From Timothée Chalamet and Daniel Kaluuya to Lupita Nyong’o and Jared Leto, a Field Guide to Awards Season BFFs

Jean Dujardin and George Clooney

The two best actor nominees — Clooney for The Descendants and Dujardin (who went on to win) for The Artist — became fast friends on the awards circuit, which included cozying up at the 2012 Oscar Nominees Luncheon. They would go on to work together on 2014’s The Monuments Men, and Clooney enlisted Dujardin for a 2022 Nespresso ad that continued the friendly rivalry they had established during the Oscar race. An honorary mention for a Clooney awards-partner-in-crime goes to Brad Pitt, a longtime BFF, also nominated for best actor that year for Moneyball.

Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain

Both stars picked up Golden Globe wins to kick off the 2013 season, culminating in a best actress Oscar nomination for Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty and a best supporting actress nod (and win) for Hathaway for Les Misérables. The two became close confidants and repeat co-stars — a year later appearing together in Interstellar, and they recently wrapped the psychological thriller Mothers’ Instinct, in which the co-stars are also co-producers. Hathaway called Chastain “my dear friend, work-wife and all-around wonder” on Instagram when commending the star’s performance in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, which also garnered Chastain the Oscar statuette for best actress in 2022.

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Jared Leto and Lupita Nyong’o

Before both would go on to win Oscars, Leto for Dallas Buyers Club and Nyong’o for 12 Years a Slave, the duo developed a close relationship, with Leto even calling Nyong’o “my future ex-wife” in his 2014 Indie Spirits Awards speech. She told Net-a-Porter in 2019 that Leto was still on speed dial “because we were on that [Oscar campaign] journey together and he’s so embracing of me. There was an intimacy that grew from that, that goes beyond the dating rumors, beyond all that.” They never did publicly date but have been spotted catching up at events since.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet

One of the movies’ most famous duos came back together, offscreen, in 2016 when Winslet was recognized for her role in Steve Jobs and DiCaprio was on the journey to win his first Oscar for The Revenant. The two posed together throughout the awards run, and Winslet told the BBC at the time, “I feel very strongly that it may possibly be Leo’s year. He is my closest friend in the world and I just couldn’t imagine not being there to support him.” And support him she did, as Winslet was among the first to embrace DiCaprio after his acceptance speech.

Rami Malek and Bradley Cooper + Melissa McCarthy and Glenn Close

No competition between these pairings, both nominated in the same categories at 2019’s show: McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) and Close (The Wife) formed a fun friendship in the best actress race, which included Close’s viral reaction to seeing McCarthy on the Oscars red carpet; Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born) and Rami Malek (who won for Bohemian Rhapsody) also became pals while up against each other in the best actor category. After Malek’s win, Cooper called him “an incredible actor” in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.

Daniel Kaluuya and Timothée Chalamet + Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan

Chalamet and Kaluuya found common ground as 2018’s two breakout stars — for their respective performances in Call Me by Your Name and Get Out — as they teamed up for the same BAFTA and Santa Barbara Film Festival events before walking the Oscars red carpet together. And years before their Barbie collaboration, Robbie (nominated for I, Tonya) kept close to Lady Bird director Gerwig and star (and fellow best actress nominee) Ronan throughout the awards circuit. Robbie and Ronan appeared together onscreen that same year in Mary Queen of Scots.

Meryl Streep and Viola Davis + Emma Stone and Brie Larson

Though Larson was the Oscars’ best actress winner in 2016 and Stone took the title in 2017, the two kept close throughout Stone’s La La Land celebrations, as Larson often served as presenter and celebrated Stone’s Oscar win with her backstage. Also that year, former Doubt co-stars Meryl Streep (up for Florence Foster Jenkins) and Viola Davis (up for Fences, which she would win the Oscar for) reconnected at awards events, including the Golden Globes, where Davis presented the Cecil B. DeMille Award to Streep, saying the star makes her “proud to be an artist.”

Taika Waititi and Bong Joon Ho

The Parasite filmmaker and Jojo Rabbit writer, director and star — both of whom went home with statuettes on Oscar night — paired up for the 2020 season, with Waititi telling THR on that year’s Oscars red carpet that of all the big awards moments he experienced during his film’s run, “my favorite interactions have been with director Bong. We just always see each other at the same things.” He also teased that when sharing a plane to travel between shows, Bong gets “debaucherous”: “You should see him when he gets to altitude.”

Jamie Dornan and Andrew Garfield

The two U.K. stars started their careers together in Los Angeles around 2008, and both found themselves on the awards trail in 2022 with Garfield’s Oscar-nominated performance as Jonathan Larson in Tick, Tick, Boom! and Dornan’s starring role in best picture contender Belfast — leading to plenty of red carpet kisses.

Brendan Fraser and Ke Huy Quan

The co-stars of 1992’s Encino Man reunited on THR‘s Actors Roundtable (with Fraser tearfully acknowledging to Quan, “We’re still here”) and since have become each other’s biggest cheerleaders as Fraser picked up a nomination for The Whale and Quan for Everything Everywhere All at Once. Quan told reporters backstage at the Critics Choice Awards that Fraser “gave me a big hug and put his arm on my shoulder” after catching up for the first time in 30 years amid awards season.

This story first appeared in the March 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.

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