The American Screenwriters Association (ASA) announced today the results of their eighteen-month project to determine the 100 Best Feature Film Screenplays of all time. A distinguished panel of screenwriters, producers and industry professionals based their assessments on criteria including the depth and originality of the writing, the script’s impact upon its release and its longevity and relativity over time, and solid writing principles such as character, dialogue and plot. 

“ASA undertook compiling this list to illustrate the contribution screenwriters have made to the entire movie industry in entertaining generations of movie goers over the years,” said John E. Johnson, ASA Executive Director. “The panel selected some scripts written more than half century ago as well as some recently released. Clearly, some of the most enduring and indelible impressions we have were created through the imagination of screenwriters.” 

According to the panel, the best screenplay of all time is Horton Foote’s adaptation, To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) starring Gregory Peck and Robert Duvall. Following closely behind in second place was Casablanca (1942); Gone with the Wind (1939) was in third place; The Wizard of Oz (1939) in fourth place; The Shawshank Redemption (1994) in fifth place; Schindler’s List (1993) in sixth place; It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) in seventh place; Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) in eighth place; Some Like it Hot (1959) in ninth place and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) in tenth place. Rounding out the top 100 was Amelie (2002) in ninety-eighth place; Das Boot (1981) in ninety-ninth place; and Braveheart (1995) capturing the final spot.

“We’re certain the list will generate some lively discussion among the entertainment industry and movie buffs for some time to come, “ Johnson said. “And that’s good, we should be engaged in healthy discussions about what makes a good screenplay, so that the art of screenwriting continues to advance and we encourage more people to get involved with screenwriting.”

Notable writers whose scripts made the top 100 include Billy Wilder (Some Like it Hot, Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity), William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men) Mel Brooks (Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, The Producers), Francis Ford Coppola (Patton, The Godfather, Apocalypse Now) and Ernest Lehman (North by Northwest, The Sound of Music, West Side Story) just to name a few.

* There were no distinctions made between original screenplays or adaptations during the evaluation of the scripts. The scripts were reviewed solely on the merits of the writer's work. Only scripts produced through 2002 were considered due to time constraints.

Top 100 Screenplays

Writers with Most Screenplays in Top 100
 

NOTE: Titles, Release Year and Screenwriting credit(s) is based on information obtained from a variety of resources. To correct and errors or omissions please email us at top100screenplays@goasa.com. Thank you!

Place       Script Title                             Year             Screenwriter(s)

