The Academy Awards rescinded the nomination of "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi" for sound mixing before its ceremony Sunday for what it called "contacts" that amounted to campaign violations.
The Academy charged that Greg P. Russell violated the telephone lobbying regulation "... by contacting Academy members by telephone to promote a film or achievement is expressly forbidden, even if such contact is in the guise of checking to make sure a screener or other mailing was received."
The executive committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' sound branch made the recommendation to strip Russell of the nomination and it was passed by its board of governors, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"The Board of Governors' decision to rescind Mr. Russell's nomination was made after careful consideration," said Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs. "The Academy takes very seriously the Oscars voting process and anything – no matter how well-intentioned – that may undermine the integrity of that process."
"13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi," though, remained nominated for the award along with its other sound mixers Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush, and Mac Ruth.
The sound mixing team from the movie "Hacksaw Ridge," which included Kevin O'Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie, and Peter Grace, won the Oscar in that category on Sunday.
Other nominees included Bernard Gariépy, Strobl, and Claude La Haye for "Arrival;" Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee, and Steve A. Morrow for "La La Land;" and David Parker, Christopher Scarabosio, and Stuart Wilson for "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," noted the newspaper.
The Hollywood Reporter said the nomination had been Russell's 17th Oscar nomination of his career. Paramount Studios, which released "13 Hours," issued a statement in support of Russell and his sound mixing team, according to USA Today.
"We are proud of the outstanding work done by Greg, Gary, Jeffrey and Mac on '13 Hours' and we celebrate their achievement," the Paramount statement read, noted USA Today.