Michael Bay’s Benghazi story 13 Hours pulled down a surprise Oscar nomination for itself this year, with Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Mac Ruth all being nominated for Best Sound Mixing on the John Krasinski-starring film.
Now, though, a controversy has cropped up around Russell’s nomination, with Deadline reporting that the Academy voted today to rescind the honor. Russell apparently called members of the Academy during the nomination process to make them aware of his work on the film, a violation of the Oscars’ strict rules against direct telephone campaigning. Despite the ruling, though, Summers, Habrous, and Ruth will all still be eligible for the award.
And while we know that the drama surrounding the Best Sound Mixing Oscar is probably of minimal interest to everybody outside a very select and well-mixed group of folk, it’s always interesting to get a look at the rigorous (and occasionally draconian) rules that dictate the complicated politics of Hollywood giving awards to itself. Plus, it generated at least one pretty great tweet, courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter’s Matthew Belloni: