European Film Award for Best Screenwriter

European Film Award for Best Screenwriter
The 2024 recipient: Jacques Audiard
Awarded for	Best Achievement in Screenwriting
Presented by	European Film Academy
First award	Louis Malle Au revoir les enfants (1988)
Currently held by	Jacques Audiard Emilia Pérez (2024)
Website	europeanfilmacademy.org

The European Film Award for Best Screenwriter is an award given out at the annual European Film Awards to recognize a screenwriter who has delivered an outstanding screenplay in a film industry. The award is presented by the European Film Academy (EFA) and was first presented in 1988 to French director and screenwriter Louis Malle for Goodbye Children .

István Szabó, Agnès Jaoui, Jean-Pierre Bacri, Thomas Vinterberg, Tobias Lindholm, Ruben Östlund and Paweł Pawlikowski are the only writers who have received this award more than once, with two wins each.

Winners and nominees

1980s

Year	Winner and nominees	English title	Original title
1988 (1st)	Louis Malle	Goodbye Children	Au Revoir Les Enfants
	Manoel de Oliveira	The Cannibals	Os Canibais
	Terence Davies	Distant Voices, Still Lives
	Daniele Luchetti Franco Bernini Angelo Pasquini	It's Happening Tomorrow	Domani accadrà
	Wolfgang Held	Bear Ye One Another's Burden	Einer trage des anderen Last
1989 (2nd)	Mariya Khmelik	Little Vera	Ма́ленькая Ве́ра
	Géza Bereményi	The Midas Touch	Eldorádó
	Þráinn Bertelsson	Magnus
	Theodoros Angelopoulos Tonino Guerra Thanassis Valtinos	Landscape in the Mist	Topio stin omichli
	Maciej Dejczer Cezary Harasimowicz	300 Miles to Heaven	300 mil do nieba

1990s

Year	Winner and nominees	English title	Original title
1990 (3rd)	Vitali Kanevsky	Freeze Die Come to Life	Замри, умри, воскресни
	Ryszard Bugajski Janusz Dymek	Interrogation	Przesłuchanie
	Etienne Glaser Madeleine Gustafsson Suzanne Osten	The Guardian Angel	Skyddsängeln
1991 (4th)	Jaco Van Dormael	Toto the Hero	Toto le Héros
1992 (5th)	István Szabó	Sweet Emma, Dear Böbe	Édes Emma, drága Böbe - vázlatok, aktok
1993 (6th)	No award given
1994 (7th)	No award given
1995 (8th)	No award given
1996 (9th)	Arif Aliev Sergei Bodrov Boris Giller	Prisoner of the Mountains	Кавказский пленник
1997 (10th)	Chris Vander Stappen Alain Berliner	Ma Vie en Rose
	Ademir Kenović Abdulah Sidran	The Perfect Circle	Savršeni krug
	Andrei Kurkov	A Friend of the Deceased	Priyatel pokoynika
1998 (11th)	Peter Howitt	Sliding Doors
	Lars von Trier	The Idiots	Idioterne
	Alex van Warmerdam	Little Tony	Kleine Teun
	Jean-Pierre Bacri Agnès Jaoui	Same Old Song	On connaît la chanson
1999 (12th)	István Szabó Israel Horovitz	Sunshine
	Saša Gedeon	The Idiot Returns	Návrat idiota
	Ayub Khan Din	East is East

