It’s only happened six times before, but the 98th Oscars threw up an extremely rare occurrence with one award ending in a tie.
As presenter Kumail Nanjiani began to read out the victor for Best Live Action Short, he was forced to think on his feet, advising the room: “It’s a tie — I’m not joking. It’s actually a tie.”
The comedian-turned-actor then told Hollywood’s elite to “remain calm” and invited the first lot of winners up to the stage, The Singers, to accept their award as the situation became apparent to all involved.
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“I didn’t know that was a thing — a tie,” director Sam A. David said as he made his acceptance speech.
In his introductory remarks, Nanjiani had joked that a few of history’s most iconic films could have worked as shorts, such as “Some of That Jazz” and “The King’s Tweet”.
Naturally, the comic took the opportunity to note the bizarre contradiction as he announced the second winner.
“Ironic that the short film Oscar is going to take twice as long,” he teased.
“And the second Oscar goes to Two People Exchanging Saliva.”
Directors Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh accepted the award, with Musteata suggesting she was still just as proud to be sharing the gong with her colleagues.
“I believe this has only happened three times in history before and we are so happy to be sharing this Oscar with The Singers,” she said.
“We love all of our fellow nominees and we’re so, so grateful to everyone who has supported our film and who made this film.”
The director was slightly off in her statistical knowledge, with half a dozen ties taking place across almost 100 years of the awards.
Two winners in one category is incredibly rare, especially in modern times, due to more than 10,000 industry representatives casting their vote.
The most recent tie occurred in 2013 when Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall matched for votes in the Sound Editing category.
But most famously, it happened when Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand both won Best Actress in 1974.
This year is the second time the Best Live Action Short has resulted in two winners, with 1995 crowning both Trevor and Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life.
