Oscars tie sees 'The Singers' and 'Two People Exchanging Saliva' win Best Live Action Short Film

The 98th Academy Awards featured an unusual moment when two films were announced as joint winners of the Best Live Action Short Film category.

During the ceremony on March 15, presenter Kumail Nanjiani revealed that both The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva had received the same number of votes from Academy members.

“It’s a tie. I’m not joking, it’s actually a tie,” Nanjiani told the audience as he opened the envelope. The announcement prompted a brief pause before laughter and applause from the crowd.

Nanjiani addressed the moment with humour while managing the announcement process on stage. “Everyone calm down, we're going to get through this, focus up,” he said before explaining that each film’s team would be given time to accept the award. He added, “Ironic that the short film Oscar's going to take twice as long.”

The Singers, directed by Sam A Davis and produced by Jack Piatt, was announced first. The 18-minute musical comedy focuses on music and artistic expression.

In his acceptance speech, Davis described the project’s message. The film is “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,” he said.

The second winning film, Two People Exchanging Saliva, is a 36-minute French-language dystopian story directed by Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh. The filmmakers later spoke about the significance of art in society.

“We believe that art can change people's souls... we can change society through art and creativity, through theatre and ballet,” Singh said during the acceptance remarks.

After the ceremony, Musteata spoke to reporters about the moment, saying, “It's such a dream.”

The result marked the seventh tie in the Academy Awards’ history. The most recent tie before this occurred in 2013, when Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty shared the award for Best Sound Editing. Previous ties include the 1969 Best Actress award shared by Katherine Hepburn and Barbara Streisand.