# AARP Movies for Grownups Award for Best Grownup Love Story

The AARP Movies for Grownups Award for Best Grownup Love Story is one of the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards presented annually by AARP the Magazine. The award honors the film with the best romance focused on adult characters, usually focusing on characters or performers over the age of 50. The award for Best Grownup Love Story was first given in 2003, when the awards expanded beyond their initial four categories of Best Movie for Grownups, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress.
Despite its name, the award recognizes performers who portray the love story onscreen, not the film's screenwriter. While AARP the Magazine typically limits its winners and nominees to films by and about people over 50, there have been ten films nominated for Best Grownup Love Story whose romantic leads were both below that age: The Painted Veil, J. Edgar, Before Midnight, Carol, Breathe, The Greatest Showman, On the Basis of Sex, Emma., Wild Mountain Thyme, and Lady Chatterley's Lover. To date, The Greatest Showman is the only winner of Best Grownup Love Story in which all romantic leads were below the age of 50.

## Winners and Nominees

    indicates the winners.

### 2000s

| Year | Performers | Film |
| 2002 (2nd) | Vanessa Redgrave and Albert Finney | The Gathering Storm ‡ |
| 2002 (2nd) | Ellen Burstyn and James Garner | Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood |
| 2002 (2nd) | Susan Sarandon and Dustin Hoffman | Moonlight Mile |
| 2002 (2nd) | Jill Clayburgh and Jeffrey Tambor | Never Again |
| 2003 (3rd) | Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson | Something's Gotta Give ‡ |
| 2003 (3rd) | Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman | Love Actually |
| 2003 (3rd) | Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy | A Mighty Wind |
| 2004 (4th) | Gena Rowlands and James Garner | The Notebook ‡ |
| 2004 (4th) | Helen Mirren and Robert Redford | The Clearing |
| 2004 (4th) | Marg Helgenberger and Dennis Quaid | In Good Company |
| 2004 (4th) | Susan Sarandon and Richard Gere | Shall We Dance? |
| 2005 (5th) | Diane Keaton and Craig T. Nelson | The Family Stone ‡ |
| 2005 (5th) | Joan Allen and Kevin Costner | The Upside of Anger |
| 2005 (5th) | Olympia Dukakis and Peter Falk | The Thing About My Folks |
| 2005 (5th) | Rene Russo and Al Pacino | Two for the Money |
| 2005 (5th) | The penguin pairs | March of the Penguins |
| 2006 (6th) | Blythe Danner and Tom Wilkinson | The Last Kiss ‡ |
| 2006 (6th) | Louise Fletcher and Donald Sutherland | Aurora Borealis |
| 2006 (6th) | Sally Kellerman and Len Cariou | Boynton Beach Club |
| 2006 (6th) | Kristin Scott Thomas and Rowan Atkinson | Keeping Mum |
| 2006 (6th) | Naomi Watts and Edward Norton | The Painted Veil |
| 2007 (7th) | John Travolta and Christopher Walken | Hairspray ‡ |
| 2008 (8th) | Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman | Last Chance Harvey |
| 2008 (8th) | Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan | Mamma Mia! |
| 2008 (8th) | Diane Lane and Richard Gere | Nights in Rodanthe |
| 2008 (8th) | Karen Allen and Harrison Ford | Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull |
| 2008 (8th) | Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins | Step Brothers |
| 2009 (9th) | Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci | Julie & Julia ‡ |
| 2009 (9th) | Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer | The Last Station |
| 2009 (9th) | Imelda Staunton and Henry Goodman | Taking Woodstock |
| 2009 (9th) | Marcia Gay Harden and Daniel Stern | Whip It |
| 2009 (9th) | Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin | It's Complicated |

