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Why Wasn't There an Oscar Nomination for Best Score?


The year before, Isaac Hayes walked home with an Oscar for best theme song for "Shaft." Curtis Mayfield's score for "Superfly" should have gotten an Oscar nomination for best original score, if there was that nomination in 1973, and probably could have won. The musical score was no-nonsense, as was the movie, and depicted an original story of a longtime drug dealer from Harlem who wanted to go straight and better himself.

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Curtis was nominated. End of the discussion. Even the IMdb page says it.

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He was nominated for a Grammy, not an Oscar. I believe there was a difference at the time, though now it seems like they're both run by the same people.

Spill the wine
Take that pearl
War

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I couldn't agree more.

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Obviously all those old white guys love rap. Eminem got one too.

"Suspense is like a woman. The more left to the imagination, the more the excitement."

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Yeah, maybe cause Enema, oh excuse me Eminem is white.

Definitely not right, Superfly should have gotten a nomination by the AMPAS.

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I know, that was a real pisser. It wasn't even the best song in Hustle and Flow, much less the best of the year

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Ace19444&view=videos
music videos I've made^

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From the American Film Institute Catalog:
In January 1973, trade papers reported that although it previously had been announced as under consideration as a nominee, Mayfield's song "Freddie's Dead" had been ruled ineligible for entry in the Best Original Song category because it appeared in the film only as an instrumental. [The soundtrack album did feature the lyrics written for the song by Mayfield.] After the announcement, Warner Bros. issued an apology for its erroneous submission of the song for consideration. Controversy continued to swirl around the Academy's decision to exclude the song, with the executive committee of the music branch convening to discuss the song's ineligibility. According to a February 5, 1973 Daily Variety article, the meeting was held "because of the emotions involved," and the song's exclusion was upheld.
On February 23, 1973, Daily Variety related that Mayfield had filed a letter of complaint with the Academy over its method of selecting nominees. The article noted that Mayfield was not qualified for a nomination for Best Dramatic Score because "five songs needed to be submitted, and Warners only submitted three." Although the article stated that Mayfield's manager was contemplating filing suit against the Academy, the action was not taken. It was also noted that Mayfield had accused the Academy of a racial bias, although he was declining to file suit because the title song from Super Fly had been considered for the Oscar balloting.

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Thanks for that information....
I wonder if the same thing happened to
"Saturday Night Fever". The Song, "How Deep is Your Love" should have been nominated for best song in 1978.....

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Incredibly, none of the songs from "Saturday Night Fever" even made the preliminary list of potential nominees. "Theme from 'New York, New York'" was considered but not nominated.

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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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"Superfly" is indeed a great soundtrack but most of the album wasn't heard in the movie-wasn't used on the soundtrack. That's why none of the music got a nomination. The Academy has rules and some of them are A) the music has to be heard in the movie for a minimum of 20-something minutes before the music is considered a "score," this didn't happen with "Superfly" and B) for a song to be considered for Best Song the lyrics must be heard in the movie-did you notice that none of the lyrics to "Freddie's Dead" are actually heard in the movie? Blame the director for not using the brilliant score Mayfield did, the Academy was willing but the choices Parks Jr made ruled the score ineligible per Academy rules. And Mayfield wasn't happy about it either. He also wasn't happy about the way the movie glorified drug dealers.

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Although the musical score to Super Fly, as most would agree, was excellent, the movie itself was considered to be morally dubious, which would easily explain why it was overlooked by the Academy.

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I think Curtis deserved the Oscar more than Hayes. Isaac made a damn fine song (perhaps the ultimate Funk track) but Curtis made a damn fine ALBUM.

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For real---the Superfly soundtrack is one of the best movie scores EVER made in the '70's, period. I'm biased because I grew up hearing long before I ever saw the movie, but it deserved to be nominated, because it was that damn good.

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