Golden Raspberry Awards

Golden Raspberry Awards
Current: 29th Golden Raspberry Awards
John Wilson at 29th Golden Raspberry Awards
Description	Worst in film
Country	United States
Presented by	Golden Raspberry Award Foundation
First awarded	1981
Website	http://www.razzies.com/

The Golden Raspberry Awards, frequently called the Razzies, were created by John Wilson in 1980 (and first awarded in 1981), intended to counterpoint the Academy Awards by dishonoring (or honoring) the worst acting, screenwriting, songwriting, directing, and films that the film industry had to offer. The term raspberry is used in its irreverent sense, as in "blowing a raspberry."

Current awards are voted upon by the membership of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation (GRAF), and membership is openly available to the public, as opposed to the Academy Awards. Traditionally, nominations are announced one day before the Motion Picture Academy announces its Oscar nominations, and the awards are presented one day before the Oscar ceremony, as a complement to the Oscars.

In 2009, the supposed list of nominees was leaked early. Originally intended to be announced on January 21, a list believed to be the full one was posted online on January 7. The list had already gone viral before the Razzie Award people could do anything about it. What was posted were the suggestions listed on the nominating ballot, not the actual nominees.

The Razzie

The award usually takes the form of a plastic raspberry and roll of film spray-painted gold and mounted on a plastic base — nominally valued at US$4.89.

Nomination

Nomination and selection are performed by the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation (G.R.A.F.), an indiscriminate group of voters who pay between $25 and $250 a year for membership. The Foundation is currently made up of approximately 750 members.

Categories

The Official Categories of the Razzies are:

• Worst Picture
• Worst Director
• Worst Actor
• Worst Actress
• Worst Supporting Actor
• Worst Supporting Actress
• Worst Screen Couple (awarded since 1994)
• Worst Screenplay
• Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel (Remake or sequel since 1994, prequel or rip-off since 2006)
• Worst New Star (1981 to 1988, 1990 to 1998; This category is now rarely awarded.)
• Worst Original Song (1980 to 1999, 2002; This category is now rarely awarded.)

Special categories

Special categories have also been introduced for specific years. Such special awards include Worst Screenplay Grossing Over $100 Million (1996), Worst Reckless Disregard for Human Life and Public Property (1997), Most Flatulent Teen-Targeted Movie (2002), Worst Excuse for an Actual Movie (All Concept/No Content!) (2003), Most Tiresome Tabloid Targets (2005), Worst Excuse For Family Entertainment (2006), Worst Excuse for a Horror Movie (2007) and others.

Other types of awards

Over the years, the Golden Raspberry Awards have awarded special awards next to the actual Razzie Awards as well.

Worst Career Achievement Award

This award has been given only five times, in 1981, 1983, 1985, 1987, and 2009 to Ronald Reagan, Linda Blair, Irwin Allen, "Bruce the Rubber Shark" from Jaws and director Uwe Boll who received his for his achievement as "Germany's answer to Ed Wood".

Governor's Award

This is a special award given by Razzie Award Governor John Wilson to an individual whose achievements are not covered by the Razzie's other categories. It was awarded in 2003 to Travis Payne for "Distinguished Under-Achievement in Choreography" in the film From Justin to Kelly.

Stars who have accepted the award

Many actors, directors, and producers have been awarded a Golden Raspberry. In a few cases, some of the winners have accepted their award in person, although only three have done so at the award ceremony itself - Paul Verhoeven, Tom Green and Halle Berry.

• 1987: Bill Cosby won three Razzie Awards for Worst Picture, Worst Actor, and Worst Screenplay for Leonard Part 6, a botched spoof of spy flicks that Cosby himself had condemned on several talk shows. Cosby arranged for the Fox network to reproduce the Razzies in gold and Italian marble, at a cost of $27,500, and accepted them on The Late Show.

• 1992: Tom Selleck accepted his Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor for his performance as King Ferdinand of Spain in Christopher Columbus: The Discovery during an episode of The Chevy Chase Show.

• 1995: Director Paul Verhoeven became the first winner to actually show up at the Razzie ceremony, when he personally accepted his award for Worst Director for the film Showgirls. He also accepted the Worst Picture Award for the movie.

