The Time the Oscars Took Back a Best Original Song Nomination

On the morning of January 16, 2014, the nominees for the 86th Academy Awards were released. There were many nods that morning that raised some eyebrows, but nothing was quite as bizarre as the presence of a song from the movie Alone Yet Not Alone making it in the Best Original Song category. The song was called “Alone Yet Not Alone” and was written by Bruce Broughton and Dennis Spiegel, performed by Joni Eareckson Tada.

The feature’s presence in this category baffled many, given how Alone Yet Not Alone had barely been on anyone’s radar and songwriter Broughton was a former Governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The controversy around the nomination became so extreme that Tada told The Hollywood Reporter that she was convinced no shady actions had occurred concerning Broughton allegedly influencing Academy voters. So how did this obscure movie even get the attention of the Academy anyway?

Alone Yet Not Alone

Alone yet Not Alone is based on the inspirational, true story of Barbara and Regina Leininger, two immigrant sisters forced to embark on a journey of faith that will lead them through the darkness of war into the light of freedom.

Release Date

September 27, 2013

Director

Ray Bengston , George D. Escobar

Cast

Kelly Greyson , Natalie Racoosin , Clay Walker , Ozzie Torres

Runtime

103 minutes

Main Genre

Drama

Writers

Tracy Leininger Craven , George D. Escobar , Heather Hughes , James Richards

‘Alone Yet Not Alone’ Was a Box Office Flop

Alone Yet Not Alone technically qualified for the Oscars when it opened in 11 theaters over the final weekend of September 2013, generating $125,775. After that, it vanished, with no other recorded box office data for 2013 (the title would get a more “proper” theatrical run in June 2014). This motion picture had no well-known actors in its cast, major distribution, or notable film festival run…it was basically on nobody’s radar. Beyond confirmation of which 75 tunes were eligible for the Best Original Song category in December 2013, there wasn’t even a shortlist that whittled the possible nominees down to 15 choices that put Alone Yet Not Alone back on people’s consciousness. It just went from obscurity to infamy in the span of a few minutes on that fateful January morning, when it was announced as a Best Original Song nominee alongside tunes from motion pictures like Her and Frozen in the 2014 Oscar nominations. Yes, the same year “Let It Go” was up for an Oscar, the Alone Yet Not Alone boondoggle occurred.

Later, the Academy would disclose, in announcing the rescinding of this nomination, that the reason for Alone Yet Not Alone being excluded came down to the actions of Broughton. The Academy claimed this songwriter had reached out to members of the Academy’s voting branch via e-mail to put his tune on their minds. This act, combined with Broughton’s influence on the institution, was incredibly shady. “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 then-Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs at the time.

Admittedly, this rescinding does raise some…strange questions about the Academy Awards in general. Namely, the Oscars gravitate towards nominating and ultimately awarding super-mainstream American movies, most of those anchored by actors or created by directors who are already in the Academy. It’s inevitable that these voters (inhabiting the film industry) will have some pre-conceived connections or impressions of many of the folks nominated, especially legendary icons who have been in the business for decades. This isn’t to accuse every member of the Academy of “corruption,” but rather to point out how the structure of this event means that these voters can be conceptually susceptible to the subconscious biases that plague us all. Plus, this does explain why titles from totally unknown artists with largely zero prior connections to the mainstream film industry (like 96th Oscars no-shows Kokomo City or Trenque Lauquen) don’t make it to the ceremony. Still, even considering this phenomenon, Broughton’s actions promoting Alone Yet Not Alone only exacerbate this potential problem. It’s incredibly understandable why this movie’s nomination was taken away.

‘Alone Yet Not Alone’ Isn’t the Only Oscar Nomination Controversy

In the aftermath of this event, Broughton penned an open letter chastising the Academy for its actions. Most notably, he claimed that Isaacs was the real perpetrator of illicit activity, claiming that his actions to contact Academy members were no different than her working as a publicist for projects like The Artist and The King’s Speech. Broughton’s words indicate that he’s trying to implicate Isaacs as being “biased” for those Best Picture nominees while also being the Academy’s governor…except she wasn’t in that position when those titles came out. She was elected as governor in 2013, after Artist and Speech came out. She was an Academy member at the time, but, being a member and working as a general publicist hired to work on multiple films is considerably different from an artist trying to sway voters to support one specific feature he has a personal stake in.

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The letter is a bewildering creation that doesn’t even see Broughton deny his actions but merely alleges that others have behaved just as badly. It’s an immature response to this whole problem that only casts further shadiness over this entire affair. Far overshadowing this letter response, though, was the historical significance of revoking Alone Yet Not Alone’s Oscar nomination. Oscar nods had been rescinded over the years, but The Los Angeles Times reported in January 2014 that this was the first time ethical reasons had been used to justify the revoking. Usually, rescinded nominations were based on technicalities, like the short film Tuba Atlantic retroactively losing its Best Live-Action Short Film nod once the Academy discovered it didn’t technically qualify for the 84th Academy Awards. That instance was chalked up to a release date snafu, not allegedly shady e-mails.

Similarly, Nino Rota’s score for The Godfather was excluded from the Best Original Score category due to it featuring compositions Rota had previously utilized in an earlier Italian movie. Again, this was a technicality matter based on how the Academy defines “qualified” contenders for each annual Oscar ceremony, not a rescinded nomination based on an artist’s behavior. Alone Yet Not Alone was an incredibly rare instance of an Oscar nomination getting announced and then getting taken back afterward, with not even Andrea Riseborough’s divisive To Leslie Best Actress nod getting this kind of heat. It’s doubtful we’ll be seeing anything similar to it in the years to come. Inexplicable nominations and subsequent consequences, like everything that befell Alone Yet Not Alone at the Oscars, don’t come along every year!

Alone Yet Not Alone is available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.

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