In a rare moment, the Oscars this year witnessed a tie as the live-action short films, The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva, shared the Academy Award this year.

This is only the seventh time in Oscars history that two winners have shared the same award. While presenting the award for Best Live Action Short, a visibly perplexed actor and comedian Kumail Nanjiani joked about the unusual situation.

"Ironic that the short film Oscar is going to take twice as long," Kumail Nanjiani said while calling the winners to the stage. The directors of both films came up one by one to accept the award and speak about their work. Directors Sam A Davis and Jack Piatt accepted the award for The Singers.

Surprised at the tie, he exclaimed, "A tie, wow. I didn't know that was a thing. But we're happy to be up here." He then spoke about the message of the film. He described The Singers as a "simple story about the power of music and art to bring us together in a moment when we live in an increasingly isolated world." "May we keep looking for beauty in unexpected places, and may we all be brave enough to keep on singing," he added.

The team behind Two People Exchanging Saliva, directed by Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata also came to the stage to receive the award at the same time. Speaking about the power of art, Singh said, "We believe art can change people's souls. Maybe it takes 10 years time, but we can change society through art, through creativity, through theatre and ballet, and cinema."

The last time the Academy awards saw a tie was in 2013 when Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall shared the award for sound editing. One of the most famous ties happened in 1968 when Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand both won the Best Actress award.

According to the Academy, the rules were once different. In the early years, a film or actor could also win if the vote difference was very small. Today, a tie happens only when two nominees receive the exact same number of votes.