• 1997: Screenwriter Brian Helgeland became the first person to win a Razzie and an Oscar in the same year. He won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award for L.A. Confidential and the Razzie for Worst Screenplay for Kevin Costner's The Postman. He did not attend the Razzie ceremony, but wanted to have the Razzie to display it next to his Oscar to remind him of "the quixotic nature" of Hollywood. He was later officially presented his Razzie at his office at Warner Bros. Studios.

• 1999: Wild Wild West earned five Razzies (including Worst Picture) that year. Robert Conrad, who starred in the 1960s The Wild Wild West television series and despised the film version, accepted three of the five Razzies.

• 2000: Although he didn't officially accept the award, Barry Pepper stated (after the fact) that had he known he was going to win the 2000 Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor (which he did win, for Battlefield Earth), he would have gladly shown up at the ceremony and accepted his award in person.

• 2001: Tom Green accepted all five of his Razzie Awards, including Worst Picture, for Freddy Got Fingered. He declared, "I want to say I didn't deserve this any more than anyone else here... dear God, I want to say that. I don't think it would be true, though." He turned up in a white Cadillac and brought his own length of red carpet. Green's speech included a never-ending piece of music played on the harmonica, and he was eventually dragged off stage.

• 2003: Ben Affleck, after winning Worst Actor for his work in Gigli, Daredevil, and Paycheck, asked why he did not get his trophy. He was presented the Razzie live on Larry King Live a week later, which he promptly broke.

• 2004: Halle Berry accepted her Razzie for Worst Actress for the film Catwoman. She gave a speech, similar to when she won the 2002 Best Actress Academy Award for Monster's Ball, carrying her Oscar in one hand and her Razzie in the other. While onstage, she called the film a "piece of shit, god-awful movie", which met laughter and applause. Shortly afterwards, John Wilson released a statement to the press praising Halle Berry's other performances and stating that he looks forward to Berry giving other Oscar-worthy performances.

• 2008: Kim Kardashian was nominated for Worst Supporting Actress in 2009 for her performance in Disaster Movie. She mentioned being nominated in her personal blog and rather than being insulted, she took it in stride and said that "It's an honor just being nominated!"

Razzie/Oscar connection

• The only two actors to be nominated for an Oscar and Razzie for the same performance are James Coco for Only When I Laugh in 1982 and Amy Irving for Yentl in 1984. Neither won either award.

• Jack Nicholson was nominated for Worst Actor (for both Hoffa and Man Trouble) in 1992. That same year, he was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars for A Few Good Men.

• Uma Thurman was nominated for Worst Actress (for Even Cowgirls Get the Blues) in 1994. That same year, she was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars for Pulp Fiction.

• Daryl Hannah won the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress for her role in Wall Street in 1987. Her co-star Michael Douglas, meanwhile, won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in that film.

• Gena Rowlands was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in Gloria, while Sharon Stone was nominated for a Razzie for Worst Actress in Gloria, the remake of the original.

• Tom Cruise starred in the Worst Picture winner Cocktail and co-starred in the Best Picture Oscar winner Rain Man in 1988.

• Christopher Walken and Alec Baldwin were both nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor in the same year, although for different films. Walken was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 2002 for Catch Me If You Can and Worst Supporting Actor for The Country Bears. Baldwin was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 2003 for The Cooler and Worst Supporting Actor for The Cat in the Hat.

• The actors to have won both a Razzie and an Oscar for acting are: Faye Dunaway, Marlon Brando, Charlton Heston, Laurence Olivier, Roberto Benigni, Halle Berry, and Liza Minnelli, as well as Nicole Kidman (worst screen couple with Will Ferrell for Bewitched in 2005) who won Best Actress for The Hours in 2002 and Kevin Kline (worst screen couple with Will Smith for Wild Wild West in 1999) who won Best Supporting Actor for A Fish Called Wanda in 1988. In addition, Sofia Coppola, Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner and Prince are also Oscar and Razzie winners, but only one of the two awards was in acting.

• Filmmaker James Cameron won the Worst Screenplay Razzie in 1986 for his role in the writing of Rambo: First Blood Part II. He would later go on to win three Oscars for Titanic.

• Songwriter Diane Warren earned both Razzie and Oscar nominations for the songs "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" from the movie Armageddon and "How Do I Live" from the movie Con Air; she didn't win either of the two awards.

• Songwriters Leslie Bricusse & Henry Mancini earned both Razzie and Oscar nominations for the song, "Life in a Looking Glass" from the 1986 film That's Life!.

