The Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay is one of the annual awards given by Film Independent, a non-profit organization dedicated to independent film and independent filmmakers.

1990s

1994

• David O. Russell
  David O. Russell
  David Owen Russell is an American film director and screenwriter. He has been praised for the loose, comic energy that characterizes his work, and is notorious for his explosive confrontations with cast members.-Early life:...
  
   for Spanking the Monkey
  Spanking the Monkey
  Spanking the Monkey is a 1994 US independent black comedy written and directed by David O. Russell. The title of the movie is a slang phrase for masturbation and is used in the film by one of the teenage characters...
  
  
• Paul Zehrer
  Paul Zehrer
  Paul Conrad Zehrer is an American film and television director, writer, producer, and editor. He was raised on a dairy farm and worked as a beekeeper before studying Philosophy at Vassar College...
  
   for Blessing
• Kevin Smith
  Kevin Smith
  Kevin Patrick Smith is an American screenwriter, actor, film producer, and director, as well as a popular comic book writer, author, comedian/raconteur, and internet radio personality best recognized by viewers as Silent Bob...
  
   for Clerks
  Clerks
  Clerks is a 1994 independent comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith, who also appears in the film as Silent Bob. Starring Brian O'Halloran as Dante Hicks and Jeff Anderson as Randal Graves, it presents a day in the lives of two store clerks and their acquaintances...
  
  
• James Bosley for Fun
  Fun (film)
  Fun is a 1994 independent drama film starring Alicia Witt and Renée Humphrey, and directed by Rafal Zielinski. Both Witt and Humphrey won a Special Jury Recognition for Technical Acting at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. The film centres on the murder of an elderly woman by two mentally unstable...
  
  
• Tom Noonan
  Tom Noonan
  Tom Noonan is an American actor and film writer-director.-Early life:Noonan was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, the son of Rosaleen and Tom Noonan, who worked as a dentist and jazz musician respectively...
  
   for What Happened Was
  What Happened Was
  What Happened Was... is a 1994 independent film written, directed by and starring Tom Noonan. It is an adaptation of Noonan's original play of the same name.-Plot:...
  
  

1995

• Paul Auster
  Paul Auster
  Paul Benjamin Auster is an American author known for works blending absurdism, existentialism, crime fiction and the search for identity and personal meaning in works such as The New York Trilogy , Moon Palace , The Music of Chance , The Book of Illusions and The Brooklyn Follies...
  
   for Smoke
  Smoke (film)
  Smoke is an American independent film released in 1995. It was produced by Hisami Kuroiwa, Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein and directed by Wayne Wang and Paul Auster...
  
  
• Harmony Korine
  Harmony Korine
  The story is told from the perspective of a young man suffering from untreated schizophrenia, played by Ewen Bremner, as he tries to understand his deteriorating world. Julien's abusive father is played by Werner Herzog...
  
   for Kids
  Kids (film)
  Kids is a 1995 drama film written by Harmony Korine and directed by Larry Clark.The film features Chloë Sevigny, Leo Fitzpatrick, Justin Pierce, Harold Hunter, and Rosario Dawson, all of them in their debut performances...
  
  
• James Gray
  James Gray (film director)
  James Gray is an American film director and screenwriter.-Life and career:Gray was born in New York City of Russian Jewish descent. His father was once an electronics contractor...
  
   for Little Odessa
  Little Odessa
  Little Odessa is an American crime film released in 1994 by James Gray, featuring Tim Roth, Edward Furlong, Moira Kelly and Vanessa Redgrave.The film earned a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the Critic Prize at the Deauville Film Festival...
  
  
• Steve McLean
  Steve McLean
  Steve McLean is a retired Scottish-American soccer forward who played professionally in the Major Indoor Soccer League and was a member of the U.S. team at the 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship. He is currently a sales manager with Nike, Inc.-Youth:...
  
   for Postcards from America
• Kelly Reichardt
  Kelly Reichardt
  Kelly Reichardt is a screenwriter and film director working within American indie cinema. Her debut film River of Grass was released in 1994. It was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards, as well as the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. In 1999, she completed her sophomore...
  
   for River of Grass
  River of Grass
  River of Grass is the debut film of American director Kelly Reichardt, who also wrote the screenplay. It was selected for the Sundance Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival, and was nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize in 1994, and for three Independent Spirit Awards in...
  
  

1996

• Joseph Tropiano and Stanley Tucci
  Stanley Tucci
  Stanley Tucci is an American actor, writer, film producer and film director. He has been nominated for several notable film awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in The Lovely Bones...
  
   for Big Night
  Big Night
  Scott and Tucci won the New York Film Critics Circle Award and the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best New Director. Tucci and Tropiano won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay...
  
  
• Suzan-Lori Parks
  Suzan-Lori Parks
  Suzan-Lori Parks is an African American playwright and screenwriter. She received the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant in 2001, and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, Topdog/Underdog.-Early years:...
  
   for Girl 6
  Girl 6
  Girl 6 may refer to:*Girl 6, a 1996 film by Spike Lee*Girl 6 , the soundtrack for the film, composed by Prince*“Girl 6” , the title song for the soundtrack...
  
