It’s a tie!
For only the seventh time in Oscars history, a category ended with two winners after “The Singers” and “Two People Exchanging Saliva” both nabbed the Academy Award for live-action short film.
“Ironic that the short film Oscar is going to take twice as long,” Kumail Nanjiani, who presented the award, cracked as he read the winners. He called up the directors — Sam A. Davis and Jack Piatt for “The Singers” and Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata for “Two People Exchanging Saliva” — one at a time to give speeches.
“A tie — wow. I didn’t know that was a thing. but we’re happy to be up here,” said “The Singers” filmmakers.
In his speech, Singh took a jab at Timothee Chalamet’s recent viral comments regarding his thoughts on the state of ballet and opera.
“We believe art can change people’s souls. Maybe it takes 10 years time, but we can change society through art, through creativity, through theater and ballet — and cinema.”
Prior to this year’s ceremony, the most recent tie was at the 2013 ceremony when “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Skyfall” shared the award for sound editing. Other notable ties include 1932 when best actor went to Wallace Beery (“The Champ”) and Fredric March (“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”); 1949 when documentary short went to “A Chance to Live” and “So Much for So Little”; 1986 when documentary feature went to “Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got” and “Down and Out in America” and 1994 when live-action short film went to “Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Trevor.” Perhaps most memorably, Katharine Hepburn (“The Lion in Winter”) and Barbra Streisand (“Funny Girl”) shared the best actress trophy at the 1968 awards.
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According to the Academy, the first tie has a major asterisk. March had one more vote than Beery (only three men were even nominated!), but the rules at the time stated that “if an achievement came within three votes of the winner, that achievement would also receive the award.” Since then, it’s been changed so only an exact match in totals would qualify as a tie.
See the full winners list here.
From Variety US