• Bicentennial Man, The Blue Lagoon, The Formula, The Competition, Endless Love, Heaven's Gate, Gloria, Cliffhanger, Daylight, The Ghost and the Darkness, Twister, Independence Day, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Fifth Element, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Honeysuckle Rose, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Rocky III, Poltergeist II: The Other Side, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Pearl Harbor, Norbit, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Batman Begins, Harlem Nights, The Last Temptation of Christ, Willow, Beverly Hills Cop II, The Cotton Club, Purple Rain, Vanilla Sky, The Godfather Part III, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Hook, Poetic Justice, The Addams Family, Addams Family Values, Wyatt Earp, The Mask, Jaws, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, The Bodyguard, Waterworld, Batman Forever, Batman Returns, Basic Instinct, Hoffa, Transformers, War of the Worlds, Toys, Poseidon, Superman Returns, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End were all nominated for an Academy Award and a Razzie.

• Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan was nominated for Oscar in the categories of Best Director and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for his film The Sixth Sense in the year 2000. He was later nominated for Razzie awards in the categories Worst Supporting Actor, Director and Screenplay for Lady in the Water in 2007. He later went on to win both Worst Supporting Actor and Worst Director. He was again nominated two years later, for both Worst Director and Worst Screenplay for The Happening in 2009. He failed to win either award for that film.

• Michael Cimino won a Best Director Oscar for The Deer Hunter in 1979. In contrast, he was nominated for two Razzies for Heaven's Gate in 1982, one of which he won (Worst Director). He was again nominated for Worst Director for his work on Year of the Dragon in 1986. He failed to win that award for that film.

• Filmmaker Martin Brest was nominated for Best Director and Best Picture at the Oscars in 1993, for the film Scent of a Woman. He was later nominated for, and subsequently won, the Razzie Awards for Worst Director and Worst Screenplay, for the 2003 film Gigli.

• Director Gus Van Sant was nominated for Best Director at the Oscars in 1997 for the film Good Will Hunting. The next year, however, he was subsequently nominated for, and won, the Razzie for Worst Director for the 1998 remake of Psycho.

• Diana Scarwid was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars in 1981 for the film Inside Moves. The next year, she was nominated for, and won, the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress for her role in Mommie Dearest.

• The following directors who have been nominated for both an Oscar and a Razzie are John G. Avildsen, William Friedkin, Stanley Kubrick, Franco Zeffirelli, John Huston, Richard Brooks, Hugh Hudson, Barry Levinson, Adrian Lyne, Richard Rush, Roland Joffe, Stephen Frears, Oliver Stone, George Lucas, John Schlesinger, Roberto Benigni and Ron Howard.

• The following actors who have both been nominated for both an Oscar and a Razzie are Michael Caine, Kirk Douglas, Richard Dreyfuss, Anthony Hopkins, Bruce Dern, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole, Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Ryan O'Neal, Mickey Rourke, George C. Scott, Michael Douglas, Jack Nicholson, Willem Dafoe, Robert Redford, George Clooney, Jon Voight, Ralph Fiennes, Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Nicolas Cage, Mark Wahlberg, Ernest Borgnine, Orson Welles, Louis Gossett, Jr., George Kennedy, Burt Young, Tim Robbins, Harvey Keitel, Pat Morita, Anthony Quinn, Alan Alda, Robert Duvall, Tom Berenger, John Lithgow, Rod Steiger, Sean Connery, Joe Pesci, Kenneth Branagh, Forest Whitaker, Christopher Walken, Alec Baldwin, Bob Hoskins and Ben Kingsley.

• The following actresses who have both been nominated for both an Oscar and a Razzie are Sondra Locke, Valerie Perrine, Talia Shire, Barbra Streisand, Mary Tyler Moore, Shirley MacLaine, Kim Basinger, Whoopi Goldberg, Jane Fonda, Bette Midler, Sally Field, Lorraine Bracco, Uma Thurman, Julia Roberts, Jessica Lange, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Penelope Cruz, Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron, Winona Ryder, Diane Keaton, Annette Bening (as one of the five cast members nominated respectively for their roles in The Women), Kate Hudson, Shirley Knight, Dyan Cannon, Diane Lane, Louise Fletcher, Beatrice Straight, Kristin Scott Thomas, Mariel Hemingway, Eileen Brennan, Anne Bancroft, Marisa Tomei, Ann-Margret, Anne Archer, Kathy Bates, Elizabeth Taylor, Lesley Ann Warren, Salma Hayek, Juliette Lewis, Goldie Hawn and Natalie Portman.