  
• Lisa Krueger for Manny & Lo
  Manny & Lo
  Manny & Lo is a 1996 comedy-drama film directed by Lisa Krueger, starring Scarlett Johansson, Aleksa Palladino, and Mary Kay Place.-Plot:...
  
  
• Michael Scott Myers for The Whole Wide World
  The Whole Wide World
  The Whole Wide World is a 1996 American film depicting the relationship between pulp fiction writer Robert E. Howard and schoolteacher Novalyne Price Ellis ....
  
  
• Steve Buscemi
  Steve Buscemi
  Steven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi is an American actor, writer and film director. An associate member of the renowned experimental theater company The Wooster Group, Buscemi has starred and supported in successful Hollywood and indie films including New York Stories, Mystery Train, Reservoir Dogs,...
  
   for Trees Lounge
  Trees Lounge
  Trees Lounge is the 1996 feature film debut written and directed by Steve Buscemi. It was produced by Brad Wyman and Chris Hanley and features a large ensemble cast of actors, including Buscemi, Anthony LaPaglia, Chloë Sevigny and Samuel L. Jackson...
  
  

1997

• Neil LaBute
  Neil LaBute
  Neil N. LaBute is an American film director, screenwriter and playwright.-Early life:LaBute was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Marian, a hospital receptionist, and Richard LaBute, a long-haul truck driver. LaBute is of French Canadian, English and Irish ancestry, and was raised in Spokane,...
  
   for In the Company of Men
  In the Company of Men
  In the Company of Men is a 1997 Canadian/American black comedy written and directed by Neil LaBute and starring Aaron Eckhart, Matt Malloy, and Stacy Edwards...
  
  
• Steven Schwartz for Critical Care
  Critical Care (film)
  Critical Care is a 1997 film directed by Sidney Lumet. The film is a satire about American medicine. It is based on the novel by Richard Dooling and stars James Spader, Kyra Sedgwick, Anne Bancroft, Helen Mirren, Jeffrey Wright, and Albert Brooks. Rick Baker provided special makeup effects...
  
  
• Paul Thomas Anderson
  Paul Thomas Anderson
  Paul Thomas Anderson is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He has written and directed five feature films: Hard Eight , Boogie Nights , Magnolia , Punch-Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood...
  
   for Hard Eight
  Hard Eight (film)
  Hard Eight is a 1996 American crime thriller film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, starring Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson...
  
  
• Miguel Arteta
  Miguel Arteta
  Miguel Arteta is a Puerto Rican director of film and television, known for his independent film Chuck & Buck , for which he received the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award.-Early life:...
  
   for Star Maps
  Star Maps (film)
  Star Maps , directed by Miguel Arteta, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. It was a critical hit, receiving five Independent Spirit Award nominations, including Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay.-Cast:...
  
  
• Daniel Harris for The Bible and Gun Club

1998

• Darren Aronofsky
  Darren Aronofsky
  Darren Aronofsky is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer. He attended Harvard University to study film theory and the American Film Institute to study both live-action and animation filmmaking...
  
   for Pi
  Pi (film)
  Pi, also titled ,WorldCat gives the title as [Pi] and provides a note which states, "Title is the mathematical symbol for Pi." . Amazon gives the title as Pi with no notation concerning the math symbol . is a 1998 American psychological thriller film written and directed by Darren Aronofsky...
  
  
• Lisa Cholodenko
  Lisa Cholodenko
  Lisa Cholodenko is an American film and television writer/director. She is best known for her highly acclaimed 2010 comedy-drama The Kids Are All Right which was nominated for a number of awards including four Academy Awards, Best Picture among them.- Career :Having grown up in a Jewish family ,...
  
   for High Art
  High Art
  High Art is an independent film directed by Lisa Cholodenko and starring Ally Sheedy and Radha Mitchell.- Synopsis :Sydney , age 24, is a woman who has her whole life mapped out in front of her...
  
  
• Matthew Weiss for Niagara, Niagara
  Niagara, Niagara
  Niagara, Niagara is a 1997 film directed by Bob Gosse, and starring Henry Thomas , Robin Tunney as well as Michael Parks , John Ventimiglia and Stephen Lang ....
  
  
• Tamara Jenkins
  Tamara Jenkins
  Tamara Jenkins is an American screenwriter, actress and director. She is best known for her two feature films, Slums of Beverly Hills and The Savages .-Early life:...
  
   for Slums of Beverly Hills
  Slums of Beverly Hills
  The Slums of Beverly Hills is a 1998 motion picture, written and directed by Tamara Jenkins. Its hero is a teenage girl struggling to grow up in a lower-middle-class family that moves every few months in the late 1970s....
  
  
• Sherman Alexie
  Sherman Alexie
  Sherman Joseph Alexie, Jr. is a writer, poet, filmmaker, and occasional comedian. Much of his writing draws on his experiences as a Native American. Two of Alexie's best known works are The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven , a book of short stories and Smoke Signals, a film...
  
   for Smoke Signals
  Smoke Signals (film)
  Smoke Signals is an independent film directed and co-produced by Chris Eyre and with a screenplay by Sherman Alexie, based on the short story "This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona" from his book Lone Ranger and Tonto: Fistfight in Heaven. It won several awards and accolades, and was...
  
