Nebula Award for Best Script

Template:Infobox award The Nebula Award for Best Script was given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy scripts for movies or television episodes. Awards are also given out for published literary works in the novel, novella, novelette, and short story categories. The Nebula Award for Best Script was awarded annually from 1974 through 1978, and from 2000 through 2009. It was presented under several names; in 1974, 1975, and 1977 the award was for Best Dramatic Presentation, while in 1976 the award was for Best Dramatic Writing.<ref name="NEBrules"/> The award was discontinued in 2010 and replaced with Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation; this award was not originally a Nebula but was made one retroactively in 2019, and is presented at the Nebula Awards Ceremony and follows Nebula rules and procedures.<ref name="Bradbury"/> The Nebula Awards have been described as one of "the most important of the American science fiction awards" and "the science-fiction and fantasy equivalent" of the Emmy Awards.<ref name="Guardianquote"/><ref name="TechRepquote"/>

Selection process

Nebula Award nominees and winners are chosen by members of the SFWA, though the authors of the nominees do not need to be a member. Works are nominated each year between November 15 and February 15 by published authors who are members of the organization, and the six works that receive the most nominations then form the final ballot, with additional nominees possible in the case of ties. Members may then vote on the ballot throughout March, and the final results are presented at the Nebula Awards ceremony in May. Authors are not permitted to nominate their own works, and ties in the final vote are broken, if possible, by the number of nominations the works received.<ref name="NEBrules"/> Beginning with the 2009 awards, the rules were changed to the current format. Prior to then, the eligibility period for nominations was defined as one year after the publication date of the work, which allowed the possibility for works to be nominated in the calendar year after their publication and then reach the final ballot in the calendar year after that. Works were added to a preliminary ballot for the year if they had ten or more nominations, which were then voted on to create a final ballot, to which the SFWA organizing panel was also allowed to add an additional work.<ref name="Locusrules"/>

Award statistics

During the 15 nomination years, 14 awards for Best Script have been given, including the special award given to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in 1978 but not including 1977, since no nominee was given the award. No winner was declared that year as "no award" received the highest number of votes.<ref name="DevoreHist"/> With three awards The Lord of the Rings film trilogy earned the most awards or nominations of any franchise. The Christopher Nolan Batman movies, Battlestar Galactica, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Doctor Who franchises have each had two nominations, but no wins. Hayao Miyazaki, Christopher Nolan, Joss Whedon, and The Lord of the Rings screenwriters have had the most nominations, with three each.

Winners and nominees

In the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the work was first released. Entries with a yellow background and an asterisk (*) next to the writer's name have won the award; the other entries are the other nominees on the shortlist. Entries with a gray background and a plus sign (+) mark a year when "no award" was selected as the winner.