2000s

Year	Winner and nominees	English title	Original title
2000 (13th) [1]	Agnès Jaoui Jean-Pierre Bacri	The Taste of Others	Le goût des autres
	Rafael Azcona	Butterfly's Tongue	La lengua de las mariposas
	Wolfgang Kohlhaase	The Legend of Rita	Die Stille nach dem Schuß
	Nana Djordjadze Mariya Zvereva Irakli Kvirikadze	27 Missing Kisses	27 დაკარგული კოცნა
	Doriana Leondeff Silvio Soldini	Bread and Tulips	Pane e tulipani
	Dominik Moll Gilles Marchand	Harry, He's Here to Help	Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien
2001 (14th) [2]	Danis Tanović	No Man's Land	Ničija zemlja
	Laurent Cantet Robin Campillo	Time Out	L'Emploi du temps
	Michael Haneke	The Piano Teacher	Lla pianiste
	Achero Mañas	Pellet	El Bola
	Jean-Louis Milesi Robert Guédiguian	The Town Is Quiet	La ville est tranquille
	Ettore Scola Silvia Scola Giacomo Scarpelli Furio Scarpelli	Unfair Competition	Concorrenza sleale
2002 (15th) [3]	Pedro Almodóvar	Talk to Her	Hable con ella
	Jacques Audiard Tonino Benacquista	Read My Lips	Sur mes lèvres
	Paul Greengrass	Bloody Sunday
	Aki Kaurismäki	The Man Without a Past	Mies vailla menneisyyttä
	Krzysztof Kieślowski Krzysztof Piesiewicz	Heaven
	Paul Laverty	Sweet Sixteen
	François Ozon	8 Women	8 Femmes
2003 (16th) [4]	Bernd Lichtenberg	Good Bye, Lenin!	Comme une image
	Lars von Trier	Dogville
	Sandro Petraglia Stefano Rulli	The Best of Youth	La meglio gioventù
	Hanif Kureishi	The Mother
	Dušan Kovačević	The Professional	Професионалац
	Steven Knight	Dirty Pretty Things
2004 (17th) [5]	Agnès Jaoui Jean-Pierre Bacri	Look at Me	Comme une image
	Paul Laverty	Just a Kiss	Ae Fond Kiss…
	Jean-Luc Godard	Our Music	Notre musique
	Pedro Almodóvar	Bad Education	La mala educación
	Alejandro Amenábar Mateo Gil	The Sea Inside	Mar adentro
	Fatih Akin	Head-On	Gegen die Wand / Duvara Karşı
2005 (18th) [6]	Hany Abu-Assad Bero Beyer	Paradise Now	الجنّة الآن
	Anders Thomas Jensen	Adam's Apples	Adams Æbler
		Brothers	Brødre
	Cristi Puiu Răzvan Rădulescu	The Death of Mr. Lazarescu	Moartea domnului Lăzărescu
	Dani Levy Holger Franke	Go for Zucker!	Alles auf Zucker!
	Michael Haneke	Hidden	Caché
	Mark O'Halloran	Adam & Paul
2006 (19th) [7]	Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck	The Lives of Others	Das Leben der Anderen
	Pedro Almodóvar	Volver
	Paul Laverty	The Wind That Shakes the Barley
	Corneliu Porumboiu	12:08 East of Bucharest	A fost sau n-a fost?
2007 (20th) [8]	Fatih Akin	The Edge of Heaven	Auf der anderen Seite
	Eran Kolirin	The Band's Visit	ביקור התזמורת
	Peter Morgan	The Queen
	Cristian Mungiu	4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days	4 luni, 3 săptămâni și 2 zile
2008 (21st) [9]	Matteo Garrone Roberto Saviano Maurizio Braucci Ugo Chiti Gianni Di Gregorio Massimo Gaudioso	Gomorrah	Gomorra
	Ari Folman	Waltz with Bashir	ואלס עם באשיר
	Suha Arraf Eran Riklis	Lemon Tree	شجرة ليمون / עץ לימון
	Paolo Sorrentino	Il Divo
2009 (22nd) [10]	Michael Haneke	The White Ribbon	Das weiße Band
	Jacques Audiard Thomas Bidegain	A Prophet	Un prophète
	Simon Beaufoy	Slumdog Millionaire
	Gianni Di Gregorio	Mid-August Lunch	Pranzo di ferragosto