  

1999

• Charlie Kaufman
  Charlie Kaufman
  Charles Stuart "Charlie" Kaufman is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. His film work includes Being John Malkovich, Human Nature, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Synecdoche, New York...
  
   for Being John Malkovich
  Being John Malkovich
  Being John Malkovich is a 1999 American black comedy-fantasy film written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze. It stars John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, and John Malkovich, who plays a fictional version of himself...
  
  
• Kimberly Peirce
  Kimberly Peirce
  Kimberly Peirce is an American feature film director, notable for her debut feature film, Boys Don't Cry . Her second feature, Stop-Loss, was released by Paramount Pictures in 2008.- Early life and career :...
  
   and Andy Bienen for Boys Don't Cry
  Boys Don't Cry (film)
  Boys Don't Cry is a 1999 American independent romantic drama film directed by Kimberly Peirce and co-written by Andy Bienen. The film is a dramatization of the real-life story of Brandon Teena, a transgender man played by Hilary Swank, who pursues a relationship with a young woman, played by Chloë...
  
  
• Anne Rapp
  Anne Rapp
  Anne Rapp is a script supervisor and screenwriter in the American film industry. She has worked on more than 50 feature films since 1981. Her work with Robert Altman in 1999 on the film "Cookie's Fortune" led to her nomination for an Independent Spirit Award and an Edgar Allan Poe Award.-...
  
   for Cookie's Fortune
  Cookie's Fortune
  Cookie's Fortune is a 1999 comedy film directed by Robert Altman and starring an ensemble cast, including Patricia Neal, Charles S. Dutton, Julianne Moore, Glenn Close, Liv Tyler and Chris O'Donnell...
  
  
• Tod Williams
  Tod Williams (filmmaker)
  Tod Culpan "Kip" Williams is an American director, producer and screenwriter.-Life and career:Williams was born and raised in New York City, the son of architect Tod Williams and a mother who was a dancer...
  
   for The Adventures of Sebastian Cole
  The Adventures of Sebastian Cole
  The Adventures of Sebastian Cole is a 1998 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Tod Williams and starring Adrian Grenier as the title character.-Plot:...
  
  
• John Roach
  John Roach
  John Robert Roach was an American clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis from 1975 to 1995.-Biography:...
  
   and Mary Sweeney
  Mary Sweeney
  Mary Sweeney is an American film editor and producer best known for collaborating with the avant-garde American film director, David Lynch...
  
   for The Straight Story
  The Straight Story
  The Straight Story is a 1999 film directed by David Lynch. The film was edited and produced by Mary Sweeney, Lynch's longtime partner and co-worker. She co-wrote the script with John E. Roach....
  
  

2000s

2000

• Gina Prince-Bythewood
  Gina Prince-Bythewood
  Gina Prince-Bythewood is an American film director and writer. Her primary credits as a director include the films Disappearing Acts and Love & Basketball, produced by Spike Lee and starring Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan, which won her the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay.Bythewood...
  
   for Love & Basketball
• Ben Younger
  Ben Younger
  Ben Younger is an American screenwriter and film director.-Early life and career:Younger was born in Brooklyn, and raised in a Modern Orthodox Jewish household in Eltingville, Staten Island. He attended a yeshiva, before entering Queens College, part of the City University of New York, where he...
  
   for Boiler Room
  Boiler Room (film)
  Boiler Room is a 2000 American drama film written and directed by Ben Younger, and starring Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Nia Long, Ben Affleck, Nicky Katt, Scott Caan, Tom Everett Scott, Ron Rifkin and Jamie Kennedy....
  
  
• David Gordon Green
  David Gordon Green
  David Gordon Green is an American filmmaker. He has directed dramas such as George Washington, All the Real Girls, and Snow Angels, as well as the thriller Undertow, all of which he wrote or co-wrote...
  
   for George Washington
  George Washington (film)
  George Washington is a 2000 American drama film about a group of children in a depressed small town in North Carolina. The children band together to cover up a tragic mistake. The film is written and directed by David Gordon Green.-Plot:...
  
  
• Jordan Walker-Pearlman
  Jordan Walker-Pearlman
  Jordan Walker-Pearlman is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for his movie The Visit, for which he was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards. His movie Constellation was released in February 2007 and is now screened around the USA at conferences...
  
   for The Visit
  The Visit (2000 film)
  The Visit is the story of Alex Waters , a dying young man serving out a prison sentence for a rape he says he didn't commit. The movie follows Alex, his family, and his girlfriend as they try to come to an emotional resolution....
  
  
• Ross Klavan and Michael McGruther
  Michael McGruther
  Michael McGruther began his filmmaking career with the original screenplay Tigerland, directed by Joel Schumacher and co-written by Ross Klavan. The critically acclaimed screenplay was nominated by IFP/West for Best First Screenplay and by the Political Film Society for the PFS Award in 2001...
  
   for Tigerland
  Tigerland
  Tigerland is a 2000 war drama film directed by Joel Schumacher starring Colin Farrell in the role of Private Roland Bozz, and takes place in a training camp for soldiers to be sent to the Vietnam War....
  
  

2001

• Daniel Clowes
  Daniel Clowes
  Daniel Gillespie Clowes is an American author, screenwriter and cartoonist of alternative comic books....
  
   and Terry Zwigoff
  Terry Zwigoff
  Terry Zwigoff is an American filmmaker whose work often deals with misfits, antiheros, and themes of alienation. His fiction films are the features Ghost World , Bad Santa , and Art School Confidential...
  
   for Ghost World
  Ghost World (film)
  Ghost World is a 2001 comedy-drama film directed by Terry Zwigoff, based on the comic book of the same name and screenplay by Daniel Clowes...
  
