# AACTA Award for Best Screenplay, Original or Adapted

The Australian Film Institute Award for Best Screenplay, Original or Adapted is an award in the annual Australian Film Institute Awards. It has been awarded annually since 1967. In 2011, it was changed to the AACTA Awards.
While the category of Best Screenplay is given out in two different forms (Original or Adapted), some years involved the AACTA Awards handing out both types of screenplays in the same ceremony. The winners and nominees for those few years are listed below.

## Winners and nominees

| Year | Film | Subject | Source |
| 1980s ||||
| 1980 | Breaker Morant | Jonathan Hardy, David Stevens, Bruce Beresford | Original screenplay, based on a true story |
| 1980 | Hard Knocks | Don McLennan, Hilton Bonner | Original screenplay |
| 1980 | Maybe This Time | Bob Ellis, Anne Brooksbank | Original screenplay |
| 1980 | Stir | Bob Jewson | Original screenplay |
| 1981 | Gallipoli | David Williamson | Original screenplay, based on a true story |
| 1981 | The Club | David Williamson | Stage play by David Williamson |
| 1981 | Hoodwink | Ken Quinnell | Original screenplay |
| 1981 | Winter of Our Dreams | John Duigan | Original screenplay |
| 1982 | Goodbye Paradise | Bob Ellis, Denny Lawrence | Original screenplay |
| 1982 | Lonely Hearts | Paul Cox, John Clarke | Original screenplay |
| 1982 | Moving Out | Jan Sardi | Original screenplay |
| 1982 | We of the Never Never | Jeannie Gunn | Autobiographical book We of the Never Never by Jeannie Gunn |
| 1990s ||||
| 1990 | The Big Steal | David Parker | Original screenplay |
| 1990 | Blood Oath | Denis Whitburn, Brian A. Williams | Original screenplay |
| 1990 | Golden Braid | Paul Cox, Barry Dickins | The story La Chevelure by Guy de Maupassant |
| 1990 | Struck by Lightning | Trevor Farrant | Original screenplay |
| 1991 | Proof | Jocelyn Moorhouse | Original screenplay |
| 1991 | Death in Brunswick | Boyd Oxlade, John Ruane | Graphic novel Death in Brunswick by Boyd Oxlade |
| 1991 | Spotswood | Max Dann, Andrew Knight | Original screenplay |
| 1991 | A Woman's Tale | Paul Cox, Barry Dickins | Original screenplay |
| 1992 | Strictly Ballroom | Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearce | Original screenplay |
| 1992 | Black Robe | Brian Moore | Novel Black Robe by Brian Moore |
| 1992 | Greenkeeping | David Caesar | Original screenplay |
| 1992 | The Last Days of Chez Nous | Helen Garner | Original screenplay |
| 2000s ||||
| 2007 | The Home Song Stories | Tony Ayres | Original screenplay |
| 2007 | Clubland | Keith Thompson | Original screenplay |
| 2007 | Lucky Miles | Helen Barnes, Michael James Rowland | Original screenplay |
| 2007 | Noise | Matthew Saville | Original screenplay |
| 2007 | Romulus, My Father | Nick Drake | Memoir Romulus, My Father by Raimond Gaita |
| 2010s ||||
| 2019 | The Nightingale | Jennifer Kent | Original screenplay |
| 2019 | Hotel Mumbai | John Collee, Anthony Maras | Original screenplay, based on a true story |
| 2019 | Judy and Punch | Mirrah Foulkes | Original screenplay, based on a true story |
| 2019 | The King | David Michod, Joel Edgerton | Based on the plays Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2 & Henry V by William Shakespeare |
| 2020s ||||
| 2020 | Babyteeth | Rita Kalnejais | Based on the play Babyteeth by Rita Kalnejais |
| 2020 | Little Monsters | Abe Forsythe | Original screenplay |
| 2020 | The Invisible Man | Leigh Whannell | Original screenplay, characters and concept created by H. G. Wells for The Invisible Man novel |
| 2020 | Relic | Natalie Erika James, Christian White | Original screenplay |
| 2020 | True History of the Kelly Gang | Shaun Grant | Based on the novel True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey |
| 2022 | The Stranger | Thomas M. Wright | Based on the novel The Sting: The Undercover Operation That Caught Daniel Morcombe's Killer by Kate Kyriacou |
| 2022 | Elvis | Baz Luhrmann, Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce, Jeremy Doner | Original screenplay |
| 2022 | Nude Tuesday | Jackie van Beek | Original screenplay |
| 2022 | The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson | Leah Purcell | Original screenplay |
| 2022 | Three Thousand Years of Longing | George Miller, Augusta Gore | Based on the short story The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye by A. S. Byatt |