Saturn Award for Best Writing

The Saturn Awards for Best Writing is a Saturn Award presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films.

Saturn Award for Best Writing
Awarded for	Best writing of the year for a genre film
Country	United States
Presented by	Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films
First awarded	1973
Currently held by	James Cameron, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver for Avatar: The Way of Water (2022/2023)
Website	www.saturnawards.org

Unlike most awards rewarding writing in films, it recognizes only the writer(s) of the screenplay, and not those of the story.

Winners and nominees

1970s

Year	Writer(s)	Motion Picture
1973 (2nd)	William Peter Blatty	The Exorcist
1974/1975 (3rd)	Harlan Ellison (for his career)
	Ib Melchior (for his career)
1976 (4th)	Jimmy Sangster (for his career)
1977 (5th)	George Lucas	Star Wars
	Larry Gelbart	Oh, God!
	Laird Koenig	The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
	Steven Spielberg	Close Encounters of the Third Kind
	Michael Winner and Jeffrey Konvitz	The Sentinel
1978 (6th)	Elaine May and Warren Beatty	Heaven Can Wait
	Heywood Gould	The Boys from Brazil
	Cliff Green	Picnic at Hanging Rock
	Rosemary Ritvo and Alfred Sole	Alice, Sweet Alice (Communion)
	Anthony Shaffer	The Wicker Man
1979 (7th)	Nicholas Meyer	Time After Time
	Jerry Juhl and Jack Burns	The Muppet Movie
	Robert Kaufman	Love at First Bite
	Dan O'Bannon	Alien
	Jeb Rosebrook and Gerry Day	The Black Hole

1980s

Year	Writer(s)	Motion Picture
1980 (8th)	William Peter Blatty	The Ninth Configuration
	Sidney Aaron	Altered States
	Leigh Brackett (posthumous nomination) and Lawrence Kasdan	The Empire Strikes Back
	Lewis John Carlino	Resurrection
	John Sayles	Alligator
1981 (9th)	Lawrence Kasdan	Raiders of the Lost Ark
	David Eyre and Michael Wadleigh	Wolfen
	Peter Hyams	Outland
	John Landis	An American Werewolf in London
	Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam	Time Bandits
1982 (10th)	Melissa Mathison	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
	Jay Presson Allen	Deathtrap
	Terry Hayes, George Miller and Brian Hannant	Mad Max 2
	Tom Karnowski, John Stuckmeyer and Albert Pyun	The Sword and the Sorcerer
	Jack B. Sowards	Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
1983 (11th)	Ray Bradbury	Something Wicked This Way Comes
	Jeffrey Boam	The Dead Zone
	William Condon and Michael Laughlin	Strange Invaders
	Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas	Return of the Jedi
	Lawrence Lasker, Walter F. Parkes	WarGames
1984 (12th)	James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd	The Terminator
	Chris Columbus	Gremlins
	Alex Cox	Repo Man
	Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz	Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
	Earl Mac Rauch	The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
1985 (13th)	Tom Holland	Fright Night
	Woody Allen	The Purple Rose of Cairo
	Tom Benedek	Cocoon
	Chris Columbus	Young Sherlock Holmes
	Terry Hayes and George Miller	Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome
1986 (14th)	James Cameron	Aliens
	Howard Ashman	Little Shop of Horrors
	Nick Castle	The Boy Who Could Fly
	Paul Hogan, Ken Shadie and John Cornell	"Crocodile" Dundee
	Steve Meerson, Peter Krikes, Harve Bennett and Nicholas Meyer	Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
1987 (15th)	Edward Neumeier, Michael Miner	RoboCop
	Michael Cristofer	The Witches of Eastwick
	James Dearden	Fatal Attraction
	William Goldman	The Princess Bride
	Bob Hunt	The Hidden
	Alan Parker	Angel Heart
1988 (16th)	Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg	Big
	David Cronenberg and Norman Snider	Dead Ringers
	Don Mancini, John Lafia and Tom Holland	Child's Play
	Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren	Beetlejuice
	Alan B. McElroy	Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
	Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman	Who Framed Roger Rabbit
1989/90 (17th)	William Peter Blatty	The Exorcist III
	Jerry Belson	Always
	Jeffrey Boam	Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
	James Cameron	The Abyss
	Don Jakoby and Wesley Strick	Arachnophobia
	Phil Alden Robinson	Field of Dreams
	Bruce Joel Rubin	Ghost
	Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon and Gary Goldman	Total Recall