  
• Richard Kelly
  Richard Kelly (director)
  James Richard Kelly is an American film director and writer, best known for writing and directing the cult classic Donnie Darko in 2001.-Early life:...
  
   for Donnie Darko
  Donnie Darko
  Donnie Darko is a 2001 American psychological thriller film written and directed by Richard Kelly and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Noah Wyle, Jena Malone, and Mary McDonnell...
  
  
• John Cameron Mitchell
  John Cameron Mitchell
  John Cameron Mitchell is an American writer, actor, and director. He is best known for his motion pictures Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Shortbus and Rabbit Hole.- Early life:...
  
   for Hedwig and the Angry Inch
  Hedwig and the Angry Inch (film)
  Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a 2001 American musical comedy-drama film based on the stage musical of the same title about a fictional rock band fronted by an East German transgender singer. The film was adapted and directed by John Cameron Mitchell, who also portrayed the title role...
  
  
• Stephen Ryder and Gerald Cuesta for L.I.E.
  L.I.E.
  L.I.E. is a 2001 American independent film about a relationship between Howie, a 15-year-old boy, and a pedophile known as 'Big John'. The title is an acronym for the Long Island Expressway. The film was directed by Michael Cuesta, who has said that the film is about exploring sexuality...
  
  
• Jennifer Jason Leigh
  Jennifer Jason Leigh
  Jennifer Jason Leigh is an American film and stage actress, best known for her roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Single White Female, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Georgia and Short Cuts...
  
   and Alan Cumming
  Alan Cumming
  Alan Cumming, OBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actor, singer, writer, director, producer and author. His roles have included the Emcee in Cabaret, Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, Mr. Elton in Emma, and Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids trilogy...
  
   for The Anniversary Party
  The Anniversary Party
  The Anniversary Party is a 2001 American comedy-drama film written, directed, produced by, and starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming.-Plot:...
  
  

2002

• Erin Cressida Wilson
  Erin Cressida Wilson
  Erin Cressida Wilson is an American playwright, screenwriter, professor, and author.Wilson is known for the 2002 film Secretary, which she adapted from a Mary Gaitskill short story...
  
   for Secretary
  Secretary (film)
  Secretary is a 2002 independent film directed by Steven Shainberg and starring Maggie Gyllenhaal as Lee Holloway and James Spader as E. Edward Grey...
  
  
• Laura Cahill for Hysterical Blindness
• Burr Steers
  Burr Steers
  Burr Gore Steers is an American actor, screenwriter and director.-Personal life:Steers was born in Washington, D.C. His father, Newton Ivan Steers, Jr. , was a Republican congressman from Maryland. His mother, Nina Gore Auchincloss , was the daughter of stockbroker and lawyer Hugh D...
  
   for Igby Goes Down
  Igby Goes Down
  Igby Goes Down is a 2002 comedy-drama film that follows the life of Igby Slocumb, a rebellious and sardonic New York City teenager who attempts to break free of his familial ties and wealthy, overbearing mother...
  
  
• Neil Burger
  Neil Burger
  Neil Burger is an American film director who has filmed the pseudo-documentary, Interview with the Assassin , the period drama, The Illusionist, and the 2011 thriller Limitless.-Life and career:...
  
   for Interview with the Assassin
  Interview with the Assassin
  Interview with the Assassin is a 2002 drama/"mockumentary" starring Raymond J. Barry and Dylan Haggerty.-Plot:An unemployed cameraman, Ron Kobeleski , is asked by his reclusive neighbor, a retired Marine named Walter Ohlinger who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, to document a startling...
  
  
• Heather Juergensen
  Heather Juergensen
  Heather Julia Juergensen is an American actress and writer.-Life and career:Juergensen was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1987. Soon after, she began writing and performing for the stage in both New York and Los Angeles...
  
   and Jennifer Westfeldt
  Jennifer Westfeldt
  Jennifer Westfeldt is an American actress and screenwriter known for the hit 2001 independent film Kissing Jessica Stein, which she co-wrote with Heather Juergensen and in which the two women starred.- Early life :...
  
   for Kissing Jessica Stein
  Kissing Jessica Stein
  Kissing Jessica Stein is a 2001 independent romantic comedy film, written and co-produced by the film's stars, Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen. The film also stars Tovah Feldshuh and is directed by Charles Herman-Wurmfeld...
  
  

2003

• Thomas McCarthy
  Thomas McCarthy (actor)
  Thomas Joseph McCarthy is an American actor, writer, and film director who has appeared in several movies, including Meet the Parents and Good Night, and Good Luck, and television shows such as The Wire, Boston Public, Law & Order, and the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of Saint Maybe...
  
   for The Station Agent
  The Station Agent
  The Station Agent is a 2003 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Thomas McCarthy. McCarthy's script about a man who seeks solitude in an abandoned train station in Newfoundland, New Jersey won him the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay.-Plot:Finbar McBride, a quiet,...
  
