--- description: 'Mandela' writer William Nicholson says his film didn't win awards because '12 Years a Slave' "sucked up all the guilt about black people" title: Mandela Scriptwriter Blames 12 Years a Slave for His Movie’s Failure image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc53f658c44342ed0/698695ee3bc999f9691a3e47/493821161.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # _Mandela_ Scriptwriter Blames _12 Years a Slave_ for His Movie's Failure by [Megan Gibson](/author/megan-gibson/) ## Megan Gibson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 3, 2014 12:32 PM CUT  British playwright, novelist and screenwriter William Nicholson at his home near Lewes, East Sussex, 13th December 2012. British playwright, novelist and screenwriter William Nicholson at his home near Lewes, East Sussex, 13th December 2012.Eamonn McCabe--Getty Images by [Megan Gibson](/author/megan-gibson/) ## Megan Gibson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 3, 2014 12:32 PM CUT Well, this is [one way ](http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jun/03/mandela-12-years-a-slave-guilt-black-people "undefined")to spin defeat. At a literary festival in England over the weekend, _Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom_ scriptwriter William Nicholson told the audience that his film failed to make a splash and win awards because _12 Years a Slave_ “sucked up all the guilt about black people that was available.” Unlike _12 Years_ — which earned rave reviews and took home three Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay — _Mandela_ received mixed reviews and only one Oscar nod for Best Original Song. (“Let It Go” from _Frozen_ ultimately picked up the prize.) Yet Nicholson — who previously co-wrote the scripts for _Gladiator_ and _Elizabeth: The Golden Age —_ doesn’t think _Mandela_‘s lukewarm reception was warranted. “I think it worked superbly,” he said of his film. But “\[Americans\] 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.” \[[_Guardian_](http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jun/03/mandela-12-years-a-slave-guilt-black-people "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2817442/mandela-writer-blames-12-years-a-slave/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2817442/mandela-writer-blames-12-years-a-slave/"},"headline":"Mandela Scriptwriter Blames 12 Years a Slave for His Movie's Failure","datePublished":"2014-06-03T12:32:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:10:57.078Z","description":"Screenwriter William Nicholson says that his film Mandela failed to win awards because Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave \"sucked up all the guilt about black people\"","url":"https://time.com/2817442/mandela-writer-blames-12-years-a-slave/","keywords":["movies","Nelson Mandela","12 Years a Slave","awards","Mandela"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc53f658c44342ed0/698695ee3bc999f9691a3e47/493821161.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan Gibson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/megan-gibson/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc53f658c44342ed0/698695ee3bc999f9691a3e47/493821161.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"William Nicholson","caption":"William Nicholson","creditText":"Eamonn McCabe--Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2817442/mandela-writer-blames-12-years-a-slave/","name":"Mandela Scriptwriter Blames 12 Years a Slave for His Movie's Failure"}}]}] ```