Artist Alexandre Singh and art historian Natalie Musteata won an Oscar for Two People Exchanging Saliva (2024), their short film, at the 2026 Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles last evening. The film won in the live action short film category. This was their first Oscar nomination. In a historic moment, the film tied for first-place with another film, The Singers (2025), by Sam Davis, which is only the seventh time in the Oscars’ nearly 100-year history that a category has resulted in a tie.
“Thank you to the Academy for supporting a film that is weird, that is queer, and made by a majority of women,” Musteata announced in her acceptance speech. The black-and-white film explores a world in which kissing is punishable by death.
Singh, who was included as one of Artsy’s artists to follow for fans of David Lynch last year, is a New York-based Franco-English artist. He is represented by Sprüth Magers. Solo presentations of his work have been shown at Ballroom Marfa; Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco; and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He has participated in group exhibitions at Sean Kelly, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Hayward Gallery, among other spaces.
Musteata, meanwhile, is a Romanian-American art historian, writer, curator, and director. She has written for publications including Artforum and Mousse, and curated exhibitions at Haverford College and apexart.
In their acceptance speech, the duo honored Franco-Iranian actor, Zar Amir, who was unable to attend the ceremony as she had just given birth two days prior. “You are the hope in a world that is dark and absurd and ridiculous and horrifying,” the pair said in an address to Amir’s newborn. “But that is why we make films, isn’t it? Because we believe that art can change people’s souls. Maybe it takes 10 years time, but we can change society through art, through creativity, through theater and ballet, and also cinema.”
