List of Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay winners

Winners

1940s

• 1946: Murder, My Sweet – John Paxton
• 1947: The Killers – Anthony Veiller
• 1948: Crossfire – John Paxton
• 1949: Call Northside 777 – Jerome Cady, Jay Dratler, Leonard Hoffman, Quentin Reynolds

  1950s

• 1950: The Window - Mel Dinelli; Cornell Woolrich
• 1951: The Asphalt Jungle – Ben Maddow
• 1952: Detective Story – Michael Wilson
• 1953: Five Fingers – Michael Wilson; Otto Lang
• 1954: The Big Heat – Sydney Boehm
• 1955: Rear Window – John Michael Hayes
• 1956: The Desperate Hours – Joseph Hayes
• 1957: No Award Presented
• 1958: 12 Angry Men – Reginald Rose
• 1959: The Defiant Ones – Nathan E. Douglas; Harold Jacob Smith

  1960s

• 1960: North By Northwest - Ernest Lehman
• 1961: Psycho – Joseph Stefano
• 1962: The Innocents – William Archibald; Truman Capote
• 1963: No Award Presented
• 1964: Charade – Peter Stone
• 1965: Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte – Henry Farrell; Lukas Heller
• 1966: The Spy Who Came In From the Cold – Paul Dehn; Guy Trosper
• 1967: Harper – William Goldman
• 1968: In The Heat of the Night – Stirling Silliphant
• 1969: Bullitt – Harry Kleiner; Alan Trustman

  1970s

• 1970: Z - Costa Gavras; Jorge Semprún
• 1971: Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion – Elio Petri; Ugo Pirro
• 1972: The French Connection – Ernest Tidyman
• 1973: Sleuth – Anthony Shaffer
• 1974: The Last of Sheila – Anthony Perkins; Stephen Sondheim
• 1975: Chinatown – Robert Towne
• 1976: Three Days of the Condor – David Rayfiel; Lorenzo Semple, Jr.
• 1977: Family Plot – Ernest Lehman
• 1978: The Late Show – Robert Benton
• 1979: Magic – William Goldman

  1980s

• 1980: The Great Train Robbery – Michael Crichton
• 1981: The Black Marble – Joseph Wambaugh
• 1982: Cutter's Way – Jeffrey Alan Fiskin
• 1983: The Long Good Friday – Barrie Keeffe
• 1984: Gorky Park – Dennis Potter
• 1985: A Soldier's Story – Charles Fuller
• 1986: Witness – William Kelley, Earl W. Wallace
• 1987: Something Wild – E. Max Frye
• 1988: Stakeout – Jim Kouf
• 1989: The Thin Blue Line – Errol Morris

  1990s

• 1990: Heathers – Daniel Waters
• 1991: The Grifters – Donald E. Westlake
• 1992: The Silence of the Lambs – Ted Tally
• 1993: The Player – Michael Tolkin
• 1994: Falling Down – Ebbe Roe Smith
• 1995: Pulp Fiction – Quentin Tarantino
• 1996: The Usual Suspects – Christopher McQuarrie
• 1997: Sling Blade – Billy Bob Thornton
• 1998: L.A. Confidential – Curtis Hanson; Brian Helgeland
• 1999: Out of Sight – Scott Frank ; Elmore Leonard

  2000s

• 2000: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels – Guy Ritchie
• 2001: Traffic – Stephen Gaghan ; Simon Moore
• 2002: Memento – Christopher Nolan
• 2003: Chicago – Bill Condon
• 2004: Dirty Pretty Things – Steven Knight
• 2005: A Very Long Engagement – Jean-Pierre Jeunet ; Sébastien Japrisot
• 2006: Syriana – Stephen Gaghan ; Robert Baer
• 2007: The Departed – William Monahan
• 2008: Michael Clayton – Tony Gilroy
• 2009: In Bruges – Martin McDonagh

  2010s

• 2010: No Award Presented