The Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement (also known as the Screen Laurel Award) is a lifetime achievement award given by the Writers Guild of America. It is given "to that member of the Guild who, in the opinion of the current Board of Directors, has advanced the literature of the motion picture through the years, and who has made outstanding contributions to the profession of the screen writer."Official description by Writers Guild of America With the exception of 2009, 2021, and 2022 in which no awards were given, it has been presented annually since the 6th Writers Guild of America Awards in 1953. Billy Wilder is the only person to win the award multiple times, winning in 1957 and 1980 (both as part of a partnership).
Recipients 1950s YearRecipient(s) 1953 Sonya Levien 1954 Dudley Nichols 1955 Robert Riskin 1956 Julius Epstein & Philip Epstein and Albert Hackett & Frances Goodrich 1957 Charles Brackett & Billy Wilder 1958 John Lee Mahin 1959 Nunnally Johnson
1960s YearRecipient(s) 1960 Norman Krasna 1961 George Seaton 1962 Philip Dunne 1963 Joseph L. Mankiewicz 1964 John Huston 1965 Sidney Buchman 1966 Isobel Lennart 1967 Richard Brooks 1968 Casey Robinson 1969 Carl Foreman
1970s YearRecipient(s) 1970 Dalton Trumbo 1971 James Poe 1972 Ernest Lehman 1973 William Rose 1974 Paddy Chayefsky 1975 Preston Sturges 1976 Michael Wilson 1977 Samson Raphaelson 1978 Edward Anhalt 1979 Neil Simon
1980s YearRecipient(s) 1980 Billy Wilder & I. A. L. Diamond 1981 Ben Hecht 1982 Paul Osborn 1983 Lamar Trotti 1984 Melville Shavelson, Jack Rose, Norman Panama, and Melvin Frank 1985 William Goldman 1986 Waldo Salt 1987 Woody Allen 1988 Irving Ravetch & Harriet Frank Jr. 1989 Ring Lardner Jr.
1990s YearRecipient(s) 1990 Donald Ogden Stewart 1991 Alvin Sargent 1992 Frank Pierson 1993 Horton Foote 1994 Ruth Prawer Jhabvala 1995 Charles Bennett 1996 Daniel Taradash 1997 Robert Towne 1998 Bo Goldman 1999 Paul Schrader
2000s YearRecipient(s) 2000 Jean-Claude Carrière 2001 Betty Comden and Adolph Green 2002 Blake Edwards 2003 Mel Brooks 2004 John Michael Hayes 2005 David Mamet 2006 Lawrence Kasdan 2007 Robert Benton 2008 Budd Schulberg 2009 No award given
2010s YearRecipient(s) 2010 Barry Levinson 2011 Steven Zaillian 2012 Eric Roth 2013 Tom Stoppard 2014 Paul Mazursky 2015 Harold Ramis 2016 Elaine May 2017 Oliver Stone 2018 James L. Brooks 2019 Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel
2020s YearRecipient(s) 2020 Nancy Meyers 2021No Award 2022No Award 2023 Charlie Kaufman 2024 Walter Hill 2025 David Lynch 2026 James Cameron
References
External links Official Description of the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement and list of recipients