The British film Bloody Sunday may be barred from the Oscars because it was shown on television.

The film has won 11 international prizes, including the Golden Bear at Berlin. This week it made the French box office top 10.

The Academy of Motion Pictures, which runs the Oscars, is being lobbied by American film companies to bar Bloody Sunday because it was shown first on ITV. The Academy's rules state that foreign films shown first on TV are ineligible.

But the film's director, Paul Greengrass, and its US distributors, Paramount Classics, are fighting the attempt to cut them out, claiming the film was released in London cinemas simultaneously with its TV screening.

Bloody Sunday has three nominations in next month's European Film Awards.