“The Singers” and “Two People Exchanging Saliva” tied for Best Live-Action Short Film at the 2026 Oscars, but they were not the first tie in Academy Award history.
How Many Times Have There Been a Tie at the Oscars?
There have been six ties in Academy Award history prior to the Sunday, March 15, awards ceremony.
Academy Awards ties date back nearly 100 years to the 1932 ceremony.
The first occurrence took place at the 5th Oscars ceremony, and led to the Academy changing its rules.
Fredric March of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and Wallace Beery for “The Champ” both won for Best Actor.
According to the Awards Database, the 1932 tie was “not a true tie.“
“Fredric March had one more vote than Wallace Beery, but rules at the time stated that if an achievement came within three votes of the winner, that achievement would also receive the award,” the outlet revealed. “The rules have since been changed, and only an exact match in totals would qualify as a tie.”
In the near century since, five other ties have been recorded.
In 1950, the Best Documentary Short category saw “So Much for So Little” and “A Chance to Live” both take home statuettes.
Just two decades later, perhaps the most famous tie in Oscars history was recorded.
Hollywood legends Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand were both crowned Best Actress in 1969.
In 1987, the Best Documentary Feature category say a tie between “Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got” and “Down and Out in America.”
Two Best Live-Action Short Films were awarded the Oscar in 1995: “Trevor” and “Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Prior to 2026, the most recent recorded tie in Oscar history took place in 2013 in the Sound Editing category.
“Zero Dark Thirty” and “Skyfall” were both named winners.
2026 Oscars Tie
Fans were shocked when comedian Kumail Nanjiani announced that the Best Live-Action Short Film category resulted in a tie.
“I am here to present the Oscar for Best Live-Action Short Film. There is a real art to making a short film,” he began. “We should take some of these feature films and remake them into shorts. Save us some time. We have so much going on…And the Oscar goes to…It’s a tie. I’m not joking. It’s actually a tie.”
Social media was flooded with comments by baffled viewers.
“What do you mean “a tie”??? I have never seen Oscars have a tie,” one fan tweeted.
“Huge congrats to THE SINGERS and TWO PEOPLE EXCHANGING SALIVA! It’s rare to see a tie, and both films clearly wowed the Academy,” another wrote.
A third added, “A tie at the Oscars?! That’s how you know both films came swinging.”
