Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay

High school (ages 12+)
Art & Creativity

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/academy-award-for-best-original-screenplay

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. When was Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay built?1940
2. What is the award criteria?Recognizes screenplays not based on previously published or performed material
3. What is the historical context?Coexisted with Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Story categories
4. When did the award start?It began in 1940, the same year the Academy created the category.
5. Why was the Best Story award merged into the Original Screenplay award?In 1956 the Academy combined the Best Story award with the Original Screenplay award to make it clearer and simpler, so one award could honor both the idea and the finished script.

Screenplay: The complete written blueprint for a film, encompassing dialogue, action, and visual cues.
Original Screenplay: A film script whose narrative premise, characters, and plot are entirely new and not derived from any pre-existing source.
Adapted Screenplay: A film script developed from a pre-existing work, such as a novel, play, or short story.
Cinematic Conception: The initial creative idea and development process for a film's story and structure.