Sunday Top Ten: Pet peeves and highlights of the 2013-14 Oscar season

The big show is coming up on being only a week old, but it feels like ages ago, so I think it's high time for me to finally put the season to bed. 2014 is now here, with its own slate of hotly anticipated Oscar hopefuls in the pipeline, and it's time to get to work on scoping out those, but not before capping off the awards derby that was with my annual list of highs and lows.

One Category at a Time: Original Song

Oh, where to begin with this category. Last year it looked like the music branch had maybe taken a step towards not embarrassing themselves on a yearly basis, having recently overhauled their voting system to yield five respectable (if not unanimously exceptional) nominees. Well, that streak was short-lived, as this year saw the suspicious nomination of the ultra-obscure Alone Yet Not Alone for music branch executive committee member Bruce Broughton, who apparently sent out emails soliciting votes. The Academy went and humiliated Mr. Broughton even further by revoking the nomination, but then decided not to replace it with another song, which is so sad and unfair for that sixth place song, whatever it may have been.

It's all a moot point anyhow. It's not as if Alone Yet Not Alone's disqualification has suddenly cleared the path for anything else to win, although the situation raises some questions about the where to draw the line on campaigning that merit discussion and possibly review. But now that the dust has settled, let's look at the four that remain:

"Alone Yet Not Alone" scandal yields yet more controversy...

In a surprising move that may be unprecedented (I trust you superior Oscar buffs will correct me if I'm wrong)*, the Academy has revoked a nomination! The recipient of this unusual penalty: Best Original Song ex-nominee Alone Yet Not Alone.

There was quite the dust-up on nomination day when this esoteric fringe movie that no one had ever heard of sprang from the lips of Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs as a nominee for its title hymn "Alone Yet Not Alone". A fervent investigation by every confused Oscar pundit on the web soon revealed that the song was written by former Academy governor and current music branch executive committee member Bruce Broughton, and suspicion immediately began to fly regarding the legitimacy of this obscure nomination.

Well, little less than two weeks after that announcement, Ms. Isaacs has something to add, and Broughton's not going to like it. The Board of Governors has rescinded the nomination after discovering that he had emailed music branch members during voting to make them aware of his Best Original Song candidate, which is a big no-no with upper Academy brass.

Unfortunately, they have no intention of naming a fifth nominee, which means just two years after revising the rules to guarantee five Original Song nominees, the music branch has already goofed up and given a slate of four! This branch just can't help embarrassing itself on a near annual basis.

*(I just remembered Nino Rota for The Godfather, but I'm sure there are other examples)