Over nearly 100 years of the Academy Awards, there have been well over a thousand different recipients of an Oscar. The golden statuettes are handed out to the winners of more than 20 categories.

Whether it was Emil Jannigs and Janet Gaynor winning Best Actor and Best Actress at the 1st Academy Awards in 1929, Michael B. Jordan and Jessie Buckley taking home the victories in the same categories as Oscars 2026 winners, or anyone winning for directing, writing, or any below-the-line categories, almost every Oscar winner can say they won their trophy outright.

However, there are a few, very limited instances where a tie happened. They have come in everything from major acting categories to those for short films. And while there’s never been a year when Best Picture went to two films, these are all the times an Oscar category ended in a tie.

7

Best Actor In 1932

The first tie in Oscars history happened during the 5th Academy Awards in Best Actor. During the ceremony, it was announced that Fredric March (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) and Wallace Beery (The Champ) were both winners of the category that year.

They were two of three nominees for Best Actor, with Alfred Lunt (The Guardsman) the other. And while this is the first time a tie happened at the Oscars, it also comes with an asterisk due to the rules at the time.

Back then, the Academy had a rule that if the winner and runner-up were separated by three votes or less, a tie would be the result. Beery received only one fewer vote than March in the final round of voting, falling under the threshold put in place. Those rules were changed shortly thereafter. Since then, the totals have to match exactly for a tie to be announced.

So, while this is historically the first tie in the Oscars record books, it would be an outright win for March if the standard voting and scoring rules were applied. The actor eventually got his first solo Best Actor win in 1947 for The Best Years of Our Lives, while Berry never even got another Oscar nomination.

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

6

Best Documentary Short Subject In 1950

After changing the tie rules, it took 18 years for the Oscars to have another. During the 22nd Academy Awards, A Chance to Live and So Much for So Little tied as the winner of Best Documentary (Short Subject).

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

The tie gave A Chance to Live‘s Richard de Rochemont his first and only Oscar. Meanwhile, So Much for So Little‘s tie was just a small sample of Edward Selzer’s accolades. He also won Best Short Subject (Cartoon) that same year after having two nominations and had previously won an Oscar in 1948 in the same category.

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

5

Best Actress In 1969

The 41st Academy Awards delivered a rather high-profile tie thanks to the results of its Best Actress race. Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter) and Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl) tied as the winners in 1969.

The other nominees in the category were Patricia Neal (The Subject Was Roses), Vanessa Redgrave (Isadora), and Joanne Woodward (Rachel, Rachel).

The tie delivered Streisand her first Oscar win on her first nomination, as the actress had a true breakout with her feature film debut. The recognition launched a whole new aspect of her career. She never won a Best Actress Oscar outright after this, but she did become a solo winner in 1977 in Best Original Song for A Star Is Born.

Meanwhile, Hepburn’s role in the tie can be seen as a direct result of her massive popularity. She was one of the most celebrated actresses at the time, having already been a Best Actress winner in 1934. Hepburn proceeded to get eight nominations in the next 30ish years. She won the year before the tie for 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 remains the only tie in Best Actress in Oscars history, with it being the second and most recent tie in any acting category.

4

Best Documentary Feature In 1987

The next tie in Oscars history came with the 59th Academy Awards. This time, it was Best Documentary (Feature) that brought the result, as Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got and Down and Out in America both won the award.

The other nominees that year were Chile: Hasta Cuando?, Isaac in America: A Journey with Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Witness to Apartheid.

This tie proved to be the only Oscar wins for Brigitte Berman (Artie Shaw) or Joseph Feury and Milton Justice (Down and Out in America).

There has not been another tie in Best Documentary Feature Film, as it’s called now, since then. But it marks the second and most recent tie among the Documentary categories.

3

Best Live Action Short Film In 1995

The shortest gap between ties occurred thanks to the 67th Academy Awards. Only eight years after the prior instance, Best Short Film (Live Action) brought the Oscars its fifth tie by naming Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life and Trevor as winners.

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

Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life hails from future Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi and Ruth Kenley-Letts. It also stars Richard E. Grant. It marks the lone time Capaldi has been nominated for an Oscar and his only win.

Trevor was directed by Peggy Rajski and Randy Stone, with the short remaining their only nominations and wins.

This marked the first tie for Best Live Action Short Film, as its now called, but it was not the last.

2

Best Sound Editing In 2013

While there has been only one Sound category since 2021 at the Oscars, there were previously two: Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing. The former delivered a tie in 2013 by naming Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty as the winners.

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

The tie granted Zero Dark Thirty its only Oscar win out of five nominations, as it lost in Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing.

That was not true for Skyfall. It is one of two Oscars won by Daniel Craig’s third James Bond movie, with Best Original Song being the other. Skyfall lost its three other nominations in Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Cinematography.

It is the only tie to happen in Sound Editing or Sound Mixing, and there has yet to be a tie in the combined Best Sound category.

1

Best Live Action Short Film In 2026

The seventh and most recent tie came during the 98th Academy Awards. In a surprising announcement delivered by presenter Kumail Nanjiani, Best Live Action Short Film delivered the Oscars’ first tie in 13 years.

The tie was between The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva. The other nominees in the category were Butcher’s Stain, A Friend of Dorothy, and Jane Austen’s Period Drama.

The result gives Sam A. Davis and Jack Piatt (The Singers) and Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata (Two People Exchanging Saliva) their first Oscar wins.

What’s most notable about this tie is that it is the second time it has happened in Best Live Action Short Film. This is the only category to have multiple ties at the Oscars.

While the ties are statistical anomalies overall, they have a higher likelihood of popping up in these Shorts categories because there is a smaller pool of voters who see all the nominees and can vote. A majority of the 11,000+ Academy voters likely abstained from voting. Even still, that doesn’t make the tie any less of a surprise when it happens at the Oscars.

Location

Los Angeles, CA

Dates

March 15, 2026

Website

https://www.oscars.org/