Cinema and literature often walk with hands held tight, and some of the best Oscar-winning movies of all time are based on great books. Adapting a story is much more than simply translating it to the big screen. Each type of art has its own distinctive advantage, and while books enable a deep dive into the subconscious, movies must rely on the power of the images to convey emotion, empathy, and depth.
The Best Adapted Screenplay category at the Oscars praises the best achievements in turning intricate stories into insightful screenplays for the big screen. However, quite often, a good book-to-film adaptation excels in every possible aspect, occasionally earning the ceremony’s top awards, including Best Picture. Every year, there are multiple book adaptations among the Oscars’ top picks, which makes it both a great movie and a book recommendation. As we are in the thick of awards season, take a look at 15 must-watch Oscar-winning movies based on books.
15 The Power of the Dog (2021)
The Power of the Dog adapts a sensitive novel about the American West and feels like a late-western in a cultural moment that has moved on from the previously abundant genre in both movies in literature. Written in 1967 by Thomas Savage, the eponymous story was brought to the screen by director Jane Campion. It is centered around two unmarried brothers who are the opposite of each other. While one exposes himself to love, the other shows contempt for any kind of weakness, determined to keep the savagery within him intact.
Won the Oscar for Best Director
For a movie as filled with ambiguous symbolism as this one, one can expect an equally subtle book. Campion’s movie perfectly adapts the gestures and details in the everyday life of these characters, just to showcase the impact of these seemingly small moments later on. The movie was a favorite for Best Picture, and even though CODA won the top prize, it managed to win for Best Director. Stream on Netflix
14 How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Legendary American director John Ford rose to prominence for his psychologically-charged westerns filled with moral dilemmas. In this context, How Green Was My Valley‘s sweet narrative feels like a breather to the typical brutality of his filmography, even though the movie has its share of desolating moments.
Won the Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, Art Direction, and Cinematography
Based on a highly personal novel of the same name by Richard Llewellyn, the story is a first-person narrative from the perspective of a Welsh boy and his working-class family growing up in a harsh mining town. It’s a beautiful tale of honor and love, but both the book and the movie also tackle important matters such as class struggle and ecology. It led to Ford’s fourth Best Director Oscar, and it also won for Best Picture. Rent on AppleTV
13 12 Years a Slave (2013)
Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave was released exactly 160 years after Solomon Northup’s harrowing memoir, Twelve Years a Slave, was published, and the movie did justice to all the violence and injustice that permeates the true story without ever giving up on the hope that kept Solomon moving forward. It tells the story of a Black man, who was born free but tricked into an illegal slavery scheme in the Deep South.
Won the Oscars for Best Picture, Supporting Actress, and Adapted Screenplay
The movie is a haunting manifesto for apathy, a detriment that prevents humans from giving in to empathy and falling prey to the banality of evil. Solomon’s heartfelt journey earned three major Oscars: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress, launching Lupita Nyong’o to stardom, and Best Picture. Stream on Hulu or Paramount+
12 No Country for Old Men (2007)
It’s never easy to adapt a novel from one of the most influential 21st-Century writers of the past, but the Coen Brothers are the perfect match for the kind of raw, contemporary western that defined Cormac McCarthy’s career. No Country for Old Men plays with the rags to riches trope by having Llewelyn Moss, a small-time hunter, stumble upon a pile of dead bodies and $2 million in cash in a Texas desert. This discovery triggers a ruthless serial killer to chase after him.
Won the Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, and Adapted Screenplay
The movie adaptation does a great job at balancing McCarthy’s intertwining storylines, giving equal attention to Llewelyn, Anton Chigurh, the killer, and Ed Tom Bell, the sheriff. These three characters offer three moral perspectives on the same tragedy, and this nuanced approach led the movie to a Best Picture victory, alongside Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director for both Coens and Best Supporting Actor for Javier Bardem’s chilling portrayal of a serial killer. Stream on Paramount+
11 Shrek (2001)
Shrek
- Release Date
- May 18, 2001
- Runtime
- 90
There’s a huge gap between the film franchise Shrek and William Steig’s offhand book, Shrek!, but both of them are subversive in their own way. The film is committed to delivering a new take on children’s fairy tales, changing the figure of the Prince Charming stock character to that of an ogre, Shrek, who sets out on a mission to retrieve a gorgeous princess guarded by a terrifying dragon.
