William Nicholson claims Steve McQueen's slavery epic hindered his own chances at award shows
The British screenwriter of Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom has blamed his movie's lack of Oscar success on Steve McQueen's slavery epic 12 Years a Slave.
William Nicholson's movie only picked up one nomination for best original song at this year's Academy Awards in March. 12 Years meanwhile swept the board, winning best film, best adapted screenplay and best supporting actress, as well as picking up nominations in six other categories.
Speaking at the Hay Festival over the weekend, Nicholson appeared to put the blame on 12 Years' success. Stating of his Nelson Mandela biopic which starred Idris Elba, the screenwriter told the Hay audience:
"I think it worked superbly. I'm incredibly proud of this film. Unfortunately it didn't get the kind of acclaim that I wanted. It didn't get Oscars."
Idris Elba took the role of Mandela in the movie
"[Americans] were so exhausted feeling guilty about slavery that I don't think there was much left over to be nice about our film", he continued, the Guardian reports. "So our film didn't do as well as we'd hoped, which was a bit heartbreaking".
The writer also mused that Mandela's death last year just as the movie opened had an effect on the response: "Mandela died as I was in the royal premiere with Will and Kate," he added.
"We were deluged with Mandela stuff and after a week we all thought, please take it away, we've heard enough about Mandela."
Nicholson also revealed that he fictionalised some of the most epic speeches from Mandela in his movie: "All but one ... were made up by me because his own are so boring. I know it sounds outrageous to say a thing like that, but when he came out of prison he made a speech and, God, you fell asleep."
