The Academy Award for Best Story was an Academy Award given from the beginning of the Academy Awards until 1956. This award can be a source of confusion for modern audiences, given its co-existence with the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The Oscar for Best Story most closely resembles the usage of modern film treatments, or prose documents that describe the entire plot and characters, but typically lack most dialogue. A separate screenwriter would convert the story into a full screenplay.
As an example, at the 1944 Academy Awards, producer and director Leo McCarey won Best Story for Going My Way while screenwriters Frank Butler and Frank Cavett won Best Screenplay. The elimination of this category in 1956 reflects the decline of Hollywood's studio system and the emergence of independent screenwriters.
^G Men, story by Gregory Rogers (a pseudonym of Darryl F. Zanuck), was not officially nominated for this award, but appears in Academy records because it placed second in voting as a write-in candidate in 1935.
^The screen credit and award was originally credited to Ian McLellan Hunter, who was a front for Trumbo. On December 15, 1992, the Board of Governors voted to retroactively attribute the award to Trumbo. Hunter's name was removed. Although Trumbo had died some years earlier, he had been alive in 1954 and this is not considered a posthumous award.
^Originally announced on February 15, 1954, as a nominee in this category. On February 17, 1954, letters from the producer and nominee questioned its inclusion in the category, as it was based on the short story, "The Gift of Cochise", by the nominee, Mr. L'Amour, published in Collier's magazine on July 5, 1952. By waiver, the title of the short story was not included in the film's credits. The nomination was withdrawn, and only four nominees were included on the final ballot. The Academy thanked Mr. L'Amour and despite this incident, offered him a membership in the Academy.
^The name of the writer credited with authorship, Robert Rich, turned out to be an alias for Trumbo, who was being blacklisted at that time. On May 2, 1975, then-Academy president Walter Mirisch presented the Award to Trumbo.
^The Circus originally received a nomination for Best Director (Comedy Picture), as well as nominations for Best Actor and Best Writing (Original Story), all for Charles Chaplin. However, the Academy subsequently decided to remove Chaplin's name from the competitive award categories and instead to confer upon him a Special Award "for acting, writing, directing and producing The Circus". Chilton, Martin (May 16, 2016). "The first Oscars: what happened in 1929". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on May 19, 2016. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
