Shock Tie Win at the Oscars — The Seventh in Its History

As nomination announcer Kumail Nanjiani was quick to point out — it's ironic that the Best Short Film category could end up so long.

During the relatively stable category, the comedian warned audiences that two films, had in fact, won the award. He asked the crowd to be patient, as one would be announced, get up and collect the award, then another would receive their time.

The Singers, a musical comedy based on a 19th-century Russian story about lonely men bonding through a bar singing contest, was the first to collect the award, thanking the shocked Academy voters for

Two People Exchanging Saliva, a French LGBTQ+ romance film, later got its own moment in the spotlight, with their win being subsequently announced by Nanjiani. During the speech, one producer thanked the voters for choosing a queer romance story with a predominantly female crew.

Controversially, one other producer highlighted the importance of the arts, namely ballet and opera, throwing shade at Timothée Chalametand his controversial statements about no one caring about these arts anymore, which cinema risks sharing the fate of.

Ties have previously only happened six times in Oscars history: 1932 for Best Actor (Fredric March — Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Wallace Beery — The Champ), 1950 for Best Documentary Short (A Chance to Live and So Much for So Little), 1969 for Best Actress Katharine Hepburn — The Lion in Winter, Barbra Streisand — Funny Girl), 1987 for Best Documentary Feature (Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got, Down and Out in America), 1995 – Best Live Action Short Film (Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life, Trevor) and most recently, 2013 for Best Sound Editing (Skyfall, Zero Dark Thirty).