Mother of James Bulger calls on Oscars to drop film about son’s killers, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, as father slams their ‘sympathetic’ depiction

‘Detainment’, by filmmaker Vincent Lambe, is based on the interrogation of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both aged 10 at the time of the 1993 UK killing

The film has been shortlisted for an Oscar, to the horror of James Bulger’s parents, who were never contacted by Lambe

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Undated file photos of British boys Robert Thompson (left) and Jon Venables (right) who were jailed in 1993 for beating toddler James Bulger to death. The two boys were aged 10 at the time of the killing. Photo: Handout

Published: 6:19am, 9 Jan 2019Updated: 7:40pm, 9 Jan 2019

The parents of James Bulger, the two-year-old murdered in Liverpool in 1993 by a pair of primary schoolboys, have criticised the makers of a short film about the case, which has been shortlisted for an Oscar nomination.

Detainment, written and directed by Irish filmmaker Vincent Lambe, is based on transcripts of the police interrogation of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, who were 10 years old at the time and were subsequently convicted of the murder.

James Bulger who was beaten to death by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson on a railway line in Liverpool, England, in February 1993. Photo: AP

It won best short film and special jury award at the Cannes Lions festival in June 2018 (a separate event from the high profile film festival), and went on to win the grand prix at the Odense film festival in Denmark, which qualified it to be considered for an Academy Award.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Bulger’s father Ralph said that Lambe had failed to contact him.

“Not once has the maker of this film contacted me or any of James’s family about this film … It has been 26 years since my son was taken and murdered and so I have seen many documentaries and news stories about him,” Ralph Bulger said.