Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem and Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons Make Oscars History for Real-Life Couples

Looks like the 94th Oscars is going to be an especially unique night for two couples.

Amongst 2022's nominations, Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem and Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons marked a record milestone for real-life couples at the Oscars, with both duos being nominated in their respective acting races together.

Cruz is up for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Parallel Mothers, while husband Bardem is a Best Actor in a Leading Role nominee for his turn as Desi Arnaz in Being the Ricardos. (This is the fourth nomination for each, and both are previous Oscar winners. Bardem won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for No Country for Old Men in 2008, and Cruz won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Vicky Cristina Barcelona in 2009. They've been married since 2010 and have two children.)

Dunst, meanwhile, is nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Power of the Dog, which likewise earned fiancé Plemons a nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. This is the first Oscar nomination for each performer. (The couple has been together since 2016 and have two children.)

"To be honored by the Academy is a truly humbling experience," Dunst said in a statement. "For both Jesse and I to get our first nominations together is beyond our wildest dreams."

The first couple to be Oscar nominated in the same year was Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in 1932.

In the past 20 years, a few couples have been nominated in acting races in the same year. In 2006, the late Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams earned Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress nods together for Brokeback Mountain. In 2009, then-couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were both nominated – in leading roles – for Changeling and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, respectively. In 2016, Michael Fassbender was nominated for Best Actor (for Steve Jobs), while Alicia Vikander was nominated for Best Supporting Actress (for The Danish Girl). Of these particular six nominations, Vikander was the only one to win the Oscar.

Outside of the acting races, partners Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig both earned nominations for writing in 2020 (Baumbach for Best Original Screenplay for Marriage Story, and Gerwig for Best Adapted Screenplay for Little Women).

Yet, couples being nominated in the same year remains a rarity at the Oscars, and Cruz and Bardem and Dunst and Plemons mark the first time that it's happened in all four acting categories in the same year.