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Oscar Drama: Christian B-Movie Song Booted From Nominee List
"Alone Yet Not Alone," the virtually unknown song that confused everyone when it was nominated for Best Original Song at this year's Oscars, has just been kicked out of contention.
Eyebrows were raised after it was revealed that the co-composer of the song, Bruce Broughton, was a former Academy Governor and now current member of the Music Branch. According to a statement sent out today, Broughton emailed every one of his colleagues and reminded them about his song, a shady move that undoubtedly played a role in the nomination. The Academy said that Broughton's actions were "inconsistent" with their goals of creating a fair nomination process.
"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 Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs in the statement.
The move is seen as a first in the 86-year history of the Academy, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
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The film was so off the radar that not a single review was up on Rotten Tomatoes. According to the synopsis on IMDb, Alone Yet Not Alone is a Christian-themed movie about two white settler children who have been kidnapped by "Hostile native tribes." (Um.)
The song's nomination created a huge quake in the film world, so much so that the people behind a song that was snubbed actually hired a private investigator to find out of the movie met all the requirements to be nominated, including "For Your Consideration" ads in L.A. County.
It's a pretty embarrassing move for the Academy, seeing as how they failed to police themselves when it came to Oscar lobbying. We're sure this will lead to more strict rules next year.
The nomination pool for the award is now down to four: "Let it Go" from Frozen, "The Moon Song" from Her, "Happy" from Despicable Me 2 and "Ordinary Love" from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. The Academy will not nominate another song to fill the dumped song's place (Sorry to get your hopes up, Lana Del Rey fans).
For those who are curious, here's the now un-nominated song:
UPDATE 1/30: Bruce Broughton, the composer for "Alone Yet Not Alone" and Academy member, spoke with the L.A. Times about the song's ousting from Oscar contention:
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"I’m getting something taken away from me when these other studios have been skirting on the edges of proper behavior for months, backed by huge troughs of money," Broughton told The Times. "I feel sullied. I feel dirtied. I don’t like my reputation being taken down like this."
Broughton's publicist, Ray Costa, claims that Broughton emailed only a fifth of the Academy voters. Meanwhile, another Academy member, who requested anonymity, claims that he never received a phone call or email from Broughton about the song.
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