David Lean in scale and more extensively released internationally. "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957) was based on a novel by Pierre Boulle recounting the story of British and American prisoners of war trying to survive in a Japanese prison camp during the Second World War. The film stars William Holden and Alec Guinness and became the highest-grossing film of 1957 in the United States. It won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Alec Guinness, who had battled with Lean to give more depth to his role as an obsessively correct British commander who is
BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay Kill" – Paul Dehn "The Bridge on the River Kwai" – Pierre Boulle "The Man Who Never Was" – Nigel Balchin "The Ladykillers" – William Rose "The Young Lovers" – George Tabori, Robin Estridge BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay The BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay was a British Academy Film Award from 1954 to 1967. "A Man for All Seasons" – Robert Bolt "Morgan!" – David Mercer "Darling" – Frederic Raphael "The Pumpkin Eater" – Harold Pinter "Tom Jones" – John Osborne "Lawrence of Arabia" – Robert Bolt "The Day the Earth Caught Fire" – Wolf Mankowitz and