Won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film
On the other hand, the book is solely about Shrek‘s eccentric personality and his aimless journey toward a princess as hideous and smelly as he. Steig introduces an ogre’s idyllic inside-out world, where rot and decay equal happiness to our unconventional character. It’s all about Shrek, who makes even the rain and the thunder run away and has nightmares of sweet children playing with him. The film was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and won for Best Animated Feature. Stream on Peacock
10 The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
The Silence of the Lambs is an immersive crime thriller that made history for being one of the three movies to win the Oscars’ Big Five awards: Best Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture. It’s an unusual feat for a genre film, especially because the movie verges on horror: it follows an FBI cadet who unites forces with a manipulative cannibal psychopath in order to catch a new serial killer.
Won the Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Actress, Actor, and Adapted Screenplay
The multifaceted Hannibal Lecter was, in fact, created by novelist Thomas Harris and first introduced in Red Dragon, which was later adapted to the big screen as well. The Silence of the Lambs is the second novel in the four-book series, which is unanimously regarded as the strongest entry both the film and literature scope. Rent on AppleTV
9 Ordinary People (1980)
Ordinary People follows a typical American family shattered by the death of one of their two sons. Conrad, the now one child, is overwhelmed with grief and spirals out of control. His parents struggle to support him while coming to terms with the loss of their favorite.
Won the Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, and Adapted Screenplay
Even the movie adaptation of Ordinary People reads like a novel, as the narrative revolves entirely around the inner struggles of each character and their failed attempts to repress these feelings. The result is a moving family crisis that finds substance in a well-crafted script and sturdy performances, winning four major Oscars: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture. Stream on Max
8 Schindler’s List (1993)
To this day, Schindler’s List is still regarded as one of the most haunting Holocaust movies ever made, with Steven Spielberg’s unique creative vision enabling a poignant account of the life of Oskar Schindler, a renowned businessman, who put his life at risk while saving multiple Jews right under the Nazi party’s nose.
Won the Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Original Score, Film Editing, Cinematography, and Art Direction
Spielberg takes plenty of creative freedom to craft this ambitious story, but remains faithful to the real events, just like the writer Thomas Keneally did in his book, Schindler’s Ark. Keneally did justice to the facts for the majority of the novel, but added fictional dialogues and scenes in moments where details are unknown. Schindler’s List won seven Academy Awards, including those for Best Picture and Best Director. Rent on AppleTV
7 Nomadland (2020)
Nomadland
A woman in her sixties, after losing everything in the Great Recession, embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad. Starring Frances McDormand and directed by Chloé Zhao.
- Release Date
- February 19, 2021
- Director
- Chloé Zhao
- Cast
- Frances McDormand , Gay DeForest , Patricia Grier , Linda May , Angela Reyes , Carl R. Hughes
- Runtime
- 1hr 47min
Nomadland takes viewers on an unusual journey across the American West, exposing the effects of a post-recession period in contemporary society. The movie follows Fern, a woman in her 60s, who leaves every material possession behind to live as a modern-day nomad, encountering a series of peculiar strangers along the way.
Won the Oscars for Best Picture, Director, and Actress
Characters that appear in the film, such as Linda May and Swankie, are, in fact, fictional versions of themselves. They are part of the nomads that Jessica Bruder met on her own investigative journey, which led her to write the book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century. Even though Frances McDormand’s Fern is fictional, her struggles and everything else in the movie are emotionally real. Stream on Hulu
6 Forrest Gump (1994)
Forrest Gump
- Release Date
- July 6, 1994
- Director
- Robert Zemeckis
- Runtime
- 142
Forrest Gump tells the moving story of a man with mental disabilities, who navigates through the many hardships of life with an optimistic and unsuspecting attitude. He’s constantly subverting what others imagine he can do, facing heartbreak, war, and political controversies with charming ease.
