One of the of the things Gravity will have to overcome is its lack of screenplay nomination. That’s not particularly surprising for an effects-driven film, a mood piece. Films with very little dialogue often don’t get acknowledged for screenplay, like Tree of Life. When it comes to winners, though, in all of Oscar history, only once did a film win Best Picture in a split year without a screenplay nomination. Of course, this is all moot if Gravity wins Best Picture and Best Director. This rule only applies for the rare splits, which have, without exception (unless you count last year), been mostly surprises. I wanted to take a look at the splits and how they divided with Screenplay over the years. Turns out, in every split year except one, both films that won Picture or Director had a Screenplay nomination, or a screenplay win. One of the things I noticed looking back was that Best Pictures winners in a split were more likely to win in the screenplay category. Films that won director and screenplay and not picture happened, just not as often.
Let’s build a chart, shall we?
The DGA Awards
won DGA | won Oscar
*film nominated/+ won Best Picture at the Oscars
You can count last year if you’d like because it still applies, but me, I can’t count last year simply because it was forced. The voters didn’t choose to split the vote as Argo was way in the lead long before the Oscars were held. But even still, screenplay noms for both films.
2012
| Adapted winner | Argo (won Picture) |
| Adapted nominee | Life of Pi (Director) |
2005
| Original winner | Crash (won Picture) |
| Adapted winner | Brokeback Mountain (Director) |
2002
| Adapted nominee | Chicago (won Picture) |
| Adapted winner | The Pianist (Director) |
2000
| Original nominee | Gladiator (Picture) |
| Original winner | Traffic (won Director) |
1998
| Original winner | Shakespeare in Love (won Picture) |
| Original Nominee | Saving Private Ryan (Director) |
1989
| Adapted winner | Driving Miss Daisy (won Picture) |
| Adapted Nominee | Born on the 4th of July (won Director) |
1981
| Original winner | Chariots of Fire (won Picture) |
| Original Nominee | Reds (Director) |
1972
| Adapted winner | The Godfather (won Picture) |
| Adapted Nominee | Cabaret (Director) |
1967
| Adapted winner | In the Heat of the Night (won Picture) |
| Adapted Nominee | The Graduate (Director) |
1956
| Adapted winner | Around the World in 80 Days (won Picture) |
| Adapted Nominee | Giant (Director) |
1953
| Best Writing, Motion Picture Story | Greatest Show on Earth (won Picture) |
| Best Writing, Screenplay nominee | The Quiet Man (Director) |
1952
| Best Writing, Story and Screenplay | An American in Paris (won Picture) |
| Best Writing, Screenplay winner | A Place in the Sun (Director) |
1950
| Best Writing, Screenplay nominee | All the King’s Men (won Picture) |
| Best Writing, Screenplay winner | A Letter to Three Wives (Director) |
1949
| Hamlet (won Picture) | |
| Best Writing, Screenplay winner | Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Director) |
1940
| Adapted nominee | Rebecca (won Picture) |
| Adapted nominee | John Ford, Grapes of Wrath (Director) |
1937
| Adapted winner | The Life of Emile Zola (won Picture) |
| Adapted nominee | Leo McCary, The Awful Truth (Director) |
1937
| Best Writing, Original Story nominee | The Great Ziegfield (won Picture) |
| Adapted nominee | Frank Capra, Mr. Deed Goes to Town (Director) |
1937
| Adapted nominee | Mutiny on the Bounty (won Picture) |
| Adapted winner | John Ford, The Informer(Director) |