2010s

Year	Winner and nominees	English title	Original title
2010 (23rd) [11]	Robert Harris Roman Polanski	The Ghost Writer
	Jorge Guerricaechevarría Daniel Monzón	Cell 211	Celda 211
	Samuel Maoz	Lebanon
	Radu Mihăileanu	The Concert	Le concert
2011 (24th) [12]	Jean-Pierre Dardenne Luc Dardenne	The Kid with a Bike	Le Gamin au vélo
	Anders Thomas Jensen	In a Better World	Hævnen
	Aki Kaurismäki	Le Havre
	Lars von Trier	Melancholia
2012 (25th) [13]	Tobias Lindholm Thomas Vinterberg	The Hunt	Jagten
	Cristian Mungiu	Beyond the Hills	După dealuri
	Michael Haneke	Amour
	Roman Polanski Yasmina Reza	Carnage
	Olivier Nakache Éric Toledano	Untouchable	Intouchables
2013 (26th) [14]	François Ozon	In the House	Dans la maison
	Paolo Sorrentino Umberto Contarello	The Great Beauty	La grande bellezza
	Tom Stoppard	Anna Karenina
	Giuseppe Tornatore	The Best Offer	La migliore offerta
	Felix Van Groeningen Carl Joos	The Broken Circle Breakdown
2014 (27th) [15] [16]	Paweł Pawlikowski Rebecca Lenkiewicz	Ida
	Ebru Ceylan Nuri Bilge Ceylan	Winter Sleep	Kış Uykusu
	Jean-Pierre Dardenne Luc Dardenne	Two Days, One Night	Deux jours, une nuit
	Steven Knight	Locke
	Oleg Negin Andrey Zvyagintsev	Leviathan	Левиафан
2015 (28th) [17] [18]	Yorgos Lanthimos Efthimis Filippou	The Lobster
	Radu Jude Florin Lazarescu	Aferim!
	Alex Garland	Ex Machina
	Andrew Haigh	45 Years
	Roy Andersson	A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence	En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron
	Paolo Sorrentino	Youth	Youth - La giovinezza
2016 (28th) [19]	Maren Ade	Toni Erdmann
	Paul Laverty	I, Daniel Blake
	Emma Donoghue	Room
	Cristian Mungiu	Graduation	Bacalaureat
	Tomasz Wasilewski	United States of Love	Zjednoczone stany milosci
2017 (30th) [20]	Ruben Östlund	The Square
	Ildikó Enyedi	On Body and Soul	Testről és lélekről
	Yorgos Lanthimos Efthimis Filippou	The Killing of a Sacred Deer
	Oleg Negin Andrey Zvyagintsev	Loveless	Nelyubov
	François Ozon	Frantz
2018 (31st) [21]	Paweł Pawlikowski	Cold War	Zimna wojna
	Ali Abbasi Isabella Eklöf John Ajvide Lindqvist	Border	Gräns
	Matteo Garrone Ugo Chiti Massimo Gaudioso	Dogman
	Gustav Möller Emil Nygaard Albertsen	The Guilty	Den skyldige
	Alice Rohrwacher	Happy as Lazzaro	Lazzaro felice
2019 (32nd) [22]	Céline Sciamma	Portrait of a Lady on Fire	Portrait de la jeune fille en feu
	Pedro Almodóvar	Pain and Glory	Dolor y gloria
	Marco Bellocchio Valia Santella Ludovica Rampoldi Francesco Piccolo Francesco La Licata	The Traitor	Il traditore
	Ladj Ly Giordano Gederlini Alexis Manenti	Les Misérables
	Roman Polanski Robert Harris	An Officer and a Spy	J'Accuse

2020s

Year	Winner and nominees	English title	Original title
2020 (33rd) [23] [24]	Thomas Vinterberg Tobias Lindholm	Another Round	Druk
	Martin Behnke Burhan Qurbani	Berlin Alexanderplatz
	Costa-Gavras	Adults in the Room	Ενήλικοι στην αίθουσα (Enílikoi stin aíthousa)
	Damiano and Fabio D'Innocenzo	Bad Tales	Favolacce
	Pietro Marcello Maurizio Braucci	Martin Eden
	Mateusz Pacewicz	Corpus Christi	Boże Ciało
2021 (34th) [25]	Florian Zeller Christopher Hampton	The Father
	Radu Jude	Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn	Babardeală cu bucluc sau porno balamuc
	Paolo Sorrentino	The Hand of God	È stata la mano di Dio
	Jasmila Žbanić	Quo Vadis, Aida?
	Joachim Trier Eskil Vogt	The Worst Person in the World	Verdens verste menneske
2022 (35th) [26]	Ruben Östlund	Triangle of Sadness
	Arnau Vilaró Carla Simón	Alcarràs
	Kenneth Branagh	Belfast
	Lukas Dhont Angelo Tijssens	Close
	Ali Abbasi Afshin Kamran Bahrami	Holy Spider
2023 (36th)	Arthur Harari Justine Triet	Anatomy of a Fall	Anatomie d'une chute
	Aki Kaurismäki	Fallen Leaves	Kuolleet lehdet
	Agnieszka Holland Gabriela Łazarkiewicz-Sieczko Maciej Pisuk	Green Border	Zielona granica
	İlker Çatak Johannes Duncker	The Teachers' Lounge	Das Lehrerzimmer
	Jonathan Glazer	The Zone of Interest
2024 (37th) [27]	Jacques Audiard	Emilia Pérez
	Magnus von Horn Line Langebek	The Girl with the Needle
	Pedro Almodóvar	The Room Next Door
	Mohammad Rasoulof	The Seed of the Sacred Fig
	Coralie Fargeat	The Substance

