Best Song Oscar Nominee Gets Yanked

[silverscreenselect]

"Alone Yet Not Alone," one of the nominees for this year's Best Song Oscar, had its nomination rescinded when the MPAA Board of Governors found out that the song's composer Bruce Broughton (best known for his score for Silverado) had e-mailed voters to let them know that the song was indeed eligible for this year's Oscars (the film of the same name is a low budget film whose primary appeal will be to religious audiences that was released in a few cities in the fall for a week but will probably go directly to video). That's a no no with the Academy (although it pales in comparison with a lot of the campaigning the big studios do for their potential nominees).

The song's singer is a quadripelegic minister whose husband pushed on her diapgragm to help her get enough breath to hit the high notes. The song will not be replaced so there will only be four Best Song nominees this year.

Other nominees have been withdrawn or removed before. Nino Rota was nominated for Best Score for the Godfather, but the nomination was dropped when the Academy discovered parts of the score had been used earlier in other movies. Louis L'Amour's writing nomination for Hondo was also withdrawn when it was learned the screenplay was based on an earlier story (the category was best screen story, a category for original stories that no longer exists).

This is a dumb move by the Academy. This could have been a great moment at the ceremonies, even though the song had no chance of winning, but now they look bad.


http://variety.com/2014/film/news/oscar ... 201076879/#

[Vandal]

The song's singer is a quadripelegic minister whose husband pushed on her diaphragm to help her get enough breath to hit the high notes.

Oh, THAT diaphragm.

Either way would definitely lead to high notes.

[Ritterskoop]

Interesting!

She would not have won (that'll be the Mandela movie song or "Let It Go" from Frozen), but it would still be great to say you were on the list. And maybe to be invited to perform it on the awards show, if that was even possible to do live (with the diaphragm issue, I mean).

Idina said she would be able to arrange tech rehearsals for Broadway's If/Then so she could perform, if they would just ask her. I'll be seeing this in May, if anyone wants to join me.

[Bob Juch]

The Academy of Motion Pictures has released a statement explaining its decision on Wednesday to rescind the original song nomination for “Alone Yet Not Alone” from the film of the same name.

The statement reads as follows:

The Board of Governors’ decision to rescind the Original Song nomination for “Alone Yet Not Alone,” music by Bruce Broughton, was made thoughtfully and after careful consideration. The Academy takes very seriously anything that undermines the integrity of the Oscars voting process. The Board regretfully concluded that Mr. Broughton’s actions did precisely that.

The nominating process for Original Song is intended to be anonymous, with each eligible song listed only by title and the name of the film in which it is used—the idea being to prevent favoritism and promote unbiased voting. It’s been a long-standing policy and practice of the Academy—as well as a requirement of Rule 5.3 of the 86th Academy Awards® Rules—­­to omit composer and lyricist credits from the DVD of eligible songs that are sent to members of the Music Branch. The Academy wants members to vote for nominees based solely on the achievement of a particular song in a movie, without regard to who may have written it.

Mr. Broughton sent an email to at least 70 of his fellow Music Branch members—nearly one-third of the branch’s 240 members. When he identified the song as track #57 as one he had composed, and asked voting branch members to listen to it, he took advantage of information that few other potential nominees are privy to. As a former Academy Governor and current member of the Music Branch’s executive committee, Mr. Broughton should have been more cautious about acting in a way that made it appear as if he were taking advantage of his position to exert undue influence. At a minimum, his actions called into question whether the process was “fair and equitable,” as the Academy’s rules require. The Academy is dedicated to doing everything it can to ensure a level playing field for all potential Oscar® contenders—including those who don’t enjoy the access, knowledge, and influence of a long-standing Academy insider.

[silverscreenselect]

The nominating process for Original Song is intended to be anonymous, with each eligible song listed only by title and the name of the film in which it is used—the idea being to prevent favoritism and promote unbiased voting. It’s been a long-standing policy and practice of the Academy—as well as a requirement of Rule 5.3 of the 86th Academy Awards® Rules—­­to omit composer and lyricist credits from the DVD of eligible songs that are sent to members of the Music Branch. The Academy wants members to vote for nominees based solely on the achievement of a particular song in a movie, without regard to who may have written it.

Of course, there's no way that 240 Hollywood composers and songwriters would have any idea who wrote Oscar eligible songs unless some spoilsport like Bruce Broughton told them.

[Bob78164]

The nominating process for Original Song is intended to be anonymous, with each eligible song listed only by title and the name of the film in which it is used—the idea being to prevent favoritism and promote unbiased voting. It’s been a long-standing policy and practice of the Academy—as well as a requirement of Rule 5.3 of the 86th Academy Awards® Rules—­­to omit composer and lyricist credits from the DVD of eligible songs that are sent to members of the Music Branch. The Academy wants members to vote for nominees based solely on the achievement of a particular song in a movie, without regard to who may have written it.

Of course, there's no way that 240 Hollywood composers and songwriters would have any idea who wrote Oscar eligible songs unless some spoilsport like Bruce Broughton told them.

Maybe he should have used a spoiler tag in his e-mail? --Bob