The song Alone Yet Not Alone, like the eponymous movie from which it derives, was the most obscure nominations to appear on the Oscar ballots this year. Given a place in the Best Original Song category, it is now one of the more obscure nominations to see its status yanked by the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences{
When the final round of voting for the Academy Awards begins on February 14, the song will no longer appear on the ballot alongside 'Happy' from Despicable Me 2, Frozen’s 'Let It Go', 'The Moon Song' from He****r’s soundtrack and Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom’s 'Ordinary Love'.
The reason for the dismissal? An investigation into promotional attempts by the song’s writer, Bruce Broughton, who was nominated for Best Original Score for Silverado 28 years ago and served on the Academy’s board between 2003 and 2012. Board members discovered that Broughton had emailed some of the other members of the branch to make them aware of his submission.
“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, the Academy president in a statement run by the Hollywood Reporter. “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.”
"I'm devastated,” Broughton said in a statement to the trade mag. “I indulged in the simplest grassroots 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 simply asked people to find the song and consider it."
Only a few nominees have been disqualified in the years that the Oscars have been running, including 1992’s Foreign Language Film A Place In The World and 2011’s live-action short Tuba Atlantic.
The Academy Awards will be handed out on March 2. You can hear the disqualified song below.