The Two Couples Making History at The Oscars

The 2022 Oscars is all about power couples! Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem along with Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons are all Oscar nominees.

Bardem was nominated for best actor for his role as Desi Arnaz in Being the Ricardos, while Cruz snagged a nomination for her role as Janis in Parallel Mothers. Dunst and Plemons  play a married couple in the Netflix film, The Power of the Dog. Dunst will compete in the Best Supporting Actress category, while Plemons will be a nominee in the Best Supporting Actor group.

Here are some more “Oscar couples” from history:

2020 – Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig for Marriage Story and Little Women respectively.

2016 – Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander.  He received a best-actor nomination for Steve Jobs, losing to Leonardo DiCaprio. Meanwhile, Vikander won best supporting actress for her role in The Danish Girl.

2009 – Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Jolie was nominated as best actress for Changeling, while Pitt secured a best-actor slot for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Those were the days when they were the hottest couple in Hollywood!

2006 – Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams were nominated for Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain.

2001, 1997 – Joel Coen and Frances McDormand. The couple won trophies for their work in 1996’s Fargo (co-written and directed by Joel’s brother, Ethan). McDormand and Coen would also receive nominations for their respective projects in 2001.

1996 – Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins. Sarandon and Robbins were together for more than 20 years before splitting in 2009. During that time, they were both Oscar nominated for Dead Man Walking. Sarandon would win best actress that year, although Robbins would lose best director to Mel Gibson.

1993 – Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh. He was nominated for directing the live-action short film Swan Song, and she won her first Oscar for lead actress in Howards End.

1986 – Anjelica Huston and Jack Nicholson were both nominated for their roles in 1985’s Prizzi’s Honor, which her father, John Huston, directed. She would win best supporting actress, but neither her father nor Nicholson would take home a statuette that evening, creating some friction between the couple.

1982 – Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton, and Julie Andrews and Blake Edwards.

1975 – Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes. Married for 35 years, this power couple made many films together.

1969 – Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. The two were married for 50 years and nominated together for Rachel, Rachel, starring Woodward and produced by Newman.

1967 – Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn were nominated for playing a married couple in 1967’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Tracy’s nomination was earned posthumously though, as he died in the days after filming was completed.

1967 – Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were nominated for their roles in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

1964 – Rachel Roberts and Rex Harrison.

1958 –  Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester.

1940 – Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh.

1932 – Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne became the first husband and wife to be nominated for Oscars in the same year.