Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay

Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay
Awarded for	Best First Screenplay
Country	United States
Presented by	Film Independent
First awarded	1994
Currently held by	Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik for May December (2023)
Website	www.filmindependent.org

The Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay is one of the annual awards given by the Film Independent, a non-profit organization dedicated to independent film and independent filmmakers. It was first presented in 1994 with David O. Russell being the first recipient of the award for Spanking the Monkey, a film he also directed.

Winners and nominees

Paul Auster won for Smoke.

Neil LaBute won for In the Company of Men.

Darren Aronofsky won for Pi.

Charlie Kaufman won for Being John Malkovich.

1990s

Year	Recipient(s)	Film
1994 [1]	David O. Russell	Spanking the Monkey
	Paul Zehrer	Blessing
	Kevin Smith	Clerks
	James Bosley	Fun
	Tom Noonan	What Happened Was
1995	Paul Auster	Smoke
	Harmony Korine	Kids
	James Gray	Little Odessa
	Steve McLean	Postcards from America
	Kelly Reichardt	River of Grass
1996 [2]	Joseph Tropiano and Stanley Tucci	Big Night
	Suzan-Lori Parks	Girl 6
	Lisa Krueger	Manny & Lo
	Michael Scott Myers	The Whole Wide World
	Steve Buscemi	Trees Lounge
1997	Neil LaBute	In the Company of Men
	Steven Schwartz	Critical Care
	Paul Thomas Anderson	Hard Eight
	Miguel Arteta	Star Maps
	Daniel Harris	The Bible and Gun Club
1998	Darren Aronofsky	Pi
	Lisa Cholodenko	High Art
	Matthew Weiss	Niagara, Niagara
	Tamara Jenkins	Slums of Beverly Hills
	Sherman Alexie	Smoke Signals
1999 [3]	Charlie Kaufman	Being John Malkovich
	Kimberly Peirce and Andy Bienen	Boys Don't Cry
	Anne Rapp	Cookie's Fortune
	Tod Williams	The Adventures of Sebastian Cole
	John Roach and Mary Sweeney	The Straight Story

2000s

Gina Prince-Bythewood won for Love & Basketball.

Terry Zwigoff won for Ghost World alongside Daniel Clowes.

Michael Arndt won for Little Miss Sunshine.

Diablo Cody won for Juno.

Dustin Lance Black won for Milk.

Year	Recipient(s)	Film
2000 [4]	Gina Prince-Bythewood	Love & Basketball
	Ben Younger	Boiler Room
	David Gordon Green	George Washington
	Jordan Walker-Pearlman	The Visit
	Ross Klavan and Michael McGruther	Tigerland
2001 [5]	Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff	Ghost World
	Richard Kelly	Donnie Darko
	John Cameron Mitchell	Hedwig and the Angry Inch
	Stephen M. Ryder, Michael Cuesta and Gerald Cuesta	L.I.E.
	Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming	The Anniversary Party
2002	Erin Cressida Wilson	Secretary
	Laura Cahill	Hysterical Blindness
	Burr Steers	Igby Goes Down
	Neil Burger	Interview with the Assassin
	Heather Juergensen and Jennifer Westfeldt	Kissing Jessica Stein
2003 [6]	Tom McCarthy	The Station Agent
	Karen Moncrieff	Blue Car
	Patty Jenkins	Monster
	Peter Sollett and Eva Vives	Raising Victor Vargas
	Catherine Hardwicke and Nikki Reed	Thirteen
2004	Joshua Marston	Maria Full of Grace
	Rodney Evans	Brother to Brother
	Zach Braff	Garden State
	Shane Carruth	Primer
	Mario de la Vega	Robbing Peter
2005	Duncan Tucker	Transamerica
	Kenneth Hanes	Fixing Frank
	Angus MacLachlan	Junebug
	Miranda July	Me and You and Everyone We Know
	Sabina Murray	The Beautiful Country
2006 [7]	Michael Arndt	Little Miss Sunshine
	Dito Montiel	A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
	Gabrielle Zevin	Conversations with Other Women
	Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden	Half Nelson
	Goran Dukić	Wristcutters: A Love Story
2007 [8]	Diablo Cody	Juno
	Jeffrey Blitz	Rocket Science
	Zoe Cassavetes	Broken English
	Kelly Masterson	Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
	John Orloff	A Mighty Heart
2008	Dustin Lance Black	Milk[9]
	Lance Hammer	Ballast
	Courtney Hunt	Frozen River[10]
	Jonathan Levine	The Wackness
	Jenny Lumet	Rachel Getting Married
2009	Geoffrey Fletcher	Precious[11]
	Sophie Barthes	Cold Souls
	Scott Cooper	Crazy Heart
	Cherien Dabis	Amreeka
	Tom Ford and David Scearce	A Single Man

2010s

Justin Simien won for Dear White People.

Emma Donoghue won for Room.

Robert Eggers won for The Witch.

Emily Gordon won for The Big Sick.

Kumail Nanjiani won for The Big Sick.

Bo Burnham won for Eighth Grade.

