1995 would be a another big year for Emma Thompson.  She had already won the Best Actress Oscar in 1992 for Howard's End, and the Academy had honored her with two nominations in 1994 with a Best Actress and a Best Supporting Actress nomination for two different films.   This year, she would manage a first;  getting a nomination for Best Actress and Best Screenplay, for her work on Sense and Sensibility.

Double nominations for the same film are nothing new to the Oscar's, as it has happened already on several occasions.  Even actors have earned the distinction.  

At the very first awards ceremony in 1928, Charlie Chaplin was nominated for Best Director,  (Comedy Direction) and Best Actor for The Circus.  At the time, Cecil B. deMille remarked, "I think he is the only one to whom the Academy has or ever will give a first award to one man for writing, directing, acting in, and producing a picture.  It takes us back to the old days."  

Referring, of course, to the pioneer days of Hollywood, deMille couldn't have been more wrong.  Since Chaplin, multiple honors have been bestowed upon several people who acted in, wrote, directed, and/or produced a picture.  Here is only a sampling of those who have received multiple honors:

1940	Orson Welles, Citizen Kane	Best Director,  Best Screenplay
1948	Laurence Olivier, Hamlet	Best Actor,  Best Director
1950	Joseph L. Mankiewicz, All About Eve	Best Director,  Best Screenplay (Original)
1972 & 1974	Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather I & II	Best Director, Best Screenplay (Adapted)
1977	Woody Allen, Annie Hall	Best Actor, Best Director, Best Screenplay
1981	Warren Beatty, Reds	Best Actor, Best Director
1990	Kevin Costner, Dances With Wolves	Best Actor, Best Director
1992	Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven	Best Actor, Best Director
1993	Jane Campion, The Piano	Best Director, Best Screenplay

Emma Thompson's double nod for Sense and Sensibility marked the first time that a woman received nominations in those two categories for the same film.  In fact, it was the first time ever, that a Best Actress nominee would receive a nomination for Best Screenplay.  All of this was overshadowed, however, by another double nominee that year, Mel Gibson, who earned a Best Actor nod, and a Best Director win, for his project, Braveheart.

Sense and Sensibility was a labor of love for Thompson, who produced the film, which was based on the classic Jane Austen novel.  Austen's work was seeing a remarkable resurgence in popularity that year, with Thompson's film being one of many projects that were based on the late author's work.

As expected, Thompson won the Best Adapted Screenplay award.  Her win was used by feminist groups who celebrated Thompson's 'conquest' of the Hollywood system, and used the opportunity to highlight the fact that few women have been able to accomplish such a feat.  

Thompson accepted her honor with her usual humor, recalling a recent visit to Jane Austen's grave, where she claimed to have discussed the pictures grosses with the late author.     

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