Won the Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing, and Visual Effects
The movie that earned Tom Hanks his second Best Actor Oscar is based on the eponymous novel written by Winston Groom. The success of both the book and the film inspired Groom to write a sequel in 1995, which sadly never made it to the big screen. Forrest Gump brought home six statuettes, including Best Picture. Stream on Prime Video or Paramount+
5 All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
All Quiet on the Western Front might be the biggest German classic to have come out of World War I, written by the war veteran Erich Maria Remarque. While the story is completely fictional, the events described in the book are the fruit of Remarque’s own experiences at war. Published in 1929, the book earned an American adaptation in 1930 that was a critical success and won the Best Picture award at the Oscars.
Won the Oscars for Best International Feature Film, Original Score, Production Design, and Cinematography
However, All Quiet on the Western Front is a German book by a German author about the German experience in the war. In this context, it was a matter of time until a German movie adaptation was made. 2022’s version of All Quiet on the Western Front excels in authenticity when it comes to the source material, and also performed well at the Oscars. The movie received nine nominations, winning for Production Design, Score, Cinematography, and Best International Feature Film. Stream on Netflix
4 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a criminal pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution. There, he develops a powerful bond with his inmates, persuading them to stand up against the authoritarian rule of the head nurse.
Won the Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Adapted Screenplay
While the movie trusts the story to Jack Nicholson’s impeccable lead performance as Randle, the book written by Ken Kesey is narrated by Chief Bromden, the “mediator” of the conflict that ensues between Randle and Nurse Mildred. This difference makes the movie an intricate character study, while the novel focuses more on the “down with tyrannical excess” aspects of the story. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is among the three movies that won the Big Five awards at the Oscars. Stream on Netflix
3 Dune (2021)
Dune
- Release Date
- October 22, 2021
- Runtime
- 2hr 35min
- Main Genre
- Sci-Fi
For years, Dune has been considered an unfilmable novel due to the complexity of Frank Herbert’s narrative. His book pioneered plenty of sci-fi tropes and mixed creative world-building with relevant topics, such as sustainability, monopolization, and ecology. Renowned filmmakers such as Alejandro Jodorowsky and David Lynch tried bringing the story to the big screen and failed in different ways until Denis Villeneuve finally took the reins of the project.
Won the Oscars for Best Original Score, Sound, Film Editing, Cinematography, Production Design, and Visual Effects
By splitting the book’s narrative into two parts, Villeneuve enabled the story to breathe and the characters to grow. With a $165 million budget, the world of Arrakis beautifully came to life, resulting in a visually stunning achievement. Dune snatched six Oscars in important technical categories. Stream on Netflix or Max
2 Misery (1990)
Misery
- Release Date
- November 30, 1990
- Runtime
- 107
Stephen King is famously known as the master of the horror genre in literature — a genre that the Academy has proved to be anything but eager to celebrate at the Oscars. However, every once in a while, they make an exception. In Misery, King lets out all of his anguish and delusion as a successful writer to tell the story of Paul Sheldon, a novelist who finds himself at the mercy of a fanatic fan in the middle of nowhere.
Won the Oscar for Best Actress
The so-called “number one fan” is Annie Wilkes, played by Kathy Bates. Few actors have looked so intimidating onscreen as Bates in Misery: all the film’s atmospheric tension is charged in and around her character. The movie showed up at the Oscars only in the Best Actress category, which Bates secured with no bother. Buy on AppleTV
1 The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather is the kind of classic that never gets old and is continuously mentioned by a legion of filmmakers and cinephiles as a defining masterpiece of American cinema. The original story was created by Mario Puzo, an American writer whose specialty is crime narratives about the Italian-American Mafia.
Won the Oscars for Best Picture, Actor, and Adapted Screenplay
Francis Ford Coppola chronicles the life of the Corleone crime family throughout three movies. The first two are unanimously regarded as flawless cinematic achievements, with both winning in the Best Picture category. The first Godfather adapts Puzo’s book in its entirety, while the second part explores Vito Corleone’s early life, also present in the novel. Only the third part, considered the weakest in the trilogy, is not taken from any book. ​​​​​​​Stream on Paramount+
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
