Sense and Sensibility

Emma Thompson wrote the screenplay and also stars as Elinor Dashwood. She won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for this script, making her the only person to have won Oscars for both acting (for Howards End) and writing. The film was directed by Ang Lee in his first English-language feature.

Alan Rickman plays Colonel Brandon, the reserved suitor whose devotion to Marianne is initially unrequited. Kate Winslet plays Marianne Dashwood, the passionate younger sister. The cast also includes Hugh Grant as Edward Ferrars, Gemma Jones as Mrs. Dashwood, and Tom Wilkinson as Sir John Middleton.

The 1995 film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Emma Thompson. It won one Oscar: Best Adapted Screenplay, also for Thompson. It lost Best Picture to Braveheart at the ceremony.

Emma Thompson's adaptation condenses the novel's timeline and dramatizes certain events that Austen describes only indirectly, such as the Dashwood family's eviction from Norland. Some characters' ages were adjusted—Marianne in particular is aged up slightly for the film. The core plot and character dynamics remain faithful, but the screenplay adds cinematic moments of humor and visual storytelling not present in the source text.