To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video. Up Next. Robbie Williams’ biopic, Better Man, has suffered a tough hit after being disqualified from the best original song category at the Oscars.
![[A still from Better Man]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_233420897-a150.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
The unconventional movie follows the Take That singer’s rise to fame through the lens of a monkey voiced by Jonno Davies and has received critical acclaim, landing an impressive 89% on Rotten Tomatoes. As we enter awards season, Better Man has already landed a Golden Globes nomination for best original song with Forbidden Road, credited to Robbie, Freddy Wexler and Sacha Skarbek.
![[Robbie Williams]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_233747608-d967.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
The same song was hoping to follow the same trajectory for the Academy Awards and had already secured a spot on the shortlist for the best original song category… until now. In a brutal U-turn, the song has been disqualified from the shortlist, per Variety, meaning the category now only holds 14 songs rather than the expected 15.
According to insiders, the disqualification occurred because the song reportedly ‘incorporates material from an existing song that was not written for the film’. This is despite the fact that the rules state the song must be ‘original and written specifically for the motion picture’.
The issue centres around the melody having similarities with I Got a Name, a 1973 song by Charles Fox-Norman Gimbel which Jim Croce performed for the movie, The Last American Hero. Since then Fox-Norman Gimbel has come on board as one of three governors of the Academy’s music branch.
