The Academy Award for Best Story was the Academy Award that was the predecessor to the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay which was introduced in 1940.

1920s

• 1928 Underworld - Ben Hecht
  • The Last Command - Lajos Biro
  • The Patent Leather Kid - Rupert Hughes
• 1929 None given

1930s

• 1930 None given
• 1931 The Dawn Patrol - John Saunders
  • Doorway to Hell - Rowland Brown
  • Laughter - Harry D'Arrast, Douglas Doty, Donald Stewart
  • The Public Enemy - John Bright, Kubec Glasmon
  • Smart Money - Lucien Hubbard, Joseph Jackson
• 1932 The Champ - Frances Marion
  • Lady and Gent - Grover Jones, William McNutt
  • Star Witness - Lucien Hubbard
  • What Price Hollywood - Adela St. John
• 1933 One Way Passage - Robert Lord
  • The Prizefighter and the Lady - Frances Marion
  • Rasputin and the Empress - Charles MacArthur
• 1934 Manhattan Melodrama - Arthur Caesar
  • Hide Out - Mauri Grashin
  • The Richest Girl in the World - Norman Krasna
• 1935 The Scoundrel - Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur
  • Broadway Melody of 1936 - Moss Hart
  • The Gay Deception - Stephen Avery, Don Hartman
  • Write in Candidate: G-Men - Gregory Rogers (pseudonym of Darryl F. Zanuck)
• 1936 The Story of Louis Pasteur - Pierre Collings, Sheridan Gibney
  • Fury - Norman Krasna
  • The Great Ziegfeld - William McGuire
  • San Francisco - Robert Hopkins
  • Three Smart Girls - Adele Commandini
• 1937 A Star Is Born - Robert Carson, William Wellman
  • Black Legion - Robert Lord
  • In Old Chicago - Niven Busch
  • The Life of Emile Zola - Heinz Herald, Geza Herczeg
  • One Hundred Men and a Girl - Hans Kraly
• 1938 Boys Town - Eleanore Griffin , Dore Schary
  • Alexander's Ragtime Band - Irving Berlin
  • Angels with Dirty Faces - Rowland Brown
  • Blockade - John Lawson
  • Mad About Music - Marcella Burke, Frederick Kohner
  • Test Pilot - Frank Wead
• 1939 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington - Lewis Foster
  • Bachelor Mother - Felix Jackson
  • Love Affair - Mildred Cram, Leo McCarey
  • Ninotchka - Melchior Lengyel
  • Young Mr. Lincoln - Lamar Trotti

1940s

• 1940 Arise, My Love - Benjamin Glazer, John Toldy
  • Comrade X - Walter Reisch
  • Edison, the Man - Hugo Butler, Dore Schary
  • My Favorite Wife - Leo McCarey, Bella Spewack, Samuel Spewack
  • The Westerner - Stuart Lake
• 1941 Here Comes Mr. Jordan - Harry Segall
  • Ball of Fire - Thomas Monroe, Billy Wilder
  • The Lady Eve - Monckton Hoffe
  • Meet John Doe - Richard Connell, Robert Presnell
  • Night Train to Munich - Gordon Wellesley
• 1942 The Invaders (The 49th Parallel) - Emeric Pressburger
  • Holiday Inn - Irving Berlin
  • The Pride of the Yankees - Paul Gallico
  • The Talk of the Town - Sidney Harmon
  • Yankee Doodle Dandy - Robert Buckner
• 1943 The Human Comedy - William Saroyan
  • Action in the North Atlantic - Guy Gilpatric
  • Destination Tokyo - Steve Fisher
  • The More the Merrier - Frank Ross, Robert Russell
  • Shadow of a Doubt - Gordon McDonell
• 1944 Going My Way - Leo McCarey
  • A Guy Named Joe - David Boehm, Chandler Sprague
  • Lifeboat - John Steinbeck
  • None Shall Escape - Alfred Neumann, Joseph Than
  • The Sullivans - Edward Doherty, Jules Schermer
• 1945 The House on 92nd St. - Charles Booth
  • The Affairs of Susan - Laszlo Gorog, Thomas Monroe
  • A Medal for Benny - John Steinbeck, Jack Wagner
  • Objective, Burma! - Alvah Bessie
  • A Song to Remember - Ernst Marischka
• 1946 Vacation from Marriage - Clemence Dane
  • The Dark Mirror - Vladimir Pozner
  • The Strange Love of Martha Ivers - Jack Patrick
  • The Stranger - Victor Trivas
  • To Each His Own - Charles Brackett
• 1947 Miracle on 34th Street - Valentine Davies
  • A Cage of Nightingales - Georges Chaperot, Rene Wheeler
  • It Happened on Fifth Avenue - Herbert Lewis, Frederick Stephani
  • Kiss of Death - Eleazar Lipsky
  • Smash Up - The Story of a Woman - Frank Cavett, Dorothy Parker
• 1948 The Search - Richard Schweizer, David Wechsler
  • The Louisiana Story - Robert Flaherty, Francis Flaherty
  • the Naked City - Marvin Wald
  • Red River - Borden Chase
  • The Red Shoes - Emeric Pressburger
• 1949 Stratton Story - Douglas Morrow
  • Come to the Stable - Clare Luce
  • It Happens Every Spring - Valentine Davies, Shirley Smith
  • Sands of Iwo Jima - Harry Brown
  • White Heat - Virginia Kellog

1950s

• 1950 Panic in the Streets - Edna Anhalt, Edward Anhalt
  • Bitter Rice - Giuseppe De Santis, Carlo Lizzani
  • The Gunfighter - William Bowers, Andre de Toth
  • Mystery Street - Leonard Spigelglass
  • When Willie Comes Marching Home - Sy Gomberg
• 1951 Seven Days to Noon - James Bernard, Paul Dehn
  • The Bullfighter and the Lady - Bud Boetticher, Ray Nazarro
  • The Frogmen - Oscar Millard
  • Here Comes the Groom - Liam O'Brian, Robert Riskin
  • Teresa -Alfred Hayes, Stewart Stern
• 1952 The Greatest Show on Earth - Frank Cavett, Frederic Frank, Theodore St. John
  • My Son John - Leo McCarey
  • The Narrow Margin - Martin Goldsmith, Jack Leonard
  • The Pride of Saint Louis - Guy Trosper
  • The Sniper - Edward Anhalt, Edna Anhalt
• 1953 Roman Holiday - Ian McLellan Hunter, Dalton Trumbo
  • Above and Beyond - Beirne Lay
  • The Captain's Paradise - Alec Coppel
  • Hondo - Louis L'Amour
  • Little Fugitive - Ray Ashley, Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin
• 1954 Broken Lance - Philip Yordan
  • Bread, Love and Dreams - Ettore Margadonna
  • Forbidden Games - François Boyer
  • Night People - Jed Harris, Tom Reed
  • There's No Business Like Show Business - Lamar Trotti
• 1955 Love Me or Leave Me - Daniel Fuchs
  • The Private War of Major Benson - Joe Connelly, Bob Mosher
  • Rebel Without a Cause - Nicholas Ray
  • The Sheep Has Five Legs - Jean Marsan, Jacques Perret, Raoul Ploquin, Henry Troyat, Henri Verneuil
  • Strategic Air Command - Beirne Lay
• 1956 The Brave One - Dalton Trumbo
  • The Eddie Dutcher Story - Leo Katcher
  • High Society - Edward Burnds, Elwood Ullman
  • The Proud and the Beautiful - Jean-Paul Sartre
  • Umberto D - Cesare Zavattini