Every Time The Oscars Ended In A Tie

Throughout the nearly century-long history of the Academy Awards, more than a thousand people have received an Oscar. These golden statues are awarded to winners in over 20 different categories.

From Emil Jannings and Janet Gaynor winning the first-ever acting Oscars in 1929, to Michael B. Jordan and Jessie Buckley’s wins in 2026, and for every directing, writing, or technical achievement award in between, nearly all Oscar winners have earned their trophies through a standard, competitive process.

Ties are incredibly rare at the Oscars, but they have happened a few times in various categories, including lead and supporting acting roles, and even for short films. Although the top award, Best Picture, has never been shared by two films, here’s a complete list of all the Oscar categories that have resulted in a tie.

7. Best Actor In 1932

The very first tie in Academy Awards history occurred at the 5th Oscars, in the Best Actor category. Both Fredric March, for his role in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Wallace Beery, for The Champ, were declared winners that year.

Alfred Lunt (from The Guardsman) was the third nominee for Best Actor alongside the two winners. This marks the first and, so far, only tie in Oscar history for this category, but it’s complicated by the voting rules that were in place at the time.

In the past, the Academy had a rule stating that if the winner and the second-place candidate were very close – separated by only three votes or fewer – the result would be considered a tie. In the final vote, Beery lost to March by just one vote, which meant a tie should have been declared under those old rules. However, the rules were quickly changed. Now, a tie is only called if the vote totals are exactly the same.

Although this was the first tie in Oscar history, based on typical voting procedures, March would have been declared the sole winner. He later won Best Actor in 1947 for The Best Years of Our Lives, but Berry never received another Oscar nomination.

This remains the only time a tie has happened in Best Actor.

6. Best Documentary Short Subject In 1950

It had been 18 years since the Oscars had a tie when it happened again at the 22nd Academy Awards. Both A Chance to Live and So Much for So Little won the award for Best Documentary (Short Subject).

Those two films were half of the category’s nominees. The others were 1848 and The Rising Tide.

Richard de Rochemont won his only Oscar for the short film A Chance to Live. Edward Selzer, who also worked on the tied short film So Much for So Little, had a more extensive history of awards. He won Best Short Subject (Cartoon) that same year, having been nominated twice before, and had previously won in the same category in 1948.

This remains the only time a tie has happened in Best Documentary Short Film, as it’s called today.

5. Best Actress In 1969

I remember being so surprised when the Best Actress award was announced at the 41st Academy Awards! It was a tie – both Katharine Hepburn, for her work in ‘The Lion in Winter,’ and Barbra Streisand, for ‘Funny Girl,’ took home the prize in 1969. It was a really unusual and exciting moment.

Patricia Neal (for her role in The Subject Was Roses), Vanessa Redgrave (Isadora), and Joanne Woodward (Rachel, Rachel) were also nominated in this category.

Let me tell you, seeing Barbra Streisand win her first Oscar for Funny Girl was something special. It was her very first nomination and a true star-making turn – her first feature film, and boom, an Academy Award! It really opened up a whole new chapter in her career. While she didn’t take home another Best Actress Oscar after that, she did prove she could conquer other areas of filmmaking, winning a solo Oscar in 1977 for Best Original Song with A Star Is Born. A true testament to her versatility.

Katharine Hepburn’s involvement stemmed directly from her widespread fame. She was a hugely popular actress, already having won an Academy Award in 1934. Over the next three decades, she received eight more nominations and actually won again the year before this particular situation, for her role in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.

The tie for The Lion in Winter made Hepburn the first actor to win three Oscars in lead categories.

This is the only time in Oscars history that two actresses have tied for Best Actress. It’s also the most recent tie in any acting category, and only the second time a tie has occurred in that field.

4. Best Documentary Feature In 1987

The Oscars saw another tie at the 59th Academy Awards. This time, the Best Documentary (Feature) category resulted in a tie between two films: Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got and Down and Out in America, both of which won the award.

That year, the other films nominated were Chile: Hasta Cuando?, Isaac in America: A Journey with Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Witness to Apartheid.

Brigitte Berman’s Artie Shaw and Joseph Feury and Milton Justice’s Down and Out in America each won only one Academy Award, and this was it.

Since then, no documentary feature film has ever tied for first place. However, this was the second – and most recent – time any documentary category has resulted in a tie.

3. Best Live Action Short Film In 1995

The Academy Awards experienced its quickest repeat tie at the 67th ceremony. Just eight years after the previous tie, the Best Live Action Short Film category resulted in a shared win for both Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life and Trevor, marking the fifth tie in Oscars history.

The other nominees in the category were Kangaroo Court, On Hope, and Syrup.

Peter Capaldi, who later became famous as the Doctor in Doctor Who, and Ruth Kenley-Letts created Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life. Richard E. Grant also appears in the film. This project is notable as the only time Capaldi received an Oscar nomination, and he actually won for it.

The short film Trevor was directed by Peggy Rajski and Randy Stone, and it received its only award nominations and wins for this project.

This was the first time a winner was tied in the Best Live Action Short Film category—but it wouldn’t be the last.

2. Best Sound Editing In 2013

Since 2021, the Oscars have had a single Sound category. Before that, there were two awards: Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing. In 2013, these two awards resulted in a tie, with both Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty winning.

The other nominees that year were Argo, Django Unchained, and Life of Pi.

Despite receiving five Oscar nominations, Zero Dark Thirty only won one award: for Sound Editing. It didn’t win in the categories of Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay, or Best Film Editing.

However, Skyfall was an exception. Daniel Craig’s third film as James Bond won two Academy Awards, including Best Original Song. While nominated for three other awards – Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Cinematography – it didn’t win in those categories.

This is the only instance of a tie in the Sound Editing or Sound Mixing categories, and no ties have ever occurred in the overall Best Sound category.

1. Best Live Action Short Film In 2026

The most recent tie at the Academy Awards happened during the 98th ceremony. Presenter Kumail Nanjiani announced that the Best Live Action Short Film category had resulted in a tie – the first one in 13 years.

The award was a close call between The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva. The other films nominated in that category were Butcher’s Stain, A Friend of Dorothy, and Jane Austen’s Period Drama.

This win marks the first Oscars for Sam A. Davis and Jack Piatt, known as The Singers, as well as for Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata, who make up Two People Exchanging Saliva.

The most interesting thing about this tie is that it’s happened before in the Best Live Action Short Film category. In fact, this is the only Oscar category where there have been multiple ties.

Although these ties are rare overall, they’re more likely to occur in the Short Film categories because fewer voters see all the nominees and participate in voting. Most of the over 11,000 Academy voters probably didn’t vote at all. Despite this, a tie is still unexpected when it happens at the Oscars.

2026-03-16 22:31