After making the Oscar shortlist of fifteen finalists for Music (Original Song) at this year’s 97th Annual Academy Awards, the Motion Picture Academy confirms to Deadline that the shortlisted song, “Forbidden Road” from the Robbie Williams biopic, Better Man has been disqualified. There will be no replacement.
The song, written by Williams, Freddy Wexler, and Sacha Skarbek, was recently nominated as Best Original Song – Motion Picture at the Golden Globes. Earlier this week at the Golden Globes First Time Nominees luncheon, which happened shortly after the Oscar Shortlist finalists were also announced, I asked Williams his feelings about getting shortlisted and potentially being nominated for an Oscar. “It is always nice to be invited to the party, ” he said adding, “or should I say considered to be invited to the party”. Well right now the only “party” he is being invited to is the Golden Globes. However Better Man does remain shortlisted for Visual Effects (Williams visually is portrayed as a chimpanzee in the film), one of ten finalists for the eventual five nominations in that category.
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According to reports the song features some material from a previous song not written for Better Man, something Academy music branch rules prohibit as the category has always been for songs written directly for a motion picture. Reports point to the song “I Got A Name” written by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel for the 1973 film, The Last American Hero as featuring similarities to part of Forbidden Road. Fox is a longtime member of the AMPAS Board Of Governors. The entire branch was informed of the decision to disqualify earlier today.
Disqualifying a song after initially qualifying it is not new, even after final nominations have been announced. The 2013 film Alone Yet Not Alone saw its title song’s Oscar nomination stripped away after revelations in a Deadline story showed that the song’s composer, Bruce Broughton, also an AMPAS music branch governor at the time, lobbied members to vote for his song, something expressly forbidden by the Academy. It was not replaced and there were only four songs left to compete that year.
Variety first reported the news.
