Article written by Sid Solomon
Musician Bruce Broughton has been accused of using his position as a former Academy governor as he contacted voters by email about his submission. As a result, the nomination for his song, “Alone yet not Alone”, in the best original song category has been revoked.
In a statement, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, Academy president, said, “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.”
Not surprisingly, the artist was “devastated” and justified his email by saying that all he asked people to do was find the song and consider it.
The other nominees for this category now are Ordinary Love from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, “The Moon Song” from Her, “Let It Go” from Disney film Frozen and Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” from Despicable Me 2.
Concurring with Broughton’s take on this response from the Academy, The Hollywood Reporter ran a story that asked how this little-known song had beaten all its competitors that were made by more popular artists and for big budget films.
The voting process for Best Original Song and Best Original Score categories involves 240 members of the Academy’s music branch who nominate not more than 5 members in each category after listening to DVDs which contain song clips with their respective names and movie titles.
However, the voters are not given any of the composers’ or artists’ names – probably for good reason too.
The Oscars ceremony will take place on March 2 in Hollywood.
