Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh
Winners of the 2026 Academy Award for Best Live-Action Short Film for Two People Exchanging Saliva
NATALIE MUSTEATA
She is a writer, filmmaker, and curator. She holds a PhD in art history and an MA in film from The Graduate Center, CUNY.
Her most recent film, Two People Exchanging Saliva, co-written and directed with Alexandre Singh, won the Academy Award for Best Short Fiction in 2026. With Singh, she also produced the short film The Appointment, which screened at over 40 film festivals and won multiple awards for Best Short Film.
Natalie Musteata co-curated the exhibition “A Gothic Tale” at the Legion of Honor Museum. She is also the curator of the exhibitions “if I can’t dance to it, it’s not my revolution,” at Haverford College, and “UNREST: Revolt against Reason,” at apexart.
ALEXANDRE SINGH
He is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker and visual artist, born in Bordeaux, France, to Indian and French parents. He grew up in Manchester, UK, and studied Fine Arts at Oxford University.
His work is inspired by a passion for imaginative storytelling and includes practices as diverse as writing, collage, installation, and performance. His work is in numerous private and public collections, including those of the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Centre national des arts plastiques.
In 2013, his play The Humans was staged at the Rotterdamse Schouwburg and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, before making its way to the Festival d’Avignon.
In 2019, Singh made his short film debut with The Appointment, which premiered at the Legion of Honor Museum as part of his solo exhibition A Gothic Tale. The film was subsequently selected for PÖFF Shorts, Kortfilmfestival Leuven, and Bogoshorts, among others.
Two People Exchanging Saliva, starring Zar Amir, Luàna Bajrami, and Vicky Krieps, is his second film. It premiered at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival, was nominated for the 2026 César Awards, and won the Oscar for Best Live-Action Short Film at the 98th Academy Awards®.
Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh / Winners of the 2026 Academy Award for Best Live-Action Short Film for Two People Exchanging Saliva
Natalie Musteata is a writer, filmmaker, and curator. She holds a PhD in art history and an MA in film from The Graduate Center, CUNY.
Her most recent film, Two People Exchanging Saliva, co-written and directed with Alexandre Singh, won the Academy Award for Best Fiction Short Film in 2026. Along with Singh, she also produced the short film The Appointment, which screened at over 40 film festivals and won multiple awards for “Best Short Film.”
Natalie Musteata was one of the curators of the “A Gothic Tale” exhibition at the Legion of Honor Museum. She is also the curator of the exhibitions “if I can’t dance to it, it’s not my revolution,” at Haverford College, and “UNREST: Revolt against Reason,” apexart.
Alexandre Singh is an Oscar-winning filmmaker and visual artist, born in Bordeaux, France, to Indian and French parents. He grew up in Manchester, UK, and studied Fine Arts at Oxford University.
His work is inspired by a passion for imaginative storytelling and includes practices as diverse as writing, collage, installation, and performance. His work is in numerous private and public collections, including those of the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Centre national des arts plastiques.
In 2013, his play The Humans was staged at the Rotterdamse Schouwburg and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, before making its way to the Festival d’Avignon.
In 2019, Singh made his short film debut with The Appointment, which premiered at the Legion of Honor Museum as part of his solo exhibition A Gothic Tale. The film was subsequently selected for PÖFF Shorts, Kortfilmfestival Leuven, and Bogoshorts, among others.
Two People Exchanging Saliva, starring Zar Amir, Luàna Bajrami, and Vicky Krieps, is his second feature. It premiered at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival, was nominated for the 2026 César Awards, and won the Academy Award for Best Live-Action Short Film at the 98th Academy Awards®.
Kitty Green
Australian-born filmmaker, known for titles such as The Assistant (2019), will hold a candid Open Talk entitled Women in Cinema
Kitty Green is an award-winning Australian filmmaker known for her documentary and fiction films.
Kitty was born in Melbourne and is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts Film School. Her first feature film is a documentary, Ukraine Is Not A Brothel, filmed in her grandmother’s native Ukraine, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2013 and has screened at over 50 international festivals.
In 2015, her documentary short film The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Jury Prize. Her second feature film, also a documentary, Casting JonBenet, premiered at Sundance in 2017 and was distributed by Netflix as an original production. The film won the Best Documentary Award at the Australian Academy of Cinematic and Television Arts in 2018. That same year, Kitty Green was selected as a Sundance Fellow in the prestigious “Art of Nonfiction” initiative.
His first fiction feature, The Assistant, was completed in 2019 and premiered at Sundance and the Telluride Film Festival. It was released theatrically in the US in January 2020 and subsequently distributed globally. His most recent fiction feature, The Royal Hotel, premiered at Telluride and the Toronto International Film Festival and opened the inaugural SXSW Sydney Film Festival. In 2024, it was distributed in the US by Neon and in Australia by Transmission.
She is an award-winning Australian filmmaker, known for her documentary and fiction films.
Kitty was born in Melbourne and is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts Film School. Her first feature film is a documentary, Ukraine Is Not A Brothel, filmed in her grandmother’s native Ukraine, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2013 and has been screened at over 50 international festivals.
In 2015, the documentary short The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Jury Prize. Her second feature film, also a documentary, Casting JonBenet, premiered at Sundance in 2017 and was distributed by Netflix as an original production. The film won the Australian Academy of Cinematic and Television Arts Award for Best Documentary in 2018. That same year, Kitty Green was selected as a Sundance Fellow in the prestigious Art of Nonfiction initiative.
Her first fiction feature, The Assistant, was completed in 2019 and premiered at Sundance and the Telluride Film Festival. It was released theatrically in the US in January 2020 and subsequently distributed globally. Her most recent fiction feature, The Royal Hotel, premiered at Telluride and the Toronto International Film Festival and opened the inaugural SXSW Sydney Film Festival. In 2024, it was distributed in the US by Neon and in Australia by Transmission.