Academy Rescinds Oscar Nod for Best Original Song Nominee
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ABC/BOB D’AMICO(NEW YORK) — You may have been unfamiliar with the song “Alone Yet Not Alone” before the Oscar nomination announcement this month, but it caused a buzz afterward. The tune, featured in a small film of the same name, surprisingly received a nod for best original song. However, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Wednesday it has rescinded the nomination.
The Academy’s Board of Governors elected to do so on Tuesday night after it learned that composer Bruce Boughton, who worked on “Alone Yet Not Alone” and is a former governor and current executive committee member of the Academy’s Music Branch, emailed members of the branch to make them aware of his submission during the nominations voting period.
Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs says in a statement, “No matter how well-intentioned the communication, using one’s position as a former governor and current executive committee member to personally promote one’s own Oscar submission creates the appearance of an unfair advantage.”
Boughton, who was previously nominated in 1986 for the score to Silverado, had shared his latest nod with lyricist Dennis Spiegel.
With the elimination of “Alone Yet Not Alone” from the best original song category, only four songs will compete for the Oscar: U2’s “Ordinary Love,” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom; Pharrell Williams’ “Happy,” from Despicable Me 2; “Let It Go,” from Frozen; and “The Moon Song,” from Her.
As you might have guessed, the Academy doesn’t rescind Oscar nominations often. The only other similar case, according to The Hollywood Reporter, occurred 45 years ago, when Young Americans was stripped of its best documentary Oscar after it was determined it had been screened prior to the period of eligibility.
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