The Academy won't budge on Oscar nomination for short film about 2-year-old murder victim James Bulger, despite his mother's petition

Twelve Media

• A two-year-old boy named James Bulger was murdered in 1993.
• The convicted killers, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, were both 10 years old at the time.
• Now a short film about the crime, "Detainment," is nominated for best short film at the Oscars.
• Bulger's mother, Denise Fergus, circulated a petition asking the Academy to revoke the nomination.
• In a new statement, the Academy says it will uphold its "neutral role" in the voting process and allow voters to come to their "own judgment" about the film. 
• The movie's director also told BBC he won't remove it from consideration. 

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has said that it will maintain its “neutral” role after the mother of James Bulger called for the removal of a short film about his killers. The Oscars said academy members applied their “own judgment” on the film’s merits, and that while it took Denise Fergus’s concerns “very seriously,” the Academy “does not in any way influence the voting process."

"Detainment," directed by Vincent Lambe, recreates police interviews with his killers, by using transcripts from the original tapes played in court during their trial. Mrs. Fergus said she was haunted by some of the imagery in the film and called on the academy to remove it from next month’s ceremony or for Lambe to withdraw it.See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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