  *   Winners and joint winners   +   No winner selected

Template:Sronly

Year	Writer(s)	Work	Publisher	Ref.
Template:Sort	Template:Sortname (script), Harry Harrison (original novel)*	Soylent Green	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer	<ref name="Loc74"/>
	Template:Sortname	Westworld	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer	<ref name="Loc74"/>
	Template:Sortname	Steambath	PBS	<ref name="Loc74"/>
	Template:Sortname (script, original novel)	Catholics	ITV	<ref name="Loc74"/>
Template:Sort	Template:Sortname*	Sleeper	United Artists	<ref name="Loc75"/>
	Template:Sortname and Don Bachardy (script), Mary Shelley (original novel)	Frankenstein: The True Story	NBC	<ref name="Loc75"/>
	Template:Sortname and Roland Topor (script), Stefan Wul (original novel)	Fantastic Planet	Argos Films	<ref name="Loc75"/>
Template:Sort	Template:Sortname and Gene Wilder (script), Mary Shelley (original novel)*	Young Frankenstein	United Artists	<ref name="Loc76"/>
	Template:Sortname and Dan O'Bannon	Dark Star	Jack H. Harris Enterprises	<ref name="Loc76"/>
	Template:Sortname (script), Harlan Ellison (original novella)	Template:Sort	LQ/JAF	<ref name="Loc76"/>
	Template:Sortname (script, original story)	Rollerball	United Artists	<ref name="Loc76"/>
Template:Sort	(no award)+			<ref name="Loc77"/>
	Template:Sortname	Harlan! Harlan Ellison Reads Harlan Ellison	Alternative World Recordings	<ref name="Loc77"/>
	Template:Sortname (script), William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson (original novel)	Logan's Run	United Artists	<ref name="Loc77"/>
	Template:Sortname (script), Walter Tevis (original novel)	Template:Sort	Columbia Pictures	<ref name="Loc77"/>
Template:Sort	Template:Sortname*	Star Wars Episode IV: A New HopeTemplate:Efn	20th Century Fox	<ref name="Loc78"/>
Template:Sort	Template:Sortname*	Template:Sort	Hollywood Pictures	<ref name="Loc00"/>
	Template:Sortname (script), Jane Yolen (original novel)	Template:Sort	Showtime Networks	<ref name="Loc00"/>
	Template:Sortname and Tim McCanlies (script), Ted Hughes (original novel)	Template:Sort	Warner Bros.	<ref name="Loc00"/>
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Private Black Label	<ref name="Loc00"/>
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Warner Bros.	<ref name="Loc00"/>
Template:Sort	Template:Sortname and Robert Gordon*	Galaxy Quest	DreamWorks	<ref name="Loc01"/>
	Template:Sortname (script), Stephen King (original novel)	Template:Sort	Warner Bros.	<ref name="Loc01"/>
	Template:Sortname (script) and Neil Gaiman (English translation)	Princess Mononoke	Studio Ghibli/Miramax Films	<ref name="Loc01"/>
	Template:Sortname	Being John Malkovich	Propaganda Films	<ref name="Loc01"/>
	Template:Sortname	Unbreakable	Touchstone Pictures	<ref name="Loc01"/>
	Template:Sortname	Dogma	View Askew Productions	<ref name="Loc01"/>
Template:Sort	Template:Sortname, Kuo Jung Tsai, and Hui-Ling Wang (script), Wang Dulu (original novel)*	Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon	Sony Pictures Classics	<ref name="Loc02"/>
	Template:Sortname	O Brother, Where Art Thou?	Touchstone Pictures	<ref name="Loc02"/>
	Template:Sortname and Bryan Singer (story), David Hayter (screenplay)	X-Men	20th Century Fox	<ref name="Loc02"/>
	Template:Sortname	Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "The Body"	Fox Television Studios/Mutant Enemy Productions	<ref name="Loc02"/>
Template:Sort	Template:Sortname, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson (script), J. R. R. Tolkien (original novel)*	Template:Sort	New Line Cinema	<ref name="Loc03"/>
	Template:Sortname and Terry Rossio	Shrek	DreamWorks	<ref name="Loc03"/>
	Template:Sortname (script), Stephen King (original concept)	Template:Sort: "Unreasonable Doubt"	DreamWorks	<ref name="Loc03"/>
	Template:Sortname	Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "Once More, With Feeling"	Warner Bros.	<ref name="Loc03"/>
Template:Sort	Template:Sortname, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair, and Peter Jackson (script), J. R. R. Tolkien (original novel)*	Template:Sort	New Line Cinema	<ref name="Loc04"/>
	Template:Sortname and Jon Cohen (script), Philip K. Dick (original story)	Minority Report	20th Century Fox/DreamWorks	<ref name="Loc04"/>
	Template:Sortname	Futurama: "Where No Fan Has Gone Before"	Fox Broadcasting Company	<ref name="Loc04"/>
	Template:Sortname (script), Cindy Davis Hewitt, and Donald H. Hewitt (English translation)	Spirited Away	Studio Ghibli/The Walt Disney Company	<ref name="Loc04"/>
	Template:Sortname, Bob Peterson, and David Reynolds	Finding Nemo	Pixar/The Walt Disney Company	<ref name="Loc04"/>
Template:Sort	Template:Sortname, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson (script), J. R. R. Tolkien (original novel)*	Template:Sort	New Line Cinema	<ref name="Loc05"/>
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Pixar/The Walt Disney Company	<ref name="Loc05"/>
	Template:Sortname and Eric Bress	Template:Sort	New Line Cinema	<ref name="Loc05"/>
	Template:Sortname & Michel Gondry	Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind	Focus Features	<ref name="Loc05"/>
Template:Sort	Template:Sortname*	Serenity	Universal Studios/Mutant Enemy Productions	<ref name="Loc06"/>
	Template:Sortname, Bradley Thompson, and David Weddle	Battlestar Galactica: "Act of Contrition/You Can't Go Home Again"	Sci-Fi Channel	<ref name="Loc06"/>
Template:Sort	Template:Sortname (script), Cindy Davis Hewitt, and Donald H. Hewitt (English translation)	Howl's Moving Castle	Studio Ghibli/The Walt Disney Company	<ref name="Loc07"/>
	Template:Sortname and David S. Goyer	Batman Begins	Warner Bros.	<ref name="Loc07"/>
	Template:Sortname	Battlestar Galactica: "Unfinished Business"	Sci-Fi Channel	<ref name="Loc07"/>
	Template:Sortname	Doctor Who: "The Girl in the Fireplace"	BBC Cymru Wales/BBC One	<ref name="Loc07"/>
Template:Sort	Template:Sortname*	Pan's Labyrinth	Picturehouse	<ref name="Loc08"/>
	Template:Sortname, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus, and Hawk Ostby (script), P. D. James (original novel)	Children of Men	Universal Studios	<ref name="Loc08"/>
	Template:Sortname	Doctor Who: "Blink"	BBC Cymru Wales/BBC One	<ref name="Loc08"/>
	Template:Sortname and Jonathan Nolan (script), Christopher Priest (original novel)	Template:Sort	Touchstone Pictures	<ref name="Loc08"/>
	Template:Sortname (script), David Lloyd (original graphic novel)	V for Vendetta	Warner Bros.	<ref name="Loc08"/>
	Template:Sortname and Michael Reaves	Star Trek: New Voyages: "World Enough and Time"	Cawley Entertainment Company/The Magic Time Company	<ref name="Loc08"/>
Template:Sort	Template:Sortname, Jim Reardon and Pete Docter*	WALL-E	Pixar/The Walt Disney Company	<ref name="Loc09"/>
	Template:Sortname, Jonathan Nolan, and David S. Goyer	Template:Sort	Warner Bros.	<ref name="Loc09"/>
	Template:Sortname	Stargate Atlantis: "The Shrine"	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer	<ref name="Loc09"/>

See also

• Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation
• Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation

External links

• Nebula Awards official site