Host Kumail Nanjiani announced the winners of Best Live-Action Short: ‘I’m joking!’

Oscars surprises with seventh tie in Academy Awards history: ‘We’re gonna get through this. Focus up!’

Host Kumail Nanjiani announced the winners of Best Live-Action Short: 'I'm joking!'

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in Vanity Fair, Vulture, IGN, and more.

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March 15, 2026 9:12 p.m. ET

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Oscars 2026 gets 7th tie in history with Live-Action Short win. Credit:

Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty (2)

For the seventh time in Oscars history, the Academy Awards experienced a tie.

"I'm not joking. It's actually a tie," actor Kumail Nanjiani revealed as he presented the award for Best Live-Action Short during Sunday's ceremony. "So everybody calm down. We're going to get through this. Focus up."

The teams behind *The Singers *and *Two People Exchanging Saliva* both received the honor in a category that also included *Saliva Butcher's Stain*, *A Friend of Dorothy*, and *Jane Austen's Period Drama*.

'The Singers' team accept Oscar for Live-Action Short.

Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty

Nanjiani explained to the crowd that he would reveal the first winner, allow them to make a speech, and then give the same opportunity for the second winner. David Breschel, Sam A. Davis, Mike Yung, and Jack Piatt accepted the award for *The Singers*, while Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata accepted for *Two People Exchanging Saliva*.

Davis thanked his parents, his producing team, and his cast, including those "who had never acted before, never really imagined themselves on the big screen."

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"*The Singers* 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. "May we keep looking for beauty in unexpected places, and may we all be brave enough to keep on singing."

In accepting next for *Two People Exchanging Saliva*, Musteata expressed how happy they were to share with the team behind The Singers. "And thank you to the Academy for supporting a film that is weird and that is queer and that is made by a majority of women!" she said.

'Two People Exchanging Saliva' team accepts Oscar for Live-Action Short.

Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty

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"I don't like that these short film monsters are gonna take twice as long," Nanjiani joked in between speeches.

During the acceptance speech for *Two People Exchanging Saliva*, an awkward moment occurred when the microphone started to descend and the camera shifted to host Conan O'Brien, who was still waiting for the speeches to end. O'Brien later joked, "I know we're tight, but you retract a microphone on them as he's speaking...is hilarious."

Musteata mentioned on stage that a tie has happened three times before at the Oscars, but it has happened a total of seven, including this one. The first was in 1932 in the Best Actor category with Fredric March (*Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde*) and Wallace Beery (*The Champ*). Since then, there were ties in 1950 with Documentary Short, 1969 with Best Actress, 1987 with Documentary Feature, 1995 with Live-Action Short, and 2013 with Sound Editing.

See the full list of 2026 Oscar winners.

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Source: “EW Academy”