  
• Karen Moncrieff
  Karen Moncrieff
  Karen Moncrieff , is an American actor, director, and screenwriter. Her directing credits are in both television and features and she acted in the soap operas Days of our Lives and Santa Barbara. In 1985, she was crowned Miss Illinois and competed in the Miss America pageant...
  
   for Blue Car
  Blue Car
  Blue Car is a 2002 drama film directed and written by Karen Moncrieff. It was her first film that she had directed and written.-Plot:A gifted 16-year-old named Megan has been abandoned by her father and soon neglected by her mother. Her mother has been working hard and long lately because she needs...
  
  
• Patty Jenkins
  Patty Jenkins
  Patricia Lea "Patty" Jenkins is an American film director and writer. She grew up in Lawrence, Kansas and attended the AFI Conservatory. She graduated from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1993. The most famous film she has directed to date is Monster, a docudrama about...
  
   for Monster
• Peter Sollett
  Peter Sollett
  Peter Sollett is an American film director and screenwriter known for his feature films Raising Victor Vargas and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist .-Career:...
  
   and Eva Vives for Raising Victor Vargas
  Raising Victor Vargas
  Raising Victor Vargas is a 2002 film directed by Peter Sollett, written by Sollett and Eva Vives. The film follows Victor, a Lower East Side teenager, as he deals with his eccentric family, including his strict grandmother, his bratty sister, and a younger brother who completely idolizes him...
  
  
• Catherine Hardwicke
  Catherine Hardwicke
  Catherine Hardwicke is an American production designer, film writer and film director. Her works include the independent film Thirteen, which she co-wrote with Nikki Reed, the film's co-star, the Biblically-themed The Nativity Story, the vampire film Twilight, and the werewolf film Red Riding Hood...
  
   and Nikki Reed
  Nikki Reed
  Nicole Houston "Nikki" Reed is an American film and television actress, and screenwriter. She became known in 2003, after the release of the film Thirteen, for which she co-wrote the screenplay. Reed has since appeared in several films, including Lords of Dogtown and Mini's First Time...
  
   for Thirteen
  Thirteen (film)
  Thirteen is a 2003 American drama film directed by Catherine Hardwicke, and written by Hardwicke and Nikki Reed, the film's co-star. The film also stars Evan Rachel Wood and Holly Hunter. It is a semi-autobiographical film inspired by Reed's life at age 12 and 13 with Wood's character "Tracy" being...
  
  

2004

• Joshua Marston
  Joshua Marston
  Joshua Jacob Marston is an American screenwriter and film director best known for the film Maria Full of Grace.Born in California, he graduated from Beverly Hills High School. Marston worked in Paris as an intern for Life, then for ABC News during the Gulf War...
  
   for Maria Full of Grace
  Maria Full of Grace
  Maria Full of Grace is a 2004 joint Colombian-American film, written and directed by Joshua Marston, who won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. Although the movie depicts rural life in Colombia, it was actually filmed in Ecuador...
  
  
• Rodney Evans for Brother to Brother
• Zach Braff
  Zach Braff
  Zachary Israel "Zach" Braff is an American actor, screenwriter, producer, comedian, and director. Braff first became known in 2001 for his role as Dr. John Dorian on the television series Scrubs, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards.In 2004, Braff made his...
  
   for Garden State
  Garden State (film)
  Garden State is a 2004 comedy-drama film written by, directed by, and starring Zach Braff, with Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, and Sir Ian Holm. The film centers on Andrew Largeman , a 26-year-old actor/waiter who returns to his hometown in New Jersey after his mother dies...
  
  
• Shane Carruth
  Shane Carruth
  Shane Carruth is an American film writer, director, editor, producer, actor and musician.- Life and career :Carruth was born in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He attended Stephen F...
  
   for Primer
  Primer (film)
  Primer is a 2004 American science fiction drama film about the accidental discovery of a means of time travel. The film was written, directed, and produced by Shane Carruth and was completed on a budget of $7,000...
  
  
• Mario de la Vega for Robbing Peter

2005

• Duncan Tucker
  Duncan Tucker
  Duncan Tucker is an American film director and screenwriter.Tucker was born in Arizona and graduated from New York University. After the short subject film The Mountain King, which was screened at over 31 international festivals, he wrote and directed his first feature film, Transamerica. Tucker's...
  
   for Transamerica
  Transamerica (film)
  Transamerica is a 2005 independent comedy-drama film produced by IFC Films and The Weinstein Company. The film tells the story of Bree, a transsexual woman , who goes on a road trip with her long-lost son Toby ....
  
  
• Kenneth Hanes for Fixing Frank
• Angus MacLachlan
  Angus MacLachlan
  Angus MacLachlan is a playwright and screenwriter most famous for writing the screenplays for the 2005 film Junebug as well as the cult short film Tater Tomater. He graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts in 1980 and continues to reside in Winston-Salem, North Carolina...
  
   for Junebug
  Junebug (film)
  Junebug is a 2005 American comedy-drama film directed by Phil Morrison. It was released on August 3, 2005 and stars Amy Adams, Alessandro Nivola, Embeth Davidtz, and Benjamin McKenzie...
  
