It’s a tie!
Sunday’s Oscars ceremony featured one of the few ties in the nearly 100-year history of the awards ceremony. Two films won in the Best Live-Action Short Film category: “The Singers” and “Saliva.”
This is the seventh tie in Oscar history, and the first in the live-action short film category since 1995. The most recent Oscar tie was in 2013, when “Skyfall” and “Zero Dark Thirty” won in the sound editing category.
Prior to that, the previous Oscar win was in 1995, when the two live-action short Oscar winners were “The Wonderful Life of Franz Kafka” and “Trevor.”
Kumail Nanjiani announces Oscar win: “I’m not kidding”
The category was announced by Kumail Nanjiani, who opened the envelope and declared, “It’s a tie. I’m not kidding. It’s a tie. So everyone, calm down, we’re going to get through this.”
The comedian went on to introduce himself as “The Singers” and the filmmakers came to give a speech. Next, the winners of the short, which he dubbed “Two People Swapping Saliva,” appeared and each gave a separate speech.
“It’s ironic that it takes twice as long to make the short film ‘Oscar,'” Nanjiani joked before preparing his second speech.
Host Conan O’Brien returned to the stage shortly after and joked, “I just want to congratulate both winners. You just ruined the 22 million Oscar pool.”
In the past, Oscars have been won in categories such as Best Actor and Best Actress. In 1969, Katharine Hepburn for The Lion and Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
At the 1932 Oscar Awards, Fredric March for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Wallace Beery for The Champ tied for Best Actor. However, the Academy notes that this is not a true tie as March received one more vote, but the rules were that a nominee would win the award if they came within three votes of the actual winner. That rule has since changed.
Mark Wahlberg introduced his latest Oscar tie in 2013, and the animated character Ted, voiced by Seth MacFarlane, also participated. “We’re tied,” Wahlberg said under his breath at the time. “No BS. It’s a draw.”
‘The Singers’ and ‘Salivat’ winners react to shocking Oscar draw
The Oscars may be competition, but in the press room, the filmmakers of “The Singers” and “Saliva Exchange” were all smiles as they reflected on their shocking union.
“For me, it was incredible,” said “The Singers” producer Jacques Piatt. “It was really special because I got to know all the filmmakers in the same category. To be honest, I wish the five of us could have partnered.”
Sam Davis, director of The Singers, added that the tie was an honor and praised the “two men exchanging saliva”.
“I told them if we lost, I wanted them to lose because we saw how good their film was, and no one could have imagined what the outcome would be,” Davis said. “And certainly we didn’t imagine this.”
Nathalie Musteta and Aleksandr Shin, the directors of “The Two Who Spread Saliva,” also praised the film. “We’re also a bit of Oscar buffs, so we talked about how something like this might actually happen, but we just couldn’t imagine it,” Singh said.
Contributor: Charles Trepany
