The only nine Oscar nominees who had their nominations revoked
Much like any other organisation worth its salt, there are rules and regulations that need to be adhered to in order for any title to be considered for an Oscar in any category.
Checking the small print is something that applies to every walk of life, but whether it’s done intentionally or accidentally, several features and shorts alike have made the mistake of failing to pay attention to the minutiae of what it takes to become a contender.
Only nine times in the history of the Academy Awards have either individual nominees or individuals who worked on the projects in question seen their nominations revoked, and the recurring theme is that trying to con the people in charge of the voting doesn’t work.
That doesn’t apply to all of them, but seeing as the ceremony is about to hold its 96th edition, only a tiny amount of infractions have ever occurred, considering the sheer volume of individuals, shorts, and features to have notched nods over the course of the last century, which has conspired to cement them in history.
Oscar candidates who had nominations revoked:
The Circus (Charlie Chaplin, 1928)
In a case of somebody being so good at their job that it was deemed unfair to the rest of the nominees, Charlie Chaplin was thwarted from scooping anywhere up to four trophies at the inaugural Academy Awards after concerns he’d end up sweeping the board.
The iconic star of the classic silent romantic comedy was originally individually shortlisted for ‘Best Actor’, ‘Best Director’, ‘Best Original Screenplay’, and ‘Best Picture’, only for all four to be removed from the official ballot and rolled into a single honorary award.
Instead of potentially making history at the first Oscars by taking home the ‘Big Four’, a bespoke ‘Special Award’ was created and awarded to Chaplin “for acting, writing, directing and producing The Circus“. It was something, sure, but it could have been so much more.
Hondo (John Farrow, 1953)
A 3D western starring John Wayne in the lead role was always going to pique interest, especially when John Farrow was forced to vacate the director’s chair on account of contractual obligations to his next movie, which saw ‘The Duke’ draft in regular cohort John Ford to go uncredited for steering the production across the finish line.
Alongside Geraldine Page’s nomination for ‘Best Supporting Actress’, James Edward Grant was also shortlisted in the ‘Best Original Screenplay’ category, which only happened because nobody had bothered to mention that Hondo was actually an adaptation.
In reality, the film was based on a short story titled The Gift of Cochise, which wasn’t mentioned in the credits. As a result, Grant was removed from the running after having his nomination revoked, which left only four movies vying for the coveted Oscar that year.
High Society (Charles Walters, 1956)
A star-studded musical remake of The Philadelphia Story starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Frank Sinatra in the lead roles, chaos reigned when the Oscar nominations were announced, and nobody seemed sure of what exactly High Society was.
Its ‘Best Original Score’ and ‘Best Song’ nods were fully merited, but writers Edward Bernds and Elwood Ullman found themselves vying for the ‘Best Original Screenplay’ trophy, despite High Society being ineligible given its status as a remake.
Even more bizarrely, they didn’t even write the thing, having instead penned a film with an identical title starring comedy troupe The Bowery Boys that had released the previous year. John Patrick was the true scribe, but thanks to High Society‘s status as a fresh take on an existing story, his contributions were struck from the ballot.
Young Americans (Alexander Grasshoff, 1967)
More of a technical error than an egregious oversight, Young Americans made history as the only movie in the history of the Oscars that had its name read aloud during the ceremony, only for its crowning achievement to be ripped away.
Alexander Grasshoff’s documentary following the experiences of the titular choir had played in a solitary cinema in October 1967 ahead of its full-scale release, which made it ineligible to be considered for the Oscars that determined the best titles to have been released during 1968.
Thanks to that ill-fated screening, Young Americans was forced to hand back its prize in favour of Journey Into Self, which was the runner-up in terms of votes, although it endures as an entirely unique slice of trivia that’s never been replicated before or since.
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
The Godfather did alright for itself on the night after taking home ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Actor’, and ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ at the Oscars, even after its initial ten-nomination haul had been whittled down to nine.
Nino Rota’s score is one of the gangster classic’s many iconic elements, but upon the discovery that he’d repurposed some of the music from his work on the 1958 comedy Fortunella, his nod for crafting the soundscape to the Corleone clan’s rise and fall was removed from the running.
Not one to be deterred, Rota won an Oscar for ‘Best Original Score’ when his entirely original compositions for The Godfather Part II were recognised two years later.
A Place in the World (Adolfo Aristarain, 1992)
Calling in geographical favours is a risky business even for the Oscars, which led to A Place in the World being booted out of the ‘Best International Feature Film’ conversation when the movie‘s subterfuge was discovered.
Submitted by Uruguay as its candidate, Adolfo Aristarain’s acclaimed drama would make the final five before it was pointed out that A Place in the World had been registered with the Golden Globes as an Argentinian movie.
Aristarain asked the Uruguayan minister of education and culture to submit it anyway despite having already shown its hand at a different ceremony, prior to an investigation determining that there was minimal contributions from non-Argentine artists, which violated the Academy’s rules and got it expelled.
Tuba Atlantic (Hallvar Witzø, 2010)
There was a fair amount of ‘he said, she said’ in regards to Tuba Atlantic, but the fact remains the Norwegian short film shot itself in the foot by defying the Academy‘s regulations and then trying to lie about it.
Nominated for ‘Best Live-Action Short Film’, the producers who submitted it for Oscars consideration had answered in the negative when asked if Tuba Atlantic had ever been shown on television. Of course, it had, which led to the powers that be kicking out of contention.
A 25-minute short about a dying man hardly screams controversy, but director Hallvar Witzø nonetheless maintained that the Academy had been fully aware of its small screen airing, something the organisation itself would dispute.
Alone Yet Not Alone (Ray Bengston and George D. Escobar, 2013)
Campaigning and politicking has been part of the Oscars for a long time, but such overt schmoozing proved fatally detrimental to the title track from Alone Yet Not Alone becoming a front-runner.
Co-composer Bruce Broughton doubled as a member of the executive committee on the Academy’s music branch, as well as being a former governor of both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which isn’t a scandal in and of itself.
However, it transpired that he’d been using his position to try and curry favour among the voters in a direct conflict of interest relative to his position, with the historical drama swiftly ruled out of competing for the ‘Best Original Song’ statue.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (Michael Bay, 2016)
Michael Bay movies don’t get nominated for Oscars very often, but on one of the rare occasions that they did, a member of the sound team was busted lobbying his peers in an attempt to gain an advantage.
Grep P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush, and Mac Ruth were all named as 13 Hours‘ potential recipients for ‘Best Sound Mixing’, only for the former to find himself removed entirely once his backchannel dealings were discovered.
According to the Academy, “The decision was prompted by the discovery that Russell had called his fellow members of the Sound Branch during the nominations phase to make them aware of his work on the film, in direct violation of a campaign regulation that prohibits telephone lobbying,” which proved to be for nothing anyway when Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge took home the gold.
