British screenwriter William Nicholson has brushed off Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom's awards disappointment with a controversial explanation.
Oscar-nominated Nicholson, 66, believes the Nelson Mandela biopic starring Idris Elba was not a huge box office success because 12 Years a Slave "sucked up all the guilt about black people that was available" before his movie was released.
"I think it worked superbly," he told an audience at the Hay Festival. "I'm incredible proud of this film. Unfortunately it didn't get the kind of acclaim that I wanted. It didn't get Oscars."
Nicholson, who is believed to have spent 15 years working on the Mandela script, continued: "(America) were so exhausted feeling guilty about slavery that I don't think there was much left over to be nice about our film. So, our film didn't do as well as we'd hoped, which was a bit heartbreaking."
Nicholson then threw modesty to the wind, revealing that Mandela's failures were "very distressing" after the "really good job" he and director Justin Chadwick had done.