The live-action short film category ended in a rare tie at the 98th Academy Awards, with The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva jointly winning the Oscar, marking only the seventh such occurrence in the history of the ceremony.
Presenter Kumail Nanjiani expressed surprise as he opened the envelope.
“It’s a tie. I’m not joking. It’s actually a tie. So everyone calm down, and we’re going to get through this,” he said, drawing murmurs and laughter from the room. As the reactions continued, Nanjiani added, “Calm down! Remain calm.”
He then announced the winners individually — Sam A. Davis and Jack Piatt for The Singers, and Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata for Two People Exchanging Saliva — inviting them on stage one after the other to deliver their speeches.
In between the presentations, Nanjiani quipped, “Ironic that the short film Oscar is going to take twice as long.”
Speaking after accepting the award, Davis said, “A tie — wow. I didn’t know that was a thing. But we’re happy to be up here.”
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.” Davis concluded, “May we keep looking for beauty in unexpected places, and may we all be brave enough to keep on singing.”
During his speech, Singh made a light-hearted reference to recent remarks by actor Timothée Chalamet about ballet and opera.
“We believe art can change people’s souls,” Singh said. “Maybe it takes 10 years time, but we can change society through art, through creativity, through theater and ballet — and cinema.”
Later, host Conan O'Brien joked about the unexpected outcome, saying, “I just want to say congratulations to both winners. You just ruined 22 million Oscar pools.”
Before this year, the most recent tie at the Oscars came during the 2013 ceremony, when Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall shared the award for sound editing.
Other ties in Oscar history include the 1932 awards when best actor went jointly to Wallace Beery for The Champ and Fredric March for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; he 1949 ceremony when documentary short winners were A Chance to Live and So Much for So Little; the 1986 awards when documentary feature winners were Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got and Down and Out in America; and the 1994 ceremony when live-action short film winners were Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life and Trevor.
One of the most memorable ties occurred at the 1968 awards when Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter and Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl shared the best actress honour.