Most wins by screenwriter

Screenwriter	Awards	Nominations
Jean-Pierre Bacri	2	3
Agnès Jaoui	2	3
Paweł Pawlikowski	2	2
István Szabó	2	2
Ruben Östlund	2	2
Tobias Lindholm	2	2
Thomas Vinterberg	2	2
Pedro Almodóvar	1	5
Michael Haneke	1	4
Jacques Audiard	1	3
François Ozon	1	3
Dardenne brothers	1	2
Roman Polanski	1	2
Fatih Akin	1	2
Ugo Chiti	1	2
Efthimis Filippou	1	2
Matteo Garrone	1	2
Massimo Gaudioso	1	2
Yorgos Lanthimos	1	2
Paolo Sorrentino	0	4
Paul Laverty	0	4
Anders Thomas Jensen	0	3
Aki Kaurismäki	0	3
Cristian Mungiu	0	3
Lars von Trier	0	3
Ali Abbasi	0	2
Maurizio Braucci	0	2
Gianni Di Gregorio	0	2
Robert Harris	0	2
Radu Jude	0	2
Steven Knight	0	2
Oleg Negin	0	2
Andrey Zvyagintsev	0	2

References

1. "2000 - The Winners". European Film Academy . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
2. Blaney, Martin (December 2, 2001). "Amelie walks off with European film academy crown". Screendaily . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
3. Frater, Patrick (December 7, 2002). "Talk To Her triumphs at European Film Awards". Screendaily . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
4. Hernandez, Eugene (December 8, 2003). "Germany's "Lenin" Wins Top Prizes at European Film Awards". Indiewire . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
5. Hernandez, Eugene (December 13, 2004). "German Film "Head-On' Tops 2004 European Film Awards". Indiewire . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
6. Hernandez, Eugene (December 4, 2005). ""Cache" and "Sophie Scholl" Top European Film Awards". Indiewire . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
7. Hernandez, Eugene (December 3, 2006). "AWARDS WATCH: "Volver" and "The Lives of Others" Top European Film Awards". Indiewire . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
8. "2007 - The Winners". European Film Academy . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
9. Roxborough, Scott (December 6, 2008). "'Gomorra' tops European Film Awards". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
10. Brooks, Brian (December 12, 2009). ""White Ribbon" Reigns at European Film Awards". Indiewire . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
11. Lyttelton, Oliver (December 6, 2010). "'The Ghost Writer' Inexplicably Wins Six At 2010 European Film Academy Awards". Indiewire . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
12. Roxborough, Scott (December 3, 2011). "Lars Von Trier's 'Melancholia' Wins Best Film at European Film Awards". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
13. Knegt, Peter (December 1, 2012). "'Amour' Sweeps European Film Awards". Indiewire . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
14. Barraclough, Leo (December 7, 2013). "Paolo Sorrentino's 'The Great Beauty' Wins Top Prize at European Film Awards". Variety . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
15. Hopewell, John (November 8, 2014). "'Ida,' 'Leviathan' Top European Film Awards Nominations". Variety . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
16. Jagernauth, Kevin (December 15, 2014). "Pawel Pawlikowski's 'Ida' Wins Big At European Film Awards". Indiewire . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
17. Lodge, Guy (November 7, 2015). "'Youth,' 'The Lobster' Lead European Film Award Nominations". Variety . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
18. Heath, Paul (December 14, 2015). "European Film Awards winners: Youth, Amy, The Lobster lead field". The Hollywood News. Retrieved August 7, 2021.
19. Roxborough, Scott (December 10, 2016). "'Toni Erdmann' Wins European Film Awards". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
20. Pond, Steve (December 9, 2017). "Swedish Comedy 'The Square' Dominates European Film Awards". TheWrap . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
21. Nordine, Michael (December 15, 2018). "'Cold War' Is the Big Winner at the European Film Awards, Picking Up Oscar Momentum". Indiewire . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
22. Roxborough, Scott (December 7, 2019). "'The Favourite' Wins Big at European Film Awards". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
23. Grater, Tom (November 10, 2020). "European Film Award Nominations: 'Another Round', 'Corpus Christi', 'Martin Eden' Lead The Way". Deadline . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
24. Roxborough, Scott (December 12, 2020). "'Another Round' Wins 2020 European Film Awards". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved August 7, 2021.
25. Roxborough, Scott (November 9, 2021). "'Titane', 'Hand of God' Among European Film Awards Nominees". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved November 10, 2021.
26. Goodfellow, Melanie (2022-11-08). "'Close', 'Holy Spider' & 'Triangle Of Sadness' Lead European Film Awards Nominations". Deadline. Retrieved 2022-11-08.
27. Richlin, Harrison (7 December 2024). "2024 European Film Awards: See Full List of Winners". IndieWire . Retrieved 8 December 2024.

External links

• European Film Academy archive