  
• Miranda July
  Miranda July
  Miranda July is a performing artist, writer, actress and film director. Born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger, she works under the surname of "July," which can be traced to a character from a "girlzine" Miranda created with high school friend Johanna Fateman, called Snarla.- Background :Miranda...
  
   for Me and You and Everyone We Know
  Me and You and Everyone We Know
  Me and You and Everyone We Know is a 2005 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Miranda July and stars July, John Hawkes, Miles Thompson, Brandon Ratcliff, Natasha Slayton, Najarra Townsend, Carlie Westerman, and JoNell Kennedy.-Plot:The structure of the film consists of...
  
  
• Sabina Murray
  Sabina Murray
  Sabina Murray is an award-winning Filipina American screenwriter, and a novelist currently a Professor in the MFA Program for Poets & Writers at The University of Massachusetts, Amherst.-Background and career:...
  
   for The Beautiful Country
  The Beautiful Country
  The Beautiful Country is a 2004 Vietnam-related drama film set in 1990. It is directed by Hans Petter Moland and starring Damien Nguyen, Nick Nolte, Bai Ling, Chau Thi Kim Xuan, Tim Roth, Anh Thu, Temuera Morrison and John Hussey...
  
  

2006

• Michael Arndt
  Michael Arndt
  Michael Arndt is an American screenwriter.After graduating from New York University, Arndt was a script reader for some time before choosing to write screenplays instead...
  
   for Little Miss Sunshine
  Little Miss Sunshine
  Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 American comedy-drama film. The road movie's plot follows a family's trip to a children's beauty pageant.Little Miss Sunshine was the directorial film debut of the husband-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The screenplay was written by first-time writer...
  
  
• Dito Montiel
  Dito Montiel
  Dito Montiel, born as Orlandito Montiel, is an American author, screenwriter, director and musician.Born in New York City, he came into the public eye after the breakup of his hardcore punk band Major Conflict...
  
   for A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
  A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
  A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is a 2006 American drama film based on a 2001 memoir of the same name by author and musician Dito Montiel, which describes his youth in Astoria, New York during the 1980s....
  
  
• Gabrielle Zevin
  Gabrielle Zevin
  Gabrielle Zevin is an American author and screenwriter. She is a Harvard graduate, born in New York City where she still lives....
  
   for Conversations with Other Women
  Conversations with Other Women
  Conversations with Other Women is 2005 comedy drama film directed by Hans Canosa, written by Gabrielle Zevin, starring Aaron Eckhart and Helena Bonham Carter....
  
  
• Ryan Fleck
  Ryan Fleck
  Ryan K. Fleck is an American film director, cinematographer, editor, and screenwriter best known for directing and writing the 2006 film Half Nelson and the 2008 film Sugar. He is known for his collaborations with fellow filmmaker Anna Boden.-Life and career:Fleck was born in Berkeley, California...
  
   and Anna Boden
  Anna Boden
  Anna Boden is an American film director, cinematographer, editor, and screenwriter best known as the co-writer of the 2006 film Half Nelson. She is known for her collaborations with fellow filmmaker Ryan Fleck.- Life and career :...
  
   for Half Nelson
  Half Nelson (film)
  Half Nelson is a 2006 American drama film directed by Ryan Fleck and written by Anna Boden and Fleck; it stars Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps and Anthony Mackie. The film was scored by Juno Award winning Canadian band - Broken Social Scene. Gosling received an Academy Award nomination for lead actor...
  
  
• Goran Dukić
  Goran Dukic
  Goran Dukić is a Croatian film director, screenwriter and actor best known for writing and directing the 2006 film Wristcutters: A Love Story.-Early life:...
  
   for Wristcutters: A Love Story
  Wristcutters: A Love Story
  Wristcutters: A Love Story is a 2006 comedy-fantasy-romance film written and directed by Goran Dukić, starring Patrick Fugit, Shea Whigham, and Shannyn Sossamon. It is set in a strange afterlife way-station that has been reserved for people who have committed suicide.It is based on Etgar Keret's...
  
  

2007

• Diablo Cody
  Diablo Cody
  Brook Busey , better known by the pen name Diablo Cody, is an American screenwriter, writer, blogger, journalist, and author. She was first known for her candid chronicling of her year as a stripper in her Pussy Ranch blog and her 2006 memoir, Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper...
  
   for Juno
  Juno (film)
  Juno is a 2007 comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody. Ellen Page stars as the title character, an independent-minded teenager confronting an unplanned pregnancy and the subsequent events that put pressures of adult life onto her. Michael Cera, Olivia Thirlby, J. K....
  
  
• Jeffrey Blitz
  Jeffrey Blitz
  Jeffrey Blitz is an American film director, producer and screenwriter from Ridgewood, New Jersey. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his 2002 documentary, Spellbound and he won the Dramatic Directing Prize at the Sundance Film Festival for his 2007 film, Rocket Science.Blitz won the 2009...
  
   for Rocket Science
  Rocket Science (film)
  Rocket Science is a 2007 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Jeffrey Blitz, and starring Reece Thompson, Anna Kendrick, Nicholas D'Agosto, Vincent Piazza, and Aaron Yoo...
  
  
• Zoe Cassavetes
  Zoe Cassavetes
  Zoe Rowlands Cassavetes is an American film director, screenwriter and actress best known for her 2007 film Broken English and as the daughter of American actor and filmmaker John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands....
  
   for Broken English
  Broken English (2007 film)
  -Plot:Nora Wilder , a single, career woman works at a Manhattan boutique hotel where her excellent skills in guest relations lack in the romantic department. If it is not her loving and dominant mother attempting to set her up that consistently fail, she has her friend’s disastrous blind dates to...
  