1	To Kill A Mockingbird	1962	Horton Foote
2	Casablanca	1942	Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch
3	Gone with the Wind	1939	Sidney Howard
4	The Wizard of Oz	1939	Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Wolfe
5	The Shawshank Redemption	1994	Frank Darabont
6	Schindler's List	1993	Steven Zaillian
7	It's a Wonderful Life	1946	Frank Capra
8	Bridge on the River Kwai	1957	Pierre Boulle, Carl Foreman, Michael Wilson
9	Some Like it Hot	1959	Billy Wilder
10	Mr. Smith Goes to Washington	1939	Lewis R. Foster
11	North by Northwest	1959	Ernest Lehman
12	Rear Window	1954	John Michael Hayes
13	The Sound of Music	1965	Ernest Lehman
14	All Quiet on the Western Front	1930	George Abbott, Maxwell Anderson, Del Andrews
15	Forrest Gump	1994	Eric Roth
16	Patton	1970	Francis Ford Coppola, Edmund H. North
17	Guess Who's Coming to Dinner	1967	William Rose
18	The Godfather	1972	Francis Ford Coppola, Mario Puzo
19	Lawrence of Arabia	1962	Robert Bolt, Michael Wilson
20	The Graduate	1967	Calder Willingham, Buck Henry
21	On the Waterfront	1954	Budd Schulberg
22	The African Queen	1951	James Agee, John Huston
23	Sunset Boulevard	1950	Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, D. M Marshman Jr.
24	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest	1975	Lawrence Hauben, Bo Goldman
25	Star Wars	1977	George Lucas
26	Psycho	1960	Joseph Stefano
27	The Grapes of Wrath	1940	Nunnally Johnson
28	Chinatown	1974	Robert Towne
29	Jaws	1975	Peter Benchley, Carl Gottlieb
30	Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid	1969	William Goldman
31	Close Encounters of the Third Kind	1977	Steven Spielberg
32	Dr. Strangelove	1964	Stanley Kubrick, Peter George, Terry Southern
33	Citizen Kane	1941	Orson Welles, Herman J. Mankiewicz
34	West Side Story	1961	Ernest Lehman
35	Double Indemnity	1944	Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler
36	An Affair to Remember	1957	Leo McCarey, Delmer Daves
37	All the President's Men	1976	William Goldman
38	Young Frankenstein	1974	Gene Wilder, Mel Brooks
39	War of the Worlds	1953	Barre Lyndon, H. G. Wells
40	Twelve Angry Men	1957	Reginald Rose
41	Rain Man	1988	Ron Bass, Barry Morrow
42	Miracle on 34th Street	1947	George Seaton
43	Mary Poppins	1964	Bill Walsh, Don DaGradi
44	M*A*S*H	1970	Ring Lardner, Jr.
45	Kramer vs. Kramer	1979	Robert Benton
46	Fiddler on the Roof	1971	Joseph Stein
47	Driving Miss Daisy	1989	Alfred Uhry
48	Mutiny on the Bounty	1935	Jules Furthman, Talbot Jennings, Carey Wilson
49	All About Eve	1950	Joseph L. Mankiewicz
50	2001: A Space Odyssey	1968	Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke
51	Bonnie and Clyde	1967	David Newman, Robert Benton
52	Doctor Zhivago	1965	Robert Bolt
53	Streetcar Named Desire	1951	Tennessee Williams, Oscar Saul
54	From Here to Eternity	1953	Daniel Taradash
55	Amadeus	1984	Peter Shaffer
56	Rebel Without a Cause	1955	Stewart Stern
57	Vertigo	1958	Alec Coppel, Samuel A. Taylor
58	Blazing Saddles	1974	Mel Brooks, Richard Pryor, Andrew Bergman, Norman Steinberg, Alan Uger
59	The Maltese Falcon	1941	John Huston
60	Midnight Cowboy	1969	Waldo Salt
61	A Place in the Sun	1951	Michael Wilson, Harry Brown
62	My Fair Lady	1964	Alan Jay Lerner
63	Rocky	1976	Sylvester Stallone
64	The French Connection	1971	Ernest Tidyman
65	Raging Bull	1980	Paul Schrader, Mardik Martin
66	Apocalypse Now	1979	John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola
67	Treasure of the Sierra Madre	1948	John Huston
68	The Birth of a Nation	1915	Thomas F. Dixon, Jr.
69	Taxi Driver	1976	Paul Schrader, Mardik Martin
70	Stagecoach	1939	Dudley Nichols
71	Dances with Wolves	1990	Michael Blake
72	American Graffiti	1973	George Lucas, Gloria Katz, Willard Huyck
73	Annie Hall	1977	Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman
74	High Noon	1952	Carl Foreman
75	It Happened One Night	1934	Robert Riskin
76	Fargo	1996	Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
77	Network	1976	Paddy Chayefsky
78	The Philadelphia Story	1940	Donald Ogden Stewart
79	The Best Years of our Lives	1946	Robert E. Sherwood
80	A Clockwork Orange	1971	Stanley Kubrick
81	Easy Rider	1969	Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Terry Southern
82	Saving Private Ryan	1998	Robert Rodat
83	Sling Blade	1996	Billy Bob Thorton
84	Silence of the Lambs	1991	Ted Tally
85	Terms of Endearment	1983	James L. Brooks
86	Gandhi	1982	John Briley
87	Dog Day Afternoon	1975	Frank Pierson
88	The Sting	1973	David S. Ward
89	The Producers	1968	Mel Brooks
90	Splendor in the Grass	1961	William Inge
91	The Greatest Show on Earth	1952	Fredric M. Frank, Theodore St. John, Frank Cavett
92	A Beautiful Mind	2001	Akiva Goldsman
93	Big	1988	Gary Ross, Anne Spielberg
94	Farewell, My Concubine	1993	Lillian Lee, Wei Lu
95	Goodfellas	1990	Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese
96	Life is Beautiful	1997	Vinenzo Cerami, Roberto Benigni
97	Groundhog Day	1994	Danny Rubin, Harold Ramis
98	Amélie	2002	Guillaume Laurant, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
99	Das Boot	1981	Wolfgang Peterson
100	Braveheart	1995	Randall Wallace

Writers with Most Screenplays in Best 100
 

Mel Brooks	Blazing Saddles	Young Frankenstein	The Producers
Francis Ford Coppola	Patton	The Godfather	Apocalypse Now
Ernest Lehman	North by Northwest	The Sounds of Music	West Side Story
John Huston	The African Queen	The Maltese Falcon	Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Stanley Kubrick	Dr. Strangelove	A Clockwork Orange	2001 A Space Odyssey
Billy Wilder	Sunset Boulevard	Some Like it Hot	Double Indemnity
William Goldman	Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid	All the President's Men
George Lucas	Star Wars	American Graffiti
Woody Allen	Annie Hall
Steven Spielberg	Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Orson Welles	Citizen Kane
Ron Bass	Rain Main
Gary Ross	Big
James L. Brooks	Terms of Endearment