1990s

Year	Writer(s)	Motion Picture
1991 (18th)	Ted Tally	The Silence of the Lambs
	Albert Brooks	Defending Your Life
	James Cameron and William Wisher	Terminator 2: Judgment Day
	Charles Gale	Guilty as Charged
	William Goldman	Misery
	Richard LaGravenese	The Fisher King
1992 (19th)	James V. Hart	Bram Stoker's Dracula
	Martin Donovan and David Koepp	Death Becomes Her
	Joe Eszterhas	Basic Instinct
	David Giler, Walter Hill and Larry Ferguson	Alien 3
	David Lynch and Robert Engels	Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
	Nicholas Meyer and Denny Martin Flinn	Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
	Bernard Rose	Candyman
1993 (20th)	Michael Crichton and David Koepp	Jurassic Park
	Shane Black and David Arnott	Last Action Hero
	Brent Maddock, S. S. Wilson, Gregory Hansen and Erik Hansen	Heart and Souls
	Tim Metcalfe	Kalifornia
	Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis	Groundhog Day
	Quentin Tarantino	True Romance
	Tracy Tormé	Fire in the Sky
1994 (21st)	Jim Harrison and Wesley Strick	Wolf
	Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski	Ed Wood
	Frank Darabont	The Shawshank Redemption
	Steph Lady and Frank Darabont	Frankenstein
	Eric Roth	Forrest Gump
	Mark Verheiden	Timecop
1995 (22nd)	Andrew Kevin Walker	Se7en
	James Cameron and Jay Cocks	Strange Days
	George Miller and Chris Noonan	Babe
	David Peoples and Janet Peoples	12 Monkeys
	Quentin Tarantino	From Dusk till Dawn
	Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow	Toy Story
1996 (23rd)	Kevin Williamson	Scream
	Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich	Independence Day
	Jonathan Gems	Mars Attacks!
	The Wachowskis	Bound
	Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson	The Frighteners
	Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore	Star Trek: First Contact
1997 (24th)	Mike Werb and Michael Colleary	Face/Off
	James V. Hart and Michael Goldenberg	Contact
	Jonathan Lemkin and Tony Gilroy	The Devil's Advocate
	Edward Neumeier	Starship Troopers
	Matthew Robbins and Guillermo del Toro	Mimic
	Ed Solomon	Men in Black
1998 (25th)	Andrew Niccol	The Truman Show
	Brandon Boyce	Apt Pupil
	Don Mancini	Bride of Chucky
	Alex Proyas, Lem Dobbs and David S. Goyer	Dark City
	Gary Ross	Pleasantville
	Joseph Stefano	Psycho
1999 (26th)	Charlie Kaufman	Being John Malkovich
	Ehren Kruger	Arlington Road
	M. Night Shyamalan	The Sixth Sense
	Stephen Sommers	The Mummy
	The Wachowskis	The Matrix
	Andrew Kevin Walker	Sleepy Hollow