  
• Kelly Masterson
  Kelly Masterson
  Kelly Masterson is an American screenwriter, playwright and writer who currently lives in New Jersey. He wrote the screenplay for the film Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, for which he is best known. Before moving to New York to stage several of his early plays, he studied Theology at the...
  
   for Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
  Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
  Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is a 2007 crime drama directed by Sidney Lumet and written by Kelly Masterson. It stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, and Albert Finney. The title comes from the Irish saying: "May you be in heaven a full half-hour before the devil knows...
  
  
• John Orloff
  John Orloff
  John Orloff is an American screenwriter who currently lives in Chatham, New York.-Life and career:Orloff studied screenwriting at the University of California, Los Angeles Film School, and on graduation, went to work in the advertising business...
  
   for A Mighty Heart
  A Mighty Heart (film)
  A Mighty Heart is a 2007 drama film directed by Michael Winterbottom; It is an adaptation of Mariane Pearl's memoir, A Mighty Heart. Although initially a financial failure, A Mighty Heart was met with relatively positive reviews from both critics and viewers alike.The film was screened out of...
  
  

2008

• Dustin Lance Black
  Dustin Lance Black
  Dustin Lance Black is an American screenwriter, director, film and television producer, and LGBT rights activist. He has won two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work on the television series Big Love and an Academy Award for the 2008 film Milk.-Early life:Black was born in Sacramento,...
  
   for Milk
  Milk (film)
  Milk is a 2008 American biographical film on the life of gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk, who was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors...
  
  
• Lance Hammer
  Lance Hammer
  Lance Hammer is an award-winning American independent filmmaker. His first film, Ballast, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim....
  
   for Ballast
  Ballast (film)
  Ballast is a 2008 film directed by Lance Hammer. It competed in the Dramatic Competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the awards for Best Director and Best Cinematography...
  
  
• Courtney Hunt
  Courtney Hunt
  Courtney Hunt is an American screenwriter and film director. She has received much critical acclaim for her debut film, Frozen River, for which she has gained an Oscar nomination, two Independent Spirit nominations, and a Satellite Award nod for the film...
  
   for Frozen River
  Frozen River
  Frozen River is a 2008 American drama film written and directed by Courtney Hunt. The screenplay focuses on two working-class women who smuggle illegal immigrants in the trunk of a car from Canada to the United States in order to make ends meet...
  
  
• Jonathan Levine
  Jonathan Levine
  Jonathan A. Levine is an American film director and screenwriter.-Biography:Levine won the Audience Award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival for his film The Wackness. In January 2010, it was announced that he will direct a project entitled Warm Bodies...
  
   for The Wackness
  The Wackness
  The Wackness is a 2008 American coming of age drama film by Jonathan Levine and starring Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck, Famke Janssen, and Olivia Thirlby. The film is distributed by Sony Pictures Classics and was released in the U.S. on July 3, 2008.-Plot:...
  
  
• Jenny Lumet
  Jenny Lumet
  Jenny Lumet is an American actress and screenwriter noted for her award-winning screenplay for Rachel Getting Married...
  
   for Rachel Getting Married
  Rachel Getting Married
  Rachel Getting Married is a 2008 drama film directed by Jonathan Demme, and starring Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin and Debra Winger. The film was released in the U.S. to select theaters on October 3, 2008. The film opened the 65th Venice International Film Festival. The film also...
  
  

2009

• Geoffrey Fletcher
  Geoffrey S. Fletcher
  Geoffrey Shawn Fletcher is an American screenwriter, film director, and adjunct film professor at Columbia University and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in New York City, New York...
  
   for Precious
  Precious (film)
  Precious , is a 2009 American drama film directed by Lee Daniels. Precious is an adaptation by Geoffrey S. Fletcher of the 1996 novel Push by Sapphire. The film stars Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, and Paula Patton...
  
  
• Sophie Barthes for Cold Souls
  Cold Souls
  Cold Souls is a 2009 comedy-drama film written and directed by Sophie Barthes. The film features Paul Giamatti, Dina Korzun, Emily Watson, and David Strathairn. Giamatti stars as a fictionalised version of himself, an anxious, overwhelmed actor who decides to enlist the service of a company to deep...
  
  
• Scott Cooper
  Scott Cooper (director)
  Scott Cooper is an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is known for writing, directing and producing the 2009 film Crazy Heart starring Jeff Bridges...
  
   for Crazy Heart
  Crazy Heart
  Crazy Heart is a 2009 American musical-drama film, written and directed by Scott Cooper and based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Thomas Cobb. Jeff Bridges plays a down-and-out country music singer-songwriter who tries to turn his life around after beginning a relationship with a young...
  
  
• Cherien Dabis
  Cherien Dabis
  Cherien Dabis is a Palestinian American director, producer, and screenwriter. She was named one of Variety magazine's 10 Directors to Watch in 2009.-Background:...
  
   for Amreeka
  Amreeka
  Amreeka is a 2009 American/Canadian/Kuwaiti independent film written and directed by first-time director Cherien Dabis. It stars Nisreen Faour, Melkar Muallem, Hiam Abbass, Alia Shawkat, Yussuf Abu-Warda, Joseph Ziegler, and Miriam Smith....
  
