Two Winners, One Envelope
The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva tied for Best Live Action Short Film at the 98th Academy Awards. This is only the seventh tie in Oscar history.
Previous Oscar Ties
| Year | Category | Films |
|---|---|---|
| 1932 | Best Actor | Wallace Beery / Fredric March |
| 1950 | Best Documentary Short | First Steps / T Is for Tumbleweed |
| 1969 | Best Documentary Feature | Arthur Rubinstein / Young Americans |
| 1987 | Best Live Action Short | A Shocking Accident / In and Out |
| 1995 | Best Documentary Short | Anne Frank Remembered / One Survivor Remembers |
| 2013 | Best Sound Editing | Skyfall / Zero Dark Thirty |
| 2026 | Best Live Action Short | The Singers / Two People Exchanging Saliva |
The Films
The Singers centers on an impromptu sing-off in a bar. Two People Exchanging Saliva takes place in a society where kissing is punishable by death and people pay for things by receiving slaps to the face.
Presenter Kumail Nanjiani was visibly surprised when he opened the envelope: "Ironic that the short film Oscar is going to take twice as long."
How Ties Work
Oscar ties occur when two nominees receive the exact same number of votes in the final round of preferential balloting. Both films receive full statuettes, and both are listed as winners in Academy records. The mathematical probability of an exact tie decreases as voter turnout increases, making ties increasingly rare in the modern era of 10,000+ voting members.
Data Verdict
Short film categories are the hardest to predict by data because the films have minimal commercial footprint, limited critical coverage, and small audience samples. Ties in any category are statistical anomalies. This one reinforces that short film voting remains the Academy's most unpredictable arena. The 13-year gap since the last tie (2013) suggests ties will continue to be rare events, perhaps once or twice per decade.
