All the Times There Have Been Ties at the Oscars After 2026’s Shocking Result
Jason Pham
In a turn of events, there was a tie at the 2026 Oscars after Best Live Action Short Film went to two winners: Sam A. Davis and Jack Platt for The Singers and Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata for Two People Exchanging Saliva.
“A tie, wow we didn’t know that could happen,” Davis and Platt said on stage during their acceptance speech. The moment, which was later joked about by host Conan O’Brien, led to a lot of speculation about the history of ties at the Oscars and whether there have been any other ones.
Has there ever been a tie at the Oscars?
Yes, there have been six other ties in Oscars history—not including 2026. The first tie was in 1932 during the 5th Oscars when Frederic March for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Wallace Beery for The Champ both won the Best Actor category. At the time, the rules stated that anyone who came within three votes of the winner would also win; however, after the moment, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences changed the rules so that only true ties with the exact number of votes would result in a tie.
The second tie was in 1950 when So Much for So Little and A Chance to Live both won the Best Documentary Short category. The third tie—and arguably the most famous—was in 1969 when Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in the Winter and Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl both won Best Actress.
The fourth tie was in 1987 when Artie Shaw: This Is All You’ve Got and Down and Out in America both won Best Documentary Feature. The fifth tie was in 1995 when Trevor and Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life both won Best Live-Action Short Film. And the sixth tie was in 2013 when Paul N.J. Ottosson for Zero Dark Thirty and Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers for Skyfall won Sound Editing.
How can a tie happen at the Oscars?
In the Oscars’ official eligibility document, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences states that “in the event of a tie for first place in the final balloting, awards shall be given for both achievements.”
The Oscars also confirmed in another document that the tie rules were changed after March and Beery’s tie in 1932. “Not a true tie, as Frederic March had one more vote than Wallace Beery, but rules at the time stated if an achievement came within three votes of the winner, that achievement would also receive the award. The rules have since been changed, and only an exact match in totals would qualify as a tie,” the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences states.