2000s

Year	Writer(s)	Motion Picture
2000 (27th)	David Hayter	X-Men
	Toby Emmerich	Frequency
	David Franzoni, John Logan and William Nicholson	Gladiator
	Karey Kirkpatrick	Chicken Run
	Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson	The Gift
	Wang Hui-ling, James Schamus, Tsai Kuo Jung	Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2001 (28th)	Steven Spielberg	A.I. Artificial Intelligence
	Alejandro Amenábar	The Others
	Stéphane Cabel and Christophe Gans	Brotherhood of the Wolf
	Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Joe Stillman and Roger S. H. Schulman	Shrek
	Andrew Stanton and Dan Gerson	Monsters, Inc.
	Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2002 (29th)	Scott Frank and Jon Cohen	Minority Report
	Brent Hanley	Frailty
	Hayao Miyazaki Cindy Davis Hewitt and Donald H. Hewitt	Spirited Away
	Mark Romanek	One Hour Photo
	Hillary Seitz	Insomnia
	Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair and Peter Jackson	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
2003 (30th)	Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
	Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris and David Hayter	X2
	Alex Garland	28 Days Later
	Heather Hach and Leslie Dixon	Freaky Friday
	Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson and David Reynolds	Finding Nemo
	Quentin Tarantino	Kill Bill: Volume 1
2004 (31st)	Alvin Sargent	Spider-Man 2
	Stuart Beattie	Collateral
	Charlie Kaufman	Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
	Steve Kloves	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
	Brad Bird	The Incredibles
	Quentin Tarantino	Kill Bill: Volume 2
2005 (32nd)	Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer	Batman Begins
	Steve Kloves	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
	David Koepp	War of the Worlds
	George Lucas	Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
	Ann Peacock, Andrew Adamson, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
	Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson	King Kong
2006 (33rd)	Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris	Superman Returns
	Andrew Birkin, Bernd Eichinger and Tom Tykwer	Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
	Guillermo del Toro	Pan's Labyrinth
	Zach Helm	Stranger than Fiction
	Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis	Casino Royale
	The Wachowskis	V for Vendetta
2007 (34th)	Brad Bird	Ratatouille
	Joel and Ethan Coen	No Country for Old Men
	Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary	Beowulf
	Michael Goldenberg	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
	John Logan	Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
	Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad and Michael B. Gordon	300
2008 (35th)	Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan	The Dark Knight
	Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway	Iron Man
	David Koepp, John Kamps	Ghost Town
	John Ajvide Lindqvist	Let the Right One In
	Eric Roth	The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
	J. Michael Straczynski	Changeling
2009 (36th)	James Cameron	Avatar
	Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell	District 9
	David Hayter and Alex Tse	Watchmen
	Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers	Where the Wild Things Are
	Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman	Star Trek
	Quentin Tarantino	Inglourious Basterds

2010s

Year	Writer(s)	Motion Picture
2010 (37th)	Christopher Nolan	Inception
	Michael Arndt	Toy Story 3
	Alex Garland	Never Let Me Go
	Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz and John J. McLaughlin	Black Swan
	Peter Morgan	Hereafter
	Matt Reeves	Let Me In
2011 (38th)	Jeff Nichols	Take Shelter
	J. J. Abrams	Super 8
	Woody Allen	Midnight in Paris
	Mike Cahill, Brit Marling	Another Earth
	Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver	Rise of the Planet of the Apes
	John Logan	Hugo
2012 (39th)	Quentin Tarantino	Django Unchained
	Tracy Letts	Killer Joe
	David Magee	Life of Pi
	Martin McDonagh	Seven Psychopaths
	Joss Whedon	The Avengers
	Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard	The Cabin in the Woods
2013 (40th)	Spike Jonze	Her
	Joel and Ethan Coen	Inside Llewyn Davis
	Alfonso Cuarón and Jonás Cuarón	Gravity
	Jennifer Lee	Frozen
	Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright	The World's End
	Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro	The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
2014 (41st)	Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan	Interstellar
	Wes Anderson	The Grand Budapest Hotel
	Damien Chazelle	Whiplash
	James Gunn and Nicole Perlman	Guardians of the Galaxy
	Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely	Captain America: The Winter Soldier
	Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth	Edge of Tomorrow
	Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro	The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
2015 (42nd)	Lawrence Kasdan, J. J. Abrams and Michael Arndt	Star Wars: The Force Awakens
	Guillermo del Toro and Matthew Robbins	Crimson Peak
	Alex Garland	Ex Machina
	Drew Goddard	The Martian
	Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn	Kingsman: The Secret Service
	Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly	Jurassic World
	George Miller, Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris	Mad Max: Fury Road
2016 (43rd)	Eric Heisserer	Arrival
	Melissa Mathison (posthumously)	The BFG
	Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick	Deadpool
	Jon Spaihts, Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill	Doctor Strange
	Taylor Sheridan	Hell or High Water
	Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy	Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
2017 (44th)	Rian Johnson	Star Wars: The Last Jedi
	Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole	Black Panther
	Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor	The Shape of Water
	Hampton Fancher and Michael Green	Blade Runner 2049
	Scott Frank, James Mangold and Michael Green	Logan
	Allan Heinberg	Wonder Woman
	Jordan Peele	Get Out
2018/2019 (45th)	Bryan Woods, Scott Beck and John Krasinski	A Quiet Place
	Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely	Avengers: Endgame
	Drew Goddard	Bad Times at the El Royale
	Oh Jung-mi and Lee Chang-dong	Burning
	Christopher McQuarrie	Mission: Impossible – Fallout
	Jordan Peele	Us
	S. Craig Zahler	Dragged Across Concrete
2019/2020 (46th)	Quentin Tarantino	Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
	J. J. Abrams and Chris Terrio	Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
	Mike Flanagan	Doctor Sleep
	Lauren Hynek, Rick Jaffa, Elizabeth Martin, and Amanda Silver	Mulan
	Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won	Parasite
	Christopher Nolan	Tenet
	Todd Phillips and Scott Silver	Joker

