James Bulger’s Mother Asks For Controversial Irish Film To Be Pulled From The Oscars

Kiara Keane

James Bulger’s mother has requested that a controversial film about her son’s murder be withdrawn from consideration for the Oscars.

Detainment was recently nominated for Best Live Action Short, though James’ mother Denise Fergus had called for it to be pulled on several occasions.

Speaking on Claire Byrne Live on Monday night, Denise said, “I have seen the trailer, but I tried not seeing the child that was playing James, I didn’t want to see that but I seen it on the news one night.

“It was like it was James, but it wasn’t him. To get a child to play him without my permission, I just don’t know what he was thinking of.”

The Irish film is based around transcripts of police interviews with Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who were convicted of abducting and murdering two-year-old James Bulger in Liverpool in 1993.

The movie has gained worldwide attention and an online petition to have it banned has reached over 200,000 signatures.

Director Vincent Lambe released a statement that said, “The film was never intended to bring about any further anguish to the family of James Bulger and we never intended any disrespect by not consulting them.

“As we set out to make a fact-based film that was impartial, we did not attempt to contact any of the families involved but instead relied solely on transcripts and the factual material that has been public knowledge for 25 years.”

Denise explained that she had written a letter to Lambe as she couldn’t face seeing him in person, and said, “I would ask him to pull this film from the nomination because I don’t think it was right he done it in the first place.

“I don’t know what he wanted to gain from it to be quite honest. I can’t sit in front of him because he’s done it behind my back.”

She added, “I just hope he pulls it. If he has any sympathy for James’ family whatsoever, that’s the right thing to do, to pull it.”

Lambe recently said in an interview with Hot Press, “I think if people had just seen the film, the people who are outraged now would have a completely different opinion. But they’ve been told what to think about the film before they’ve seen it. That’s very hard to deal with.”

He added, “I hope that when people do see it, they’ll recognise that it was responsibly made and that it’s an important film.”