Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay

The Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay is one of the annual awards given by the Film Independent, a non-profit organization dedicated to independent film and independent filmmakers. It was first presented in 1994 with David O. Russell being the first recipient of the award for Spanking the Monkey, a film he also directed.

WWW filmindependent.org/spiri...

Winners and nominees

2000s

Year	Recipient	Film
2000	Gina Prince-Bythewood	Love & Basketball
2000	Ben Younger	Boiler Room
2000	David Gordon Green	George Washington
2000	Jordan Walker-Pearlman	The Visit
2000	Ross Klavan and Michael McGruther	Tigerland
2001	Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff	Ghost World
2001	Richard Kelly	Donnie Darko
2001	John Cameron Mitchell	Hedwig and the Angry Inch
2001	Stephen M. Ryder, Michael Cuesta and Gerald Cuesta	L.I.E.
2001	Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming	The Anniversary Party
2002	Erin Cressida Wilson	Secretary
2002	Laura Cahill	Hysterical Blindness
2002	Burr Steers	Igby Goes Down
2002	Neil Burger	Interview with the Assassin
2002	Heather Juergensen and Jennifer Westfeldt	Kissing Jessica Stein
2003	Tom McCarthy	The Station Agent
2003	Karen Moncrieff	Blue Car
2003	Patty Jenkins	Monster
2003	Peter Sollett and Eva Vives	Raising Victor Vargas
2003	Catherine Hardwicke and Nikki Reed	Thirteen
2004	Joshua Marston	Maria Full of Grace
2004	Rodney Evans	Brother to Brother
2004	Zach Braff	Garden State
2004	Shane Carruth	Primer
2004	Mario de la Vega	Robbing Peter
2005	Duncan Tucker	Transamerica
2005	Kenneth Hanes	Fixing Frank
2005	Angus MacLachlan	Junebug
2005	Miranda July	Me and You and Everyone We Know
2005	Sabina Murray	The Beautiful Country
2006	Michael Arndt	Little Miss Sunshine
2006	Dito Montiel	A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
2006	Gabrielle Zevin	Conversations with Other Women
2006	Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden	Half Nelson
2006	Goran Dukić	Wristcutters: A Love Story
2007	Diablo Cody	Juno
2007	Jeffrey Blitz	Rocket Science
2007	Zoe Cassavetes	Broken English
2007	Kelly Masterson	Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
2007	John Orloff	A Mighty Heart
2008	Dustin Lance Black	Milk
2008	Lance Hammer	Ballast
2008	Courtney Hunt	Frozen River
2008	Jonathan Levine	The Wackness
2008	Jenny Lumet	Rachel Getting Married
2009	Geoffrey Fletcher	Precious
2009	Sophie Barthes	Cold Souls
2009	Scott Cooper	Crazy Heart
2009	Cherien Dabis	Amreeka
2009	Tom Ford and David Scearce	A Single Man

2010s

Year	Recipient	Film
2010	Lena Dunham	Tiny Furniture
2010	Robert Glaudini	Jack Goes Boating
2010	Nik Fackler	Lovely, Still
2010	Dana Adam Shapiro and Evan M. Wiener	Monogamy
2010	Diane Bell	Obselidia
2011	Will Reiser	50/50
2011	Mike Cahill and Brit Marling	Another Earth
2011	J. C. Chandor	Margin Call
2011	Patrick deWitt	Terri
2011	Phil Johnston	Cedar Rapids
2012	Derek Connolly	Safety Not Guaranteed
2012	Rama Burshtein	Fill the Void
2012	Christopher D. Ford	Robot & Frank
2012	Rashida Jones and Will McCormack	Celeste and Jesse Forever
2012	Jonathan Lisecki	Gayby
2013	Bob Nelson	Nebraska
2013	Lake Bell	In a World...
2013	Joseph Gordon-Levitt	Don Jon
2013	Jill Soloway	Afternoon Delight
2013	Michael Starrbury	The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete
2014	Justin Simien	Dear White People
2014	Desiree Akhavan	Appropriate Behavior
2014	Sara Colangelo	Little Accidents
2014	Justin Lader	The One I Love
2014	Anja Marquardt	She's Lost Control
2015	Emma Donoghue	Room
2015	Jesse Andrews	Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
2015	Jonas Carpignano	Mediterranea
2015	Marielle Heller	The Diary of a Teenage Girl
2015	John Magary; Russell Harbaugh and Myna Joseph	The Mend
2016	Robert Eggers	The Witch
2016	Chris Kelly	Other People
2016	Adam Mansbach	Barry
2016	Stella Meghie	Jean of the Joneses
2016	Craig Shilowich	Christine
2017	Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani	The Big Sick
2017	Kris Avedisian, Kyle Espeleta, and Jesse Wakeman	Donald Cried
2017	Ingrid Jungermann	Women Who Kill
2017	Kogonada	Columbus
2017	David Branson Smith & Matt Spicer	Ingrid Goes West
2018	Bo Burnham	Eighth Grade
2018	Christina Choe	Nancy
2018	Cory Finley	Thoroughbreds
2018	Jennifer Fox	The Tale
2018	Laurie & Quinn Shephard	Blame
2019	Fredrica Bailey and Stefon Bristol	See You Yesterday
2019	Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen	Driveways
2019	Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy	Blow the Man Down
2019	Jocelyn Deboer and Dawn Luebbe	Greener Grass
2019	James Montague and Craig W. Sanger	The Vast of Night