We had a tie and some chaos at the 2026 Oscars.
“The Singers,” an 18-minute musical about an impromptu dive bar sing-off, tied with “Two People Exchanging Saliva,” an eccentric black-and-white French short about a world where kisses are outlawed and slaps to the face have monetary value, for best live action short.
“It’s a tie. I’m not joking. It’s actually a tie, so everyone calm down,” said presenter Kumail Nanjiani, adding “Ironic that the short film Oscar is going to take twice as long.”
The live action short category is typically known for ruining Oscar pools everywhere. The announcement generated plenty of gasps and frantic Google searching about the history of ties at the ceremony.
“I didn’t know that was a thing, the tie,” said “The Singers” director Sam A. Davis.
Previous ties
The first tie came in 1932, when Fredric March in “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and Wallace Beery in “The Champ” shared best actor, despite March actually earning one more vote. The Oscar rules meant that any result within three votes would end in a tie.
The next tie came in 1950 in the short-subject documentary category, as “A Chance to Live” and “So Much for So Little” shared the statue. The most high-profile tie came nearly 19 years later, in 1969, when screen legends Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand shared the best actress award, for “The Lion in the Winter” and “Funny Girl,” respectively.
The next instances were a tie for best documentary between “Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got” and “Down and Out in America” in 1987, before “Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Trevor” shared the short film Oscar in 1995.
Before Sunday, the last tie at the Oscars was in 2013 when “Skyfall” and “Zero Dark Thirty” split the best sound editing prize.