  
• Tom Ford
  Tom Ford
  Thomas Carlyle "Tom" Ford is an American fashion designer and film director. He gained international fame for his turnaround of the Gucci fashion house and the creation of the Tom Ford label before directing the Oscar-nominated film A Single Man.-Early life :Tom Ford was born August 27, 1961 in...
  
   and David Scearce for A Single Man
  A Single Man (film)
  A Single Man is a 2009 drama film based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Isherwood. It is the first film directed by Tom Ford. The film stars Colin Firth, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of George Falconer, a depressed gay British university...
  
  

2010s

2010

• Lena Dunham
  Lena Dunham
  Lena Dunham is a New York-based filmmaker. She is the daughter of Laurie Simmons, an artist and photographer, and Carroll Dunham, a painter. Dunham graduated from Oberlin College in 2008, where she studied Creative Writing...
  
   for Tiny Furniture
  Tiny Furniture
  Tiny Furniture is a 2010 American independent comedy film written, directed and starring Lena Dunham, daughter of co-star, Laurie Simmons.It premiered at South by Southwest, where it won best narrative feature, and was released theatrically in the United States on November 12, 2010.-Plot:Aura...
  
  
• Robert Glaudini
  Robert Glaudini
  Robert Glaudini, who goes by the name Bob Glaudini, is an American actor, playwright, director and teacher who is father to actress Lola Glaudini. He wrote a hit off-Broadway play Jack Goes Boating directed by Peter DuBois and starring the actors: Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Ortiz, Daphne...
  
   for Jack Goes Boating
  Jack Goes Boating
  Jack Goes Boating is a 2007 play by Robert Glaudini. An unconventional romantic comedy set in the midst of working-class New York City life, Jack Goes Boatings original production was directed by Peter Dubois and starred Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Jack, John Ortiz as Clyde, Daphne Rubin-Vega as...
  
  
• Nik Fackler for Lovely, Still
  Lovely, Still
  Lovely, Still is a 2008 Christmas-themed romantic drama film starring Martin Landau and Ellen Burstyn.-Plot:Lonely Robert Malone falls in love with Mary , the mother of his neighbor Alex...
  
  
• Dana Adam Shapiro
  Dana Adam Shapiro
  Dana Adam Shapiro is an American film director, best known for his directorial work on the 2006 Academy Award nominated documentary Murderball.-Career:...
  
   and Evan M. Wiener for Monogamy
  Monogamy (film)
  Monogamy, directed and co-written by Dana Adam Shapiro, is about the strained relationship of an engaged Brooklyn couple, Theo and Nat...
  
  
• Diane Bell
  Diane Bell
  Diane Robin Bell is a pioneering Australian feminist anthropologist, author and activist, Professor Emerita of Anthropology at the George Washington University in Washington, D. C., Writer and Editor in Residence at Flinders University, South Australia and Visiting Professor School of Social...
  
   for Obselidia
  Obselidia
  Obselidia is a 2010 American drama film written and directed by Diane Bell, starring Michael Piccirilli, Gaynor Howe and Frank Hoyt Taylor. The Film won two awards at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival: the Excellence in Cinematography award and the Alfred P...
  
  

2011

• Mike Cahill
  Mike Cahill (director)
  Mike Cahill is an American film director and screenwriter.-Background:Mike Cahill was born in New Haven, Connecticut on 5 July 1979. His first forays into filmmaking were with Fisher-Price and VHS camcorders when he was young. After high school, Cahill studied economics at Georgetown University,...
  
   and Brit Marling
  Brit Marling
  Brit Marling is an American writer, producer, director, and actress.She graduated from Georgetown University in 2005 with a degree in economics...
  
   for Another Earth
  Another Earth
  Another Earth is a 2011 American science fantasy/drama film directed by Mike Cahill in his feature film debut. The film stars William Mapother and Brit Marling. It premiered at the 27th Sundance Film Festival in January 2011 and is being distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures.-Synopsis:Rhoda...
  
  
• J.C. Chandor
  J.C. Chandor
  J.C. Chandor is an American writer/director, best known as the director of the film Margin Call released in 2011. He graduated in 1996 from The College of Wooster. The film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah...
  
   for Margin Call
  Margin Call
  Margin Call is a 2011 American independent drama film, written and directed by J.C. Chandor. The film has an ensemble cast that includes Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Stanley Tucci, Simon Baker, and Penn Badgley...
  
  
• Patrick deWitt
  Patrick deWitt
  Patrick deWitt is a Canadian novelist. He was born on Vancouver Island, British Columbia and later lived in California and Washington. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon....
  
   for Terri
  Terri (film)
  Terri is a 2011 independent comedy-drama film about the relationship between Terri, an oversized teen misfit, and the garrulous but well-meaning assistant school principal John C. Reilly who takes an interest in him...
  
  
• Phil Johnston for Cedar Rapids
  Cedar Rapids (film)
  Cedar Rapids is a 2011 American comedy film directed by Miguel Arteta. The script, written by Phil Johnston, was included on the 2009 Blacklist, a Hollywood list of the most popular unproduced screenplays of the year.-Plot:...
  
  
• Will Reiser for 50/50