### 2010s

| Year | Performers | Film |
| 2010 (10th) | Annette Bening and Julianne Moore | The Kids Are All Right ‡ |
| 2010 (10th) | Blythe Danner and Richard Dreyfuss | The Lightkeepers |
| 2010 (10th) | Julianna Margulies and Andy Garcia | City Island |
| 2010 (10th) | Ruth Sheen and Jim Broadbent | Another Year |
| 2010 (10th) | Naomi Watts and Sean Penn | Fair Game |
| 2011 (11th) | Meryl Streep and Jim Broadbent | The Iron Lady ‡ |
| 2011 (11th) | Emily Watson and Peter Mullan | War Horse |
| 2011 (11th) | Jodie Foster and Mel Gibson | The Beaver |
| 2011 (11th) | Leonardo DiCaprio and Armie Hammer | J. Edgar |
| 2012 (12th) | Helen Mirren and Anthony Hopkins | Hitchcock ‡ |
| 2012 (12th) | Tom Wilkinson and Rajendra Gupta | The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel |
| 2012 (12th) | Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones | Hope Springs |
| 2012 (12th) | Sally Field and Daniel Day-Lewis | Lincoln |
| 2012 (12th) | Maggie Smith and Tom Courtenay | Quartet |
| 2013 (13th) | Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini | Enough Said ‡ |
| 2013 (13th) | Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke | Before Midnight |
| 2013 (13th) | Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker | Lee Daniels' The Butler |
| 2013 (13th) | Geneviève Bujold and James Cromwell | Still Mine |
| 2013 (13th) | Vanessa Redgrave and Terence Stamp | Song for Marion |
| 2014 (14th) | John Lithgow and Alfred Molina | Love Is Strange ‡ |
| 2014 (14th) | Diane Keaton and Michael Douglas | And So it Goes |
| 2014 (14th) | Helen Mirren and Om Puri | The Hundred-Foot Journey |
| 2014 (14th) | Kristin Scott Thomas and Kevin Kline | My Old Lady |
| 2014 (14th) | Lindsay Duncan and Jim Broadbent | Le Week-End |
| 2015 (15th) | Diane Keaton and Morgan Freeman | 5 Flights Up ‡ |
| 2015 (15th) | Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay | 45 Years |
| 2015 (15th) | Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara | Carol |
| 2015 (15th) | Julianne Moore and Elliot Page | Freeheld |
| 2015 (15th) | Blythe Danner and Sam Elliott | I'll See You in My Dreams |
| 2016 (16th) | Margo Martindale and Richard Jenkins | The Hollars ‡ |
| 2016 (16th) | Viola Davis and Denzel Washington | Fences |
| 2016 (16th) | Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant | Florence Foster Jenkins |
| 2016 (16th) | Lainie Kazan and Michael Constantine | My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 |
| 2016 (16th) | Susan Sarandon and J.K. Simmons | The Meddler |
| 2017 (17th) | Michelle Williams and Hugh Jackman | The Greatest Showman ‡ |
| 2017 (17th) | Claire Foy and Andrew Garfield | Breathe |
| 2017 (17th) | Annette Bening and Jamie Bell | Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool |
| 2017 (17th) | Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland | The Leisure Seeker |
| 2017 (17th) | Jane Fonda and Robert Redford | Our Souls at Night |
| 2018 (18th) | Blythe Danner and Robert Forster | What They Had |
| 2018 (18th) | Judi Dench and Kenneth Branagh | All is True |
| 2018 (18th) | Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer | On the Basis of Sex |
| 2018 (18th) | Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti | Private Life |
| 2018 (18th) | Sissy Spacek and Robert Redford | The Old Man & the Gun |
| 2019 (19th) | No award was given for Best Grownup Love Story for 2019. | N/A |

### 2020s

| Year | Performers | Film |
| 2020/21 (20th) | Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci | Supernova ‡ |
| 2020/21 (20th) | Anya Taylor-Joy and Johnny Flynn | Emma. |
| 2020/21 (20th) | Lesley Manville and Liam Neeson | Ordinary Love |
| 2020/21 (20th) | Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan | Wild Mountain Thyme |
| 2020/21 (20th) | Talia Shire and Peter Gerety | Working Man |
| 2021 (21st) | Haley Bennett and Peter Dinklage | Cyrano‡ |
| 2021 (21st) | Dave Johns and Alison Steadman | 23 Walks |
| 2021 (21st) | Caitríona Balfe & Jamie Dornan and Ciarán Hinds & Judi Dench | Belfast |
| 2021 (21st) | Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren | The Duke |
| 2021 (21st) | Frances McDormand and Denzel Washington | The Tragedy of Macbeth |
| 2022 (22nd) | Daryl McCormack and Emma Thompson | Good Luck to You, Leo Grande‡ |
| 2022 (22nd) | Olivia Colman and Micheal Ward | Empire of Light |
| 2022 (22nd) | Emma Corrin and Jack O'Connell | Lady Chatterley's Lover |
| 2022 (22nd) | Dale Dickey and Wes Studi | A Love Song |
| 2022 (22nd) | George Clooney and Julia Roberts | Ticket to Paradise |

## Age superlatives

| Record | Performer | Film | Age (in years) |
| Oldest winner | Morgan Freeman | 5 Flights Up | 78 |
| Oldest nominee | Michael Constantine | My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 | 89 |
| Youngest winner | Michelle Williams | The Greatest Showman | 37 |
| Youngest nominee | Anya Taylor-Joy | Emma. | 24 |