From the filmscoremonthly website, regarding 1972 Oscar noms:
"This was the most convoluted year in the history of the Best Score award. The original five nominees were Images, Limelight, Napoleon and Samantha, Poseidon Adventure, and The Godfather, until it was discovered that the famous "Speak Softly Love" theme from The Godfather was originally composed by Rota for the Italian movie Fortunella in 1958.
The Academy then temporarily pulled Godfather's score nomination and resubmitted it along with the other five remaining finalists. The branch members voted and chose Sleuth to receive the fifth nomination.
To make things even more confusing, two years later, the score for The Godfather Part II, which incorporates themes from the original Godfather including the Fortunella theme, won Best Original Score.
The 1972 award ultimately went to Limelight, a film produced and scored in 1952 but not officially released in Los Angeles until 1972. After this award, the rules were changed so that older films could no longer be eligible under this technicality."
As for Mayfield's score for "Superfly"-the music heard in the film amounted to only approx. 20-some minutes of music, to be eligible for consideration the music had to be at least a certain length, which "Superfly," as heard in the film. didn't meet.
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