Oscars 2026: Rare tie in best live-action short; a look at other Academy Awards ties

The 2026 Academy Awards produced a rare moment in Oscars history when the Best Live-Action Short Film category ended in a tie, an outcome that has occurred only a handful of times since the awards began in 1929. The unexpected result was revealed by presenter Kumail Nanjiani during the ceremony on Sunday, leaving the audience briefly stunned.

While presenting the category, Nanjiani announced that for only the seventh time in Oscars history there had been a tie. Opening the envelope, the comedian and actor addressed the crowd with visible surprise. “It’s a tie. I’m not joking. It’s actually a tie. So everyone calm down. We’re gonna get through this. Focus up.”

Amid surprised murmurs in the audience, he explained how the unusual announcement would proceed. “I’m gonna name one winner, they’ll come up, accept their award, and then I’ll come back and name another winner.”



The co-winners were The Singers (Netflix), directed by Sam A. Davis and Jack Piatt, and Two People Exchanging Saliva (Canal+/The New Yorker), directed by Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata.

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A rare Oscars tie

Ties at the Academy Awards are extremely uncommon. The last time two winners shared an Oscar was in 2013, when Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall both won the Best Sound Editing category.

The 2026 result marks the second time the Live-Action Short Film category has ended in a tie, highlighting how unusual the situation is in the modern Oscars voting system.

Other ties in Oscars history

Since the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929, a tie has occurred only six other times. The first was in 1932 when Fredric March won Best Actor for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde alongside Wallace Beery for The Champ. March actually earned one more vote than Beery, but under the Academy’s rules at the time any nominee within three votes of the winner would also receive the award. The rules have since changed to account for exact vote tallies, noted the Daily Beast.

Another tie occurred in 1949 when A Chance to Live and So Much for So Little shared the Documentary Short award.

Nearly two decades later, one of the most famous ties in Oscars history took place when Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand shared the Best Actress prize for The Lion in Winter and Funny Girl respectively.

At the 59th Academy Awards in 1986, the Best Documentary Feature award was also split between Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got and Down and Out in America. Before Sunday’s ceremony, the only other tie in the Live-Action Short Film category occurred in 1994 when Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life and Trevor shared the award.