The music branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has itself in hot water once again.
Just two years after allowing only two pieces into the best original song category due to the academy’s elaborate scoring system, a song from a barely seen film that the music branch deemed eligible has been disqualified. The academy’s board of governors disqualified Bruce Broughton and Dennis Spiegel’s “Alone Yet Not Alone” on Jan. 29 after learning that Broughton, a former governor and current music-branch executive committee member, had emailed fellow members about the song during the voting period.
But to make matters worse, the academy isn’t replacing the nomination, leaving the category with four contenders instead of five. Label and studio executives are already looking into ways to lobby the academy to flesh out the category with a new fifth nominee on the ballot.
Unlike other categories, best original song is based on a points system whereby music-branch members watch a DVD of eligible songs as they’re played in their respective films. This year, the DVD had 75 selections. Voters put their top five selections in order and the top five overall vote-getters then receive nominations. The voting process for music has been revised numerous times in the academy’s 87-year history, most recently two years ago.
The board determined that Broughton’s actions were inconsistent with the academy’s promotional regulations, as a former governor and current executive committee member personally promoting his own Oscar submission creates the appearance of an unfair advantage.
The elimination of a nomination is rare, having occurred four times prior and only once with music, Nino Rota’s score for “The Godfather.”
Broughton says he was “devastated” at the news. “I indulged in the simplest, grass-roots campaign,” he adds, “and it went against me when the song started getting attention.”
Broughton’s wife, Belinda, took to Facebook to express her outrage at the situation, writing, “As a member of the Academy, I am ashamed by this act. The nominations for work in film are meant to be merit based.”
The “Alone Yet Not Alone” nomination on Jan. 16 raised eyebrows when it was announced in a field of music from Disney, U2, Pharrell Williams and Karen O. A PR firm representing a song that wasn’t nominated hired a private investigator to look into the tune’s eligibility and presented its findings a week after the nominations to the Hollywood Reporter.
The PR firm’s contention, which the academy rejected, was that the movie failed to meet advertising requirements stated in the rules.
The theater where it was shown, Laemmle Town Center 5 in Encino, Calif., advertised its daily screening between Nov. 15 and Nov. 22, but no other ads were placed in newspapers. It’s not uncommon for film companies to book lesser-known movies in out-of-the-way theaters and rely solely on the theaters’ advertising. The Dixie Chicks documentary “Shut Up and Sing,” for example, only played in the morning for a week in September 2006 and wasn’t advertised beyond the theater listings.