 1999 |  Yuri Arabov | Moloch | Молох |
| Year | Screenwriter(s) | English Title | Original Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | James Flamberg and John C. Richards | Nurse Betty | |
| 2001 |  Danis Tanović | No Man's Land | Ničija zemlja / Ничија земља |
| 2002 | Paul Laverty | Sweet Sixteen | |
| 2003 |  Denys Arcand | The Barbarian Invasions | Les Invasions barbares |
| 2004 | Agnès Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri | Look at Me | Comme une image |
| 2005 |  Guillermo Arriaga | The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada | |
| 2006 |  Pedro Almodóvar | Volver | |
| 2007 |   Fatih Akin | The Edge of Heaven | Auf der anderen Seite |
| 2008 |  Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne | Lorna's Silence | Le Silence de Lorna |
| 2009 |  Mei Feng | Spring Fever | 春風沉醉的夜晚 |
| Year | Screenwriter(s) | English Title | Original Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 |  Lee Chang-dong | Poetry | 시 |
| 2011 |  Joseph Cedar | Footnote | הערת שוליים |
| 2012 |  Cristian Mungiu and Tatiana Niculescu Bran | Beyond the Hills | După dealuri |
| 2013 | Jia Zhangke | A Touch of Sin | 天注定 |
| 2014 | Andrey Zvyagintsev and Oleg Negin | Leviathan | Левиафан |
| 2015 | Michel Franco | Chronic | |
| 2016 |  Asghar Farhadi | The Salesman | فروشنده |
| 2017 | Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou | The Killing of a Sacred Deer | |
| Lynne Ramsay | You Were Never Really Here | ||
| 2018 | Jafar Panahi and Nader Saeivar | 3 Faces | سه رخ |
| Alice Rohrwacher | Happy as Lazzaro | Lazzaro felice | |
| 2019 | Céline Sciamma | Portrait of a Lady on Fire | Portrait de la jeune fille en feu |
| Year | Screenwriter(s) | English Title | Original Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 |  Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe | Drive My Car [1] | ドライブ・マイ・カー |
| 2022 |  Tarik Saleh | Boy from Heaven [2] | صبي من الجنة |
| 2023 | Yuji Sakamoto | Monster [3] | 怪物 |
| 2024 | Coralie Fargeat | The Substance [4] [5] | |
| 2025 | Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne | Young Mothers | Jeunes mères |