You can have a tie at the Oscars — it’s rare, but it’s absolutely possible, and it has happened multiple times in Academy Awards history.

Quick Scoop: Can You Tie for an Oscar?

  • Under current Academy rules, a tie happens when two (or more) nominees receive exactly the same number of votes in a category.
  • When that occurs, both (or all) are declared winners and each gets their own Oscar statuette.
  • The winners share the title for that category for that year (for example, both are officially “Best Actress” winners).

How Does It Work on the Night?

  • The ballot counters flag a tie and print it directly on the winner’s card, so the presenter reads that there is a tie instead of just one name.
  • Typically, one winner is announced, comes up and speaks, and then the second winner is announced and also gives a speech.
  • Both statues start out identical; after the win, each statue is engraved backstage with the category and the winner’s name.

Has It Actually Happened Before?

Yes. Historically, ties have occurred only a handful of times, which is why they feel like a big shock when they happen.

Some notable examples include:

  • 1932: Best Actor – Wallace Beery (The Champ) and Fredric March (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde).
  • 1969: Best Actress – Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl) and Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter).
  • 2013: Best Sound Editing – Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall.

Recent coverage notes that there have been six ties in Oscar history under the modern counting approach, and discussion around the 2026 Oscars highlighted how rare they still are.

Why Are Ties So Rare?

  • Thousands of Academy members vote in each category, so the odds of two nominees landing on the exact same top vote count are extremely low.
  • The Academy’s rules were tightened over the years so that only exact vote matches count as “true” ties, reducing how often they’re recorded as such.

Mini Forum-Style Take

“So…can you tie for an Oscar or is it like Highlander, there can be only one?”

In practice:

  • Yes, you can tie for an Oscar, but it’s a once-in-decades type of twist.
  • Both winners walk away with a statue, a place in Oscar history, and a moment that usually becomes instant awards-season legend.

TL;DR: Can you tie for an Oscar? Yes. If two nominees finish with the exact same top vote total, the Academy declares a tie, both are official winners, and each gets their own statuette.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.