Call it a workplace event, but the Academy Awards is inherently a romantic spot for date night: You get dressed up in your finest, out of the house, and served free-flowing drinks. And while many nominees bring their significant other as their plus one to the ceremony — and often single them out in their acceptance speeches — it’s an even greater relationship flex when both partners are in the race for either the same or separate projects.
From the first couple to score acting nods in 1932 to today’s lovebirds sharing the same ballot, here’s a rundown of the couples who’ve earned Academy Award nominations in the same year.
1932: Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne
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Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne made history as the first couple to be nominated for an Oscar in the same year. After sharing the screen in The Guardsman, they were nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress. —James Mercadante
1940: Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh
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Vivien Leigh won the Oscar for Best Actress for her portrayal of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind while her soon-to-be-husband, Laurence Olivier, was nominated for Best Actor in Wuthering Heights. —Sydney Bucksbaum
1968: Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn
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Katharine Hepburn won the Best Actress Oscar for her role in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. But her costar, Spencer Tracy — who died 10 months earlier and with whom she had a 25-year affair — was nominated for Best Actor and did not win posthumously. —S.B.
1969: Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward
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Married couple Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were both nominated for their film Rachel, Rachel, in which she starred and he produced (and directed, though he only got a nomination that year for Best Picture). —S.B.
1975: John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands
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Frequent collaborators and married couple John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands were nominated for their work on A Woman Under the Influence — him for Best Director and her for Best Actress. —S.B.
1982: Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton
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Warren Beatty won Best Director for his film Reds, while Diane Keaton was nominated for Best Actress in that same film. (Beatty was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for Reds, though lost in those three categories.) They were dating at the time of the Oscars but split up shortly after. —S.B.
1986: Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston
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Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston starred together in Prizzi’s Honor, and were dating at the time they were both nominated for Oscars. Huston won for Best Supporting Actress while Nicholson lost Best Actor to William Hurt for Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985). —S.B.
1996: Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon
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Susan Sarandon won her first Oscar for her leading role in Dead Man Walking while her partner at the time, Tim Robbins, was nominated, but lost for Best Director for the same film. —S.B.
1997: Joel Coen and Frances McDormand
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The 1997 awards ceremony was a good night for this married couple, as Fargo earned both co-writer Joel Coen (who wrote the script with his brother, Ethan) and lead actress Frances McDormand each their own Oscar. Coen was also nominated for Best Director. —S.B.
2006: Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams
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The Brokeback Mountain stars were a couple at the time (they broke up before his death) and both Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams were nominated: he for Best Actor, she for Best Supporting Actress — but neither won. —S.B.
2009: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
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Being Hollywood’s power couple at the time, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were both nominated at the same awards ceremony — him for Best Actor for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, her for Best Actress for Changeling. Both of them lost. —S.B.
2016: Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander
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Now-married couple Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander were dating at the time when they were both nominated for Oscars. She won for her role in The Danish Girl while he lost for his role in Steve Jobs. —S.B.
2022: Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons
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Call it the power of The Power of the Dog: Hollywood couple Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst both earned their first Oscar nominations for their supporting roles (playing a couple!) in Jane Campion‘s suspenseful, moody Western, a film that earned the most 2022 nominations from the Academy with 12 in total. Neither Plemons nor Dunst won in their respective category. —S.B.
2024: Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley
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Barbie star and producer Margot Robbie and her husband, Tom Ackerley — with whom she co-formed her production company, LuckyChap Entertainment — earned their first Oscar nomination as a duo. They vied for Best Picture alongside fellow producers David Heyman and Robbie Brenner. —J.M.
2024: Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas
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The 96th Academy Awards wasn’t the first time producer Emma Thomas shared an Oscar nomination with her director husband, Christopher Nolan — she had been previously recognized for Inception in 2011 and Dunkirk in 2018 — but it was the first time they took home the gold. The same night Nolan won Best Director, the couple bagged Best Picture for Oppenheimer. —J.M.
2024: Justine Triet and Arthur Harari
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In 2024, French filmmaking couple Justine Triet and Arthur Harari took home their first Oscar as a team. Though Triet lost in the Best Director race, the pair didn’t leave empty-handed — Anatomy of a Fall earned them the win for Best Original Screenplay. —J.M.
2024: Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik
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A year into their marriage, NYU alumni Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik found themselves in the running for Best Original Screenplay for May December. —J.M.
2024: Jerusha Hess and Jared Hess
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Jared and Jerusha Hess — the couple behind the scripts for Napoleon Dynamite (2004), Nacho Libre (2006), and Gentlemen Broncos (2009) — made their co-directing debut with Ninety-Five Senses, which also earned them a nomination for Best Animated Short Film. —J.M.
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