My younger sister, Belinda, a professional violinist in Hollywood (see her food blog www.tastetickler.blogspot.com) is married to the Hollywood composer Bruce Broughton.

For those of you who are interested in the recent Oscar nominations, Bruce received an Oscar nomination for Best Song category for the song he wrote for a small movie, Alone Yet Not Alone.

It's a movie set in the year 1755, and the English colonies are being ravaged by the atrocities of war. Opposing European powers have clashed over the fertile Ohio valley, and entire families are devastated

This is a very small movie which made no more than $143,000 at the box office in the USA. The song is sung by a quadriplegic, Joni Eareckson Tada, who has the most divine voice.  Please listen to the song as it is stunningly and hauntingly beautiful. The song had 81 percent of the votes in the Hollywood Reporter poll before this announcement from the Academy.

The Academy has now revoked the nomination on unfounded grounds that Bruce had an unfair advantage as a member of the Academy, by emailing some of the members with an innocuous email.  However, it is clear to everyone that he is the victim of a crackdown of a small movie against the huge Hollywood blockbusters attached to the other nominations. 

Bruce stated that he was "devastated" at the Academy's decision.

Bruce is not only an extremely talented composer but also an honest, ethical and principled person.  His last Oscar nomination was 30 years ago for the music for Silverado.

As you can imagine, this is an extremely difficult time for our family. I would appreciate it if you could support Bruce — even if you don't know him or his music but just in defence of justice of a talented and moralistic composer — by adding your voice to this petition in support of Bruce Broughton.