In a night full of cinematic triumphs, the 2026 Oscars delivered an unexpected twist. In a rare moment at the 98th Academy Awards, the Best Live Action Short Film category ended in a tie, with both The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva taking home the coveted award.
The surprise announcement at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday night left the audience delighted. As the envelopes revealed the unusual outcome, both filmmaking teams walked up to the stage to accept their Oscars and deliver their speeches, sharing one of the most memorable moments of the ceremony.
Ties are exceptionally rare at the Academy Awards, which has a history spanning nearly a century. The last time it happened was at the 85th Academy Awards, when Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty shared the Oscar for Best Sound Editing.
The 2026 outcome marks only the seventh time in the awards’ history that two nominees have shared a single Oscar.
After the ceremony, in the winners’ room at the Loews Hollywood Hotel, Academy librarians were called upon to verify the historical details behind such ties. Reporters and attendees turned to these custodians of Oscars history to confirm how often such moments have occurred, highlighting the Academy’s longstanding effort to maintain accurate records of its awards.
Over the decades, a handful of categories have seen similar outcomes. These include:
2013 – Best Sound Editing: Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty
1995 – Best Live Action Short Film: Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life and Trevor
1987 – Best Feature Documentary: Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got and Down and Out in America
1969 – Best Actress: Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand
1950 – Best Documentary: A Chance to Live and So Much for So Little