2020s

Year	Writer(s)	Film
2021/2022 (50th)	Guillermo del Toro and Kim Morgan	Nightmare Alley
	Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill	The Black Phone
	Daniel Kwan and Daniel Schienert	Everything Everywhere All at Once
	Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers	Spider-Man: No Way Home
	Jordan Peele	Nope
	Matt Reeves and Peter Craig	The Batman
	James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick	Scream
2022/2023 (51st)	James Cameron, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver	Avatar: The Way of Water
	Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig	Barbie
	Seth Reiss and Will Tracy	The Menu
	Erik Jendresen and Christopher McQuarrie	Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
	Christopher Nolan	Oppenheimer
	Mia Goth and Ti West	Pearl
2023/2024 (52nd)
	Alfred Gough and Miles Millar	Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
	Shawn Levy, Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Zeb Wells	Deadpool & Wolverine
	Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts	Dune: Part Two
	Takashi Yamazaki	Godzilla: Minus One
	Josh Friedman	Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
	Oz Perkins	Longlegs
	JT Mollner	Strange Darling

Multiple nominations

7 nominations

• Guillermo del Toro
• Peter Jackson
• Quentin Tarantino
• Fran Walsh
• James Cameron

6 nominations

• Philippa Boyens
• Christopher Nolan

4 nominations

• Lawrence Kasdan
• David Koepp
• George Miller
• Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver

3 nominations

• J. J. Abrams
• William Peter Blatty
• Alex Garland
• Drew Goddard
• David Hayter
• John Logan
• George Lucas
• Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely
• Nicholas Meyer
• Jordan Peele
• Andrew Stanton
• The Wachowskis
• Christopher McQuarrie

2 nominations

• Woody Allen
• Michael Arndt
• Brad Bird
• Jeffrey Boam
• C. Robert Cargill
• Joel and Ethan Coen
• Chris Columbus
• Frank Darabont
• Scott Derrickson
• Michael Dougherty
• Scott Frank
• Tony Gilroy
• Michael Goldenberg
• William Goldman
• David S. Goyer
• Michael Green
• Dan Harris
• James V. Hart
• Terry Hayes
• Tom Holland
• Spike Jonze
• Charlie Kaufman
• Steve Kloves
• Don Mancini
• Melissa Mathison
• Edward Neumeier
• Jonathan Nolan
• Dan O'Bannon
• Matt Reeves
• Matthew Robbins
• Gary Ross
• Eric Roth
• Steven Spielberg
• Wesley Strick
• Andrew Kevin Walker
• Joss Whedon

Multiple wins

4 wins

• James Cameron
• Christopher Nolan

3 wins

• William Peter Blatty

2 wins

• Lawrence Kasdan
• Jonathan Nolan
• Quentin Tarantino

External links

• https://web.archive.org/web/20100209012608/http://www.saturnawards.org/past.html#writing
• https://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000004/1975