• The following actors and actresses who were nominated for an Oscar and have won a Razzie are Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds, John Travolta, Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, Woody Harrelson, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt (worst screen couple with the former in Interview with the Vampire in 1994), Dennis Hopper, Leonardo DiCaprio (worst screen couple for appearing with himself as twins in The Man in the Iron Mask in 1998), Will Smith (worst screen couple with Kevin Kline in Wild Wild West), Linda Blair, Melanie Griffith, Sharon Stone and Amy Irving.

Razzie records

• The 2003 film Gigli was the first, and so far only, film to win in the top five categories at the Razzies (Worst Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and Screenplay). This makes it the Razzie equivalent of 1934's It Happened One Night, which was the first film to win the Oscar grand slam (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and Screenplay).

• I Know Who Killed Me (2007) has received the most Razzie awards, at eight wins out of nine nominations (only lost at Worst Supporting Actress), in a single awards year. It is also the only movie to have an actress win the Worst Actress award twice: both of Lindsay Lohan's characters tied for the honor. This also ties the record for most Razzies won by a single film: Showgirls (1995) and Battlefield Earth (2000) each won seven Razzies in their respective eligibility years and then an eighth in later years (the former won Worst Movie of the Decade in 2000, the latter Worst Drama of Our First 25 Years in 2005).

• Actor Sylvester Stallone has received 30 nominations and ten wins and is the actor with the largest number of nominations and wins. He was nominated for the Worst Actor award for nine consecutive years from 1984 to 1992, winning four times.

• The all-time actors who have won two or more Razzies are Sylvester Stallone, Madonna, Kevin Costner, Demi Moore, Brooke Shields, Faye Dunaway, Sharon Stone, Burt Reynolds, Christopher Atkins, Pia Zadora, Laurence Olivier and Pauly Shore.

• Former United States president George W. Bush, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are the only non-actors to have won Razzies for their appearances in the 2004 Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. Bush won Worst Actor and shared the Worst Screen Couple Award with Rice and "his pet goat", while Rumsfeld won Worst Supporting Actor. Rice lost to Britney Spears for Worst Supporting Actress.

• Actor Ben Stiller was nominated for Worst Actor in 2004 for a record five titles in one year. Stiller was nominated for his work in Along Came Polly, Anchorman, Dodgeball, Envy and Starsky & Hutch.

• Actor Eddie Murphy received a single-year record five nominations in 2007 for Norbit: three acting nominations (one for each character he played), one for Worst Couple (again, relating to his playing multiple characters) and one for Worst Screenplay. He went on to win all three acting nominations, becoming the first person ever to win a Razzie for both male and female performances in a single film.

• Actress Sean Young won two Razzies in 1991 in different categories for playing twins in A Kiss Before Dying. She won Worst Actress for playing the twin who survives throughout the film and won Worst Supporting Actress for playing the twin who was murdered during the film.

• Thumbelina, The Pagemaster, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Eight Crazy Nights and Star Wars: The Clone Wars were the only six animated films to receive any Razzie nominations. (Although, The Pagemaster did have some live-action segments.) Thumbelina is so far, the only animated film to actually win a Razzie Award, Worst Original Song - "Marry the Mole". Both Beavis and Butt-Head Do America and Eight Crazy Nights are the only two animated films to be nominated for more than one award. The former with both Worst New Star and Worst Screen Couple for Beavis and Butt-Head and the latter for both Worst Actor for Adam Sandler (also nominated for Mr. Deeds) and Most Flatulent Teen Targeted Movie. Both films won neither award. On the other hand, The Pagemaster received a nomination for Worst Actor (Macaulay Culkin, also for Getting Even with Dad and Richie Rich), The Hunchback of Notre Dame for Worst Written Film to Gross Over $100 Million Dollars, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars for Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off, or Sequel.

See also

• List of films considered the worst
• The Golden Turkey Awards
• Ig Nobel Prize
• Pigasus Award
• Darwin Award

External links

• Golden Raspberry Official Website
• Razzie Awards page on the Internet Movie Database