Last Minute Drama: Oscar Nomination Rescinded
Sunday, February 26, 2017 at 6:10AM 
It wouldn't be the Oscars without drama. Or in this case, draaaaaa-maaaa. The day before the Oscars -- yes, the day before the Oscars -- the Academy rescinded a nomination. Greg P Russell had received his 17th nomination (he's never won) for his sound mixing on 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi but that nomination is no more. The decision was announced yesterday in light of information about phone calls to branch members. Telephone as well as email lobbying is against the rules. The other members of that particular sound team have retained their nominations so there are still 5 nominated films in the category.
Sing along at Greg's house "Alone...Yet Not Alone...♫ "
For those who recall. The song "Alone Yet Not Alone" from the movie of the same name was the last rescinded nomination just 3 Oscar seasons ago for something similar, emails to branch members. While this is unfortunate, especially considering Russell's long history without a win and big contributions to blockbuster cinema (past nominations include Spider-Man, Transformers, and Skyfall), how do AMPAS members not know not to do this by now?
Reader Comments (10)
Ugh. The truly annoying thing about this is that it will likely contribute to conspiracy theories about the academy "punishing" or "targeting" movies with conservative agendas or perspectives. Sigh.
What a fascinating development. And yes, how do Academy members make this mistake? Unless it was a grey area and he has been unfairly treated. Anyway, at least the whole nomination (i.e. for the film itself) isn't withdrawn - otherwise that would possibly have done something odd to the voting results if 13 Hours had received votes.
He should've spent a couple million on ads in Variety instead
I don't get how the whole nomination isn't rescinded. Even though Russell was the only one sending emails asking for a nomination, that still tarnishes the validity of the whole nomination, which might not have gotten enough votes otherwise. The Academy's rules make little sense.
The way the Academy handled this as well... releasing a press release THE DAY BEFORE the ceremony... seems unnecessarily mean especially for a veteran who I guess should've known better, but still.
I wonder why this happens only in the below the line categories. I mean, surely at some point actors call other actors to 'chit chat'?
Concur with Evan. "Alone Yet Not Alone" was pulled completely. What's the difference?
More last-minute drama: Streep vs Lagerfeld
@catbaskets I'm a staunch liberal/left-winger (I'm a Brit, who is a paid-up member of the Labour Party, and I wanted Bernie Sanders to win the DNC nomination, but nevertheless staunchly encouraged all my American friends to wholeheartedly support Hillary when it became clear she was the only one with a chance of beating Trump, who, suffice to say, I loathe); but it is rather unfortunate that, of all the films recognised tonight, it is the one film alleged to have anything approaching a conservative (even anti-Hillary) agenda, that has had a nomination rescinded. Admittedly, it's not an issue of the entire film having its nomination withdrawn, but still, it doesn't help mitigate against the claims of Hollywood political partisanship.
And Kevin O'Connell wins an oscar leaving Russell as the person with the most nominations without a win