In what is sure to be one of the most surprising moments of the 2026 Oscars, two films tied for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short: The Swimmers and Two People Exchanging Saliva.
As surprising as the moment was, it’s not the first time the Oscars have seen a tie. In fact, it has happened six times before.
The first tie occurred at the 5th Academy Awards in 1932, when Fredric March and Wallace Beery won for their performances in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Champ, respectively. March actually received one more vote than Beery. However, due to rules stating that anyone who came within three votes of the winner would also receive the award, both actors took home the trophy. The rules have since been changed so that only an exact tie will count. That gives you an idea of just how rare the next ties were.
In 1949, at the 22nd Academy Awards, documentary shorts A Chance to Live and So Much for So Little tied for Best Documentary (Short Subject).
At the 41st Academy Awards in 1968, Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter) and Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl) tied for Best Actress for their work.
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Documentaries Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got and Down and Out in America tied for Best Documentary at the 59th Oscars in 1986.
The Swimmers and Two People Exchanging Saliva aren’t the first Best Live Action Shorts to tie. Back in 1994, Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life and Trevor both won the Oscar.
The last tie before 2026 was in 2012, at the 85th Academy Awards, when Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty took home the Oscar for Best Sound Editing.
With The Swimmers and Two People Exchanging Saliva join these films in the Oscar Tie club, which is rare enough that “you just ruined 22 million Oscar pools,” host Conan O’Brien joked.
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