Australian singer-songwriter Judah Kelly is quietly adding an Oscar to his trophy room.
The 2017 champion of The Voice Australia was among the cast of the short film The Singers, which took home the Best Live Action Short Film award at the 98th Academy Awards on Monday.
Directed by filmmaker Sam Davis, the 18-minute musical comedy centres on a spontaneous singing competition that breaks out among a group of patrons in a dive bar, gradually revealing unexpected musical talents among the crowd. It is based on the 1850 Ivan Turgenev story of the same name.
The film won 35 awards across 50 film festivals in 2025 before receiving its Academy Award nomination.
Kelly – best known for his country-soul voice and reality TV victory nearly a decade ago – appearred alongside an ensemble of real-life singers and musicians assembled from viral videos and street performances. The cast includes subway busker Michael Young, folk-blues legend Chris Smither, pianist Will Harrington, and operatic tenor Matthew Corcoran.
The casting process was central to the project, according to Davis. Rather than hiring traditional actors, he spent months searching the internet for authentic voices that could bring the story to life. Among those discoveries was Kelly, whose powerful vocal presence had already made him a name in Australia following his win on The Voice Australia.
He took to Instagram to share his excitement of the win, writing: “We don’t even know how to act! Our film just won an Oscar! I’M GOING TO MOVIE WORLD or whatever they say.”
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The film tied with Two People Exchanging Saliva in a rare result at the ceremony. It was only the seventh time in Oscars history that a category ended with two winners.
“Ironic that the short film Oscar is going to take twice as long,” Kumail Nanjiani, who presented the award, cracked as he read the winners. He called up the directors – Davis and Jack Piatt for The Singers and Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata for Two People Exchanging Saliva – one at a time to give speeches.
See the full winners list here.
