No Oscar bid for ‘Bloody Sunday’

In a blow to Paramount Classics, the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has ruled that the acclaimed documentary-style drama “Bloody Sunday” is ineligible to compete for the Academy Awards this year because the film aired on Irish and British television.

The single-night airing that coincided with the film’s opening in those countries violated academy rules that preclude for six months the exhibition of any film outside the theatrical medium.

Paramount Classics, the art house label of Paramount Pictures, had sent a letter to academy President Frank Pierson requesting a waiver. The board, meeting Tuesday night, denied the waiver after little debate, an academy spokesman said.

The movie re-creates the events surrounding a 1972 civil-rights march in Derry, Northern Ireland, that left 13 civilian protesters dead at the hands of British troops.

-- Robert W. Welkos