Oscars: Will Bohemian Rhapsody lose its Best Picture nomination following Bryan Singer allegations?

The Academy has a history of revoking nods, but only based on technicalities

It’s been a tumultuous week for Bohemian Rhapsody.

Shortly after it received five Oscar nominations, one of which was for Best Picture, an article dropped detailing allegations of sexual abuse against the film’s original director, Bryan Singer. The expose sees four men claim that the filmmaker sexually molested them while they were underage.

Singer has denied the allegations, which were published in The Atalantic.

Following the expose, the GLAAD Media Awards – which recognises outstanding representations of the LGBT community – decided to remove the Golden Globe-winning Queen biopic from contention in the Best Original Film category.

But could the Academy follow suit ahead of the Oscars ceremony on 24 February?

It’s currently looking unlikely, although there have been instances where the Academy president has decided to revoke nominations after they were announced. However, these have all been due to rule-breaking technicalities that rendered them ineligible for the award they were nominated for.

The first time this ever happened was at the first ever Oscars ceremony in 1928. The voting board didn’t want Charlie Chaplin – who was nominated four times for The Circus – to sweep the board so stripped him of them all and gave him an Honorary Award instead.

Another instance of a rescinded nomination arrived In 1954 when John Wayne film Hondo was nominated for Best Story. It was disqualified after the Academy discovered that the script was based on a short story called The Gift of Cochise.

In 2010, a 25-minute Norwegian short film titled Tuba Atlantic had its nomination for Best Live Action Short Film revoked after it was discovered it had aired on television before its theatrical releas

Another film whose Oscar nomination came under fire was short film Detainment, which depicts the murder of two-year-old James Bulger after he was abducted from a shopping centre by Robert Thompson and Jon Venables when they were 10.

Bulger’s mother, Denise Fergus, called upon Irish director Vincent Lambe to remove his film from contention – something he has since said he won’t do.

Singer was fired from Bohemian Rhapsody after failing to turn up to set. He was replaced by Dexter Fletcher.

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Speaking about why the film should be viewed beyond Singers involvement, lead star Rami Malek told The Los Angeles Times: "I think [people] can understand that Bryan Singer was fired from the film. And that can be something that they can look at from a perspective of understanding why they can appreciate the film. And as far as I’m concerned, I never want to take away from Freddie’s story. I think that puts a button on it in a number of ways."

We reached out to an Academy representative for a comment Bohemian Rhapsody's future at the ceremony.