The Paul Selvin Award is a special award presented by the Writers Guild of America. It is given to the script that "best embodies the spirit of the constitutional and civil rights and liberties which are indispensable to the survival of free writers everywhere and to whose defense Paul Selvin committed his professional life." With the exception of 2007 in which no award was given, it has been presented annually since the 42nd Writers Guild of America Awards in 1990. No writer has won more than one award.
Winners
Notes The year indicates when the film was released. The awards are presented the following year.
1980s Year Film Writer(s) 1989 Roe vs. Wade Alison Cross
1990s Year Film Writer(s) 1990 Heat Wave Michael Lazarou 1991 Separate But Equal || George Stevens Jr.|- | rowspan="1" style="text-align:center;" | 1992 | Guilty Until Proven Innocent Cynthia Whitcomb 1993 Dave Gary Ross 1994 Witness to the Execution Thomas Baum, Priscilla Prestwidge & Keith Pierce 1995 Picket Fences || David E. Kelley|- | rowspan="1" style="text-align:center;" | 1996 | The People vs. Larry Flynt Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski 1997 Rosewood Gregory Poirier 1998 Blind Faith Frank Military 1999 The Insider Eric Roth and Michael Mann
2000s Year Film Writer(s) 2000 Quills Doug Wright 2001 For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story Timothy J. Sexton 2002 The Matthew Shepard Story John Wierick and Jacob Krueger 2003 The Pentagon Papers Jason Horwitch 2004 The Simpsons || Don Payne|- | rowspan="1" style="text-align:center;" | 2005 | Good Night, and Good Luck George Clooney and Grant Heslov 2006 No award given 2007 The Great Debaters Robert Eisele and Jeffrey Porro 2008 Milk Dustin Lance Black 2009 Invictus Anthony Peckham
2010s Year Film Writer(s) 2010 Fair Game Jez Butterworth & John-Henry Butterworth 2011 The Help Tate Taylor 2012 Lincoln Tony Kushner 2013 We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks Alex Gibney 2014 The Good Lie Margaret Nagle 2015 Trumbo John McNamara 2016 Confirmation Susannah Grant 2017 The Post Liz Hannah and Josh Singer 2018 Vice Adam McKay 2019 Bombshell Charles Randolph
2020s Year Film Writer(s) 2020 Judas and the Black Messiah Will Berson, Shaka King, and Kenny and Keith Lucas 2021 The Underground Railroad Barry Jenkins 2022 She Said Rebecca Lenkiewicz 2023 American Fiction Cord Jefferson 2024 Nickel Boys RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes 2025 2000 Meters to Andriivka Mstyslav Chernov
Types of winners The Paul Selvin Award has been awarded to various platforms of film and television. 21 theatrical films have received the award, along with 8 television films, 2 individual episodes of a television series, 2 miniseries, and 1 documentary.
References