Year	Recipient(s)	Film
2010 [12]	Lena Dunham	Tiny Furniture
	Robert Glaudini	Jack Goes Boating
	Nik Fackler	Lovely, Still
	Dana Adam Shapiro and Evan M. Wiener	Monogamy
	Diane Bell	Obselidia
2011	Will Reiser	50/50
	Mike Cahill and Brit Marling	Another Earth
	J. C. Chandor	Margin Call[13]
	Patrick deWitt	Terri
	Phil Johnston	Cedar Rapids
2012	Derek Connolly	Safety Not Guaranteed
	Rama Burshtein	Fill the Void
	Christopher D. Ford	Robot & Frank
	Rashida Jones and Will McCormack	Celeste and Jesse Forever
	Jonathan Lisecki	Gayby
2013	Bob Nelson	Nebraska
	Lake Bell	In a World...
	Joseph Gordon-Levitt	Don Jon
	Jill Soloway	Afternoon Delight
	Michael Starrbury	The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete
2014 [14]	Justin Simien	Dear White People
	Desiree Akhavan	Appropriate Behavior
	Sara Colangelo	Little Accidents
	Justin Lader	The One I Love
	Anja Marquardt	She's Lost Control
2015	Emma Donoghue	Room[15]
	Jesse Andrews	Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
	Jonas Carpignano	Mediterranea
	Marielle Heller	The Diary of a Teenage Girl
	John Magary; Russell Harbaugh and Myna Joseph (story by)	The Mend
2016 [16]	Robert Eggers	The Witch
	Chris Kelly	Other People
	Adam Mansbach	Barry
	Stella Meghie	Jean of the Joneses
	Craig Shilowich	Christine
2017 [17]	Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani	The Big Sick
	Kris Avedisian, Kyle Espeleta (story by), and Jesse Wakeman (story by)	Donald Cried
	Ingrid Jungermann	Women Who Kill
	Kogonada	Columbus
	David Branson Smith & Matt Spicer	Ingrid Goes West
2018	Bo Burnham	Eighth Grade
	Christina Choe	Nancy
	Cory Finley	Thoroughbreds
	Jennifer Fox	The Tale
	Laurie & Quinn Shephard	Blame
2019 [18]	Fredrica Bailey and Stefon Bristol	See You Yesterday
	Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen	Driveways
	Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy	Blow the Man Down
	Jocelyn Deboer and Dawn Luebbe	Greener Grass
	James Montague and Craig W. Sanger	The Vast of Night

2020s

Year	Recipient(s)	Film
2020 [19]	Andy Siara	Palm Springs
	Kitty Green	The Assistant
	Noah Hutton	Lapsis
	Channing Godfrey Peoples	Miss Juneteenth
	James Sweeney	Straight Up
2021 [20]	Michael Sarnoski and Vanessa Block	Pig
	Sheldon D. Brown and Matthew Fifer	Cicada
	Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr.	Wild Indian
	Shatara Michelle Ford	Test Pattern
	Fran Kranz	Mass
2022 [21]	John Patton Ford	Emily the Criminal
	Joel Kim Booster	Fire Island
	Jamie Dack and Audrey Findlay, story by Jamie Dack	Palm Trees and Power Lines
	K.D. Dávila	Emergency
	Sarah DeLappe, story by Kristen Roupenian	Bodies Bodies Bodies
2023 [22]	Samy Burch; story by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik	May December
	Tomás Gómez Bustillo	Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
	Laurel Parmet	The Starling Girl
	Noah Galvin, Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman, and Ben Platt	Theater Camp
	Alejandro Rojas and Juan Sebastián Vásquez	Upon Entry

References

1. Ten Groundbreaking Film Independent Spirit Awards Wins - Film Independent
2. Stanley Tucci · Conversatory of Theatre Arts · Purchase College
3. Being John Malkovich - Awards - IMDb
4. "Love and Basketball" (New Line Cinema, 2000)|Library of Congress
5. Ghost World (2001) - MUBI
6. Ten Groundbreaking Film Independent Spirit Awards Wins - Film Independent
7. 14 Big Facts About 'Little Miss Sunshine' - Mental Floss
8. JUNO|Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
9. PRIDE Film Series: MILK (2008) Seattle Gay Scene|Your Daily Gay in Seattle
10. Frozen River (2008) - MUBI
11. Precious - Awards - IMDb
12. Tiny Furniture - Philadelphia Film Society
13. J.C. Chandor - Awards - IMDb
14. Justin Simien '05 wins Independent Spirit Award || Best First Screenplay|Chapman Newsroom
15. Room - Awards - IMDb
16. Robert Eggers Wins Independent Spirit First Screenplay Award|IndieWire
17. 'The Big Sick' Wins Indie Spirit Award || Best First Screenplay|IndieWire
18. Film Independent Spirit Awards 2020:See the winners list|EW.com
19. 2021 Independent Spirit Awards Winner's List|IndieWire
20. Galuppo, Mia (March 6, 2022). "Spirit Awards: 'The Lost Daughter,' 'Reservation Dogs' Win Big as Ukraine Fuels Onstage Remarks". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 6, 2022.
21. Davis, Clayton (November 22, 2022). "Independent Spirit Awards Nominations: 'Everything Everywhere' Leads With Eight Noms". Variety. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
22. "Film Independent Spirit Awards (2024)". IMDb. Retrieved 2024-02-25.