Oscars 2026: Live-Action Short Film award results in historic seventh tie

Jack Piatt, Sam A. Davis, Natalie Musteata, and Alexandre Singh, winners of the Best Live Action Short Film Award for The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva

The Oscars ceremony saw a rare moment this year as the Live-Action Short Film category ended in a tie.

Two films, The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva, shared the Academy Award this year. This is only the seventh time in Oscars history that two winners have shared the same award.

Actor and comedian Kumail Nanjiani presented the award at the ceremony. As he announced the result, he joked about the unusual situation. "Ironic that the short film Oscar is going to take twice as long," Kumail Nanjiani said while calling the winners to the stage.

The directors of both films came up one by one to accept the award and speak about their work. Directors Sam A. Davis and Jack Piatt accepted the award for The Singers. During his speech, Davis shared his surprise at the tie.

"A tie, wow. I didn't know that was a thing. But we're happy to be up here," he said. He then spoke about the message of the film. He described The Singers as a "simple story about the power of music and art to bring us together in a moment when we live in an increasingly isolated world." He ended his speech by saying, "May we keep looking for beauty in unexpected places, and may we all be brave enough to keep on singing."

The award was also given to Two People Exchanging Saliva, directed by Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata. During his speech, Singh spoke about the power of art and creativity.

"We believe art can change people's souls. Maybe it takes 10 years time, but we can change society through art, through creativity, through theatre and ballet, and cinema," he said.

Ties at the Oscars are usually very rare. The last time it happened was in 2013 when Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall shared the award for sound editing. Over the years, there have been a few other ties as well.

One of the most famous ties happened in 1968 when Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand both won the Best Actress award.

According to the Academy, the rules were once different. In the early years, a film or actor could also win if the vote difference was very small. Today, a tie happens only when two nominees receive the exact same number of votes.

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