“It’s a tie, I’m not joking,” Kumail Nanjiani announced from the Oscars stage last night, presenting the award for Best Live Action Short. “Everyone calm down—we’re gonna get through this. Focus up.” After giving out the first award, Nanjiani took a beat, joking, “Ironic that the short-film Oscar is gonna take twice as long.” Then he announced the second winner, “Two People Exchanging Saliva,” written and directed by Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata, and released by The New Yorker. (It’s the magazine’s second Academy Award in as many years.) The film, set in an imagined version of Paris where kissing is illegal, is a satire of consumerism and sexual repression.
I caught up by phone with the winning filmmakers, who were running on two hours’ sleep, to ask them about their experience being part of just the seventh tie in Oscars history.
When Kumail told everyone to “calm down,” what were you thinking?
Natalie Musteata: Alex and I had different reactions. Alex thought it was a cruel joke. But I took Kumail seriously. A few weeks ago, we had looked up whether this had ever happened, so I knew that it was a possibility. It’s just so rare. Oddly enough, one of our friends had been following the betting markets, and there were a couple of people out there who bet on the tie—and, well, they won big last night, too.
Alexandre Singh: When you’re sitting in those seats, in front of the world, waiting for your name to be called or not called, it’s already quite surreal. And then, when that started happening, it was a complete out-of-body experience.
Musteata: Yes, we were no longer on the planet—and neither of us really knew what we then said onstage. We were just so happy to share the award. We would have been happy if it went all five ways.
Natalie’s speech highlighted how exciting it is to have recognition for a film “that is weird, and that is queer, and that is made by a majority of women.” Do you think this quirk of Oscars history could bring more attention to the shorts categories in general?
Singh: The tie is kind of like a lottery ticket, and if it puts more of a spotlight on short film, that is all the better for film and for cinema in general. Understandably, the presenters often make jokes at the expense of the shorts. But shorts are where people can really push boundaries in a way that they can’t necessarily in feature films. And if you do want to have weird films and queer films and all other types of cinema representing different kinds of voices and different kinds of forms, that’s going to have to happen in shorts.
How did you celebrate?
Musteata: We were not invited to any parties really, but we rolled up with the Oscar statuettes, and they got us in everywhere, eventually. We went to the Vanity Fair party, which was amazing. We got to talk to the cinematographer Darius Khondji, who is an idol of ours. We went to Jay-Z’s Gold Party, which was surreal. We got to dance with Jay-Z and Emma Stone and Taylor Swift. We took photos, we laughed, we cried, and it was just the best evening. We didn’t want it to end.
Singh: Kylie Jenner stepped on the toe of one of our producers, so she has a mark to remember it by.
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More on the Academy Awards
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The critic Justin Chang notes that the evening was marked by a “faintly elegiac cloud,” and that, despite the political ferocity of the films being honored this year, the principal preoccupation was Hollywood and “the encroaching threat of irrelevance.”
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The critic Richard Brody also took note of the “funereal air” this year, but insists that there is plenty of reason for hope, if you keep your eyes on the screen rather than the trades. He already places several of this year’s big winners—“Sinners,” “One Battle After Another,” “The Secret Agent,” and “Marty Supreme”—among the cinematic greats of the past.
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And read our full coverage of the ceremony, featuring the hosts of the Critics at Large podcast.
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