Robbie Williams’ “Forbidden Road” Removed from Oscar Shortlist

Song Disqualified From Oscars Shortlist

Robbie Williams’ song “Forbidden Road” from his biopic Best Man was disqualified from the 2025 Oscars shortlist for Best Original Song.

• READ MORE: ‘A Better Man’ Review: Robbie Williams’ Film Could Be the Strangest Music Biopic Ever

Biopic Details

The Best Man film, set to be released on Boxing Day, features the singer as a computer-generated monkey and narrates his life and career—from his childhood to his early success with boy band Take That.

Earlier this week, the Academy announced the shortlists for several categories for the 2025 awards ceremony, revealing that the track from the film, “Forbidden Road,” was initially shortlisted for best original song.

However, the song has now been removed from the shortlist and does not appear on the official Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences webpage for this year’s Oscar shortlists.

Members of the Academy’s music department reportedly received a letter yesterday (December 20) announcing the song’s disqualification. According to Rolling Stone, the letter states that “Forbidden Road” “includes material from an existing song that was not written” specifically for the film.

An Academy spokesperson confirmed that the song in question is Jim Croce’s “I Got a Name,” written by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel. The song served as the theme for the 1973 action film The Last American Hero. Fox is also one of three governors of the Academy’s music department.

According to the category’s selection rules, shortlisted tracks must solely contain lyrics and music that are “original and written specifically for the film.” A letter obtained by Rolling Stone stated that the executive committee “met and reviewed the materials” and concluded that “Forbidden Road” did not meet these criteria.

Representatives for Williams and Fox have yet to comment on the situation.

Also appearing on the shortlist are Elton John and Brandi Carlile’s ‘Never Too Late’ from Elton John: It’s Never Too Late, “Sick In The Head” by Kneecap from their biopic of the same name, “Piece By Piece” by Pharrell Williams from the Lego movie of the same name, “Compress/Repress” by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross from Contenders, and “Mi Camino” by Selena Gomez from Emilia Perez.

Recent Updates on Robbie Williams

In other news regarding Williams, the singer shared that former bandmate Gary Barlow had an early screening of the biopic, and his feedback led Williams to soften Barlow’s portrayal in the final edits.

“We had a difficult relationship. In the script, I expressed my honest feelings at the time, which were not flattering to Gaz, and we sent him the script,” Williams recounted (via Daily Mail). “He called me, and being an adult, there was no cursing or finger-pointing. He said, ‘Rob, I did worse than Darth Vader in the first half.’”

NME described Best Man as “This may be the strangest musical biopic ever made” in a three-star review. Jordan Bassett wrote: “Best Man begins like a John Lewis ad and evolves into an R-rated mishmash that somehow does too much while barely scratching the surface of Robbie Williams’ career.”

“It’s the Rudebox of a movie: some good, some very bad, but it’s all kind of a mess. However, a musical featuring monkeys is a bold step that no one else would take. You can’t fault the chutzpah or ambition. If the film returns its stated budget, we will consume $110 million worth of bananas,” the review concluded.

Williams recently expressed to NME the emotional experience of seeing his life story depicted on screen: “Tears. And triggering. And grief. And healing. And ego,” he shared. “And, ‘Look what happened to me!'” It really depends on which version of me shows up that day—and how much I’ve slept.

“Right now, I just want to take it all in. I want to savor every moment because I’m finally at a place where I can enjoy life. For so long, I haven’t been able to do so. I feel lucky again, and I get another piece of the apple.”