On Tuesday night, the Academy’s Board of Governors voted to rescind the Original Song nomination for Alone Yet Not Alone, featuring music by Bruce Broughton and lyric by Dennis Spiegel. The decision was prompted by the discovery that Broughton, a former Governor and current Music Branch executive committee member, had emailed members of the branch to make them aware of his submission during the nominations voting period. An additional nominee in the Original Song category will not be named. Check out our previous article for the full list of nominees in the category.
The Academy released the following 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,” said Cheryl Boone Isaacs, Academy President.
The Board determined that Broughton’s actions were inconsistent with the Academy’s promotional regulations, which provide, among other terms, that “it is the Academy’s goal to ensure that the Awards competition is conducted in a fair and ethical manner. If any campaign activity is determined by the Board of Governors to work in opposition to that goal, whether or not anticipated by these regulations, the Board of Governors may take any corrective actions or assess any penalties that in its discretion it deems necessary to protect the reputation and integrity of the awards process.”
Broughton’s reaction to Variety:
I’m devastated. I indulged in the simplest, lamest, grass-roots campaign and it went against me when the song started getting attention. I got taken down by competition that had months of promotion and advertising behind them.
I’m pissed off we’re even having this news. We SHOULD be discussing Broughton’s latest nomination to a film score. Yet Hollywood isn’t knocking on his door apparently.
Could not agree with you more, Mr. Boggan! I don’t know the politics surrounding this news, but I’m sure it’s trivial. Just as Mr. Broughton stated: “It went against me when the song started getting attention.” There is something folly going on here – a bureaucratic fool who thinks he knows everything. The Academy will, and always will be a farce.
It is a mystery why this man is not amongst the big league; his scores for “Tombstone” and “Young Sherlock Holmes” are masterworks. A composer that the “Harry Potter” franchise could have benefited from.
But I do, however, disagree with him over his statement. The whole thing is just backwards.
“I indulged in the simplest, lamest, grass-roots campaign”
Simple grass-roots campaigns are not lame. Such things have lead to greater things and even snowballed into more. Need I remind Mr. Broughton of the write-in campaign to save Star Trek, that started with two people, that snowballed into one more season for the show.
“and it went against me when the song started getting attention.”
It went against him ’cause common sense should tell you as a former member of the origanization, you should not be contacting ANYbody in regards to your nomination, that holds a vote. Whether the song gets attention or not. Like Ed said, the whole thing has been a farce for a long while now; the music organizers at Ubenda should holds a REAL score awards ceremony. Look how deperate people are to get the attention of some lousy organization that undeservedly has too much power and pull.
“I got taken down by competition that had months of promotion and advertising behind them.”
That’s just such B.S. A good song is a good song; it matters not how much promotion and advertising is behind it. Should I point to the countless Holylwood films with MILLIONS of dollars in advertising and promotion, that TANK? Should I point to crappy songs played in theaters for promotion, that never take off? If a song fails, it either sucks or there were other songs that were just as good, that just made the decision making more refined. If he believes the members are swayed by promotion and advertising instead of proper opinion making, he should have, as a former governor of the Academy, tried to do something about the rules and how a score/song are judged. And if he couldn’t, then screw the Academy — who gives a flip what they think? ONly a fraction of American watches that each year, and the nominatiosn are often jokes and a nubmer of wins just baffeling. Could he really thinks he’ll get more work by winning for some song to a film he didn’t even score? Could he really think a win will launch his song writing career? Honestly.
The Academy’s ruling is a comlete joke, I have yet to hear from anyone in the film music community that this was a fair decision. Hope the Academy will reconsider.