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The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic failures. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, the Razzie Awards' satirical annual ceremony is preceded by its opposite, the Academy Awards, by four decades. The term raspberry is used in its irreverent sense, as in "blowing a raspberry". The statuette is a golf ball-sized raspberry atop a Super 8mm film reel atop a 35-millimeter film core with brown wood shelf paper glued and wrapped around it—sitting atop a jar lid spray-painted gold. The Golden Raspberry Foundation has claimed that the award "encourages well-known filmmakers and top-notch performers to own their bad."
| Golden Raspberry Award | |
|---|---|
| Current: 44th Golden Raspberry Awards | |
 The Golden Raspberry Award statuette | |
| Awarded for | Worst in film |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Golden Raspberry Award Foundation |
| First awarded | March 31, 1981 |
| Website | www |
The first Golden Raspberry Awards ceremony was held on March 31, 1981, in John J. B. Wilson's living-room alcove in Hollywood, to honor the perceived worst films of the 1980 film season. To date, Sylvester Stallone is the most-awarded actor ever, with 12 awards.
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American publicist John J. B. Wilson had been seeing a 99-cent double feature of Can't Stop the Music and Xanadu and thought in his drive home that those movies deserved awards for their low quality, and subsequently started thinking of all the other films that disappointed him in 1980, particularly as he had watched hundreds of productions in his job making trailers.[1][2] So, the following year, in the potluck parties he usually held at his home in Hollywood on the night of the Academy Awards,[3] after the 53rd Academy Awards had completed for the evening, Wilson passed ballots regarding the worst in film to the attendees, and invited his friends to give random award presentations in his living room.[3][4][1] Wilson stood at a lectern made of cardboard in a tacky tuxedo, with a foam ball attached to a broomstick as a fake microphone, and announced Can't Stop the Music as the first Golden Raspberry Award Winner for Worst Picture.[1][5] The impromptu ceremony was a success and the following week a press release about his event was picked up by a few local newspapers, including a mention in the Los Angeles Daily News with the headline: "Take These Envelopes, Please".[3][4][5]
Approximately three dozen people came to the 1st Golden Raspberry Awards.[5] The 2nd Golden Raspberry Awards had double the attendance, and the 3rd awards ceremony had doubled that number.[5] By the 4th Golden Raspberry Awards ceremony, CNN and two major wire services covered the event.[3] Wilson realized that by scheduling the Golden Raspberry Awards prior to the Academy Awards, the ceremony would get more press coverage: "We finally figured out you couldn't compete with the Oscars on Oscar night, but if you went the night before, when the press from all over the world are here and they are looking for something to do, it could well catch on," he said to BBC News.[3]
In 2022, a dedicated award category, Worst Bruce Willis Performance in a 2021 Movie, was created after Bruce Willis starred in a number of poorly received low-budget films. On March 30 of that year, Willis's family announced that he had been diagnosed with aphasia.[6] The Golden Raspberry Awards subsequently retracted the award category, saying it was inappropriate to award a Golden Raspberry to someone whose performance was affected by a medical condition.[7] At the same time, the Awards retroactively retracted their 1980 Worst Actress nomination of Shelley Duvall in The Shining, stating "We have since discovered that Duvall's performance was impacted by Stanley Kubrick's treatment of her throughout the production".[8] In 2023, following backlash for nominating 12-year-old Ryan Kiera Armstrong for Worst Actress, the Golden Raspberry Awards rescinded the nomination and said individuals under age 18 would no longer be nominated.[9] The Razzies themselves later won the category for the blunder.[10]
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Members of the Golden Raspberry Award Organization pay for membership, and number 650 from 19 countries.[11][12] After three editions held during Wilson's potluck Oscar parties, Wilson realized that by scheduling the Golden Raspberry Awards prior to the Academy Awards, the ceremony would get more press coverage, and the fourth edition happened at Los Angeles' Third Street Elementary School.[3] The ceremonies have generally been scheduled in this way, with both nominations and awards revealed in the day before the Academy Awards, ever since, with only two exceptions. 2012's 32nd Golden Raspberry Awards, had the nominees announced the day before the academy award nominees, but the ceremony took place on April 1, April Fool's Day.[13] In 2020, there were plans for the milestone 40th Golden Raspberry Awards to be celebrated with a bigger, televised ceremony in March, but the ceremonies were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the winners revealed online.[14][15]
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Paul Verhoeven was the first person to go to the ceremony to receive his awards for the movie Showgirls. Other recipients who have accepted their Golden Raspberry Award include Tom Green (Worst Actor/Worst Director), Halle Berry[16][17] and Sandra Bullock (Worst Actress), Michael Ferris and J. D. Shapiro (Worst Screenplay), Alan Menken, Dinesh D'Souza, and Fifty Shades of Grey producers Dana Brunetti and Michael De Luca.
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Several people and/or films have received Razzie nominations while simultaneously receiving award nominations and other cultural honors from different organizations, sometimes for the same work or role.
Razzie and Oscar
Three people have won both a Razzie and an Oscar the same weekend: composer Alan Menken in 1993, screenwriter Brian Helgeland in 1997, and actress Sandra Bullock in 2010, though all three won for different films (e.g., Helgeland won a Razzie for The Postman and an Oscar for L.A. Confidential).[18][19] Three actors have received Oscar and Razzie acting nominations for the same role: James Coco (Only When I Laugh), Amy Irving (Yentl), and Glenn Close (Hillbilly Elegy).[20]
19 Worst Picture nominees have been nominated for an Oscar (with only four of them "winning" the Worst Picture Razzie), with Pearl Harbor being the only film in 2002 that won in any Oscars category: Best Sound Editing.
Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame became the first, and so far, only animated film to be nominated for an Oscar and a Razzie. The film was nominated for Worst Written Film Grossing Over $100 Million at the 17th ceremony, but it was also nominated for Academy Award for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score at the 69th Academy Awards.
Blonde became the first NC-17 rated film to be nominated for an Oscar and a Razzie. The film was nominated for the most Razzies with eight at the 43rd ceremony: winning only two (including Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay), while the film's main star Ana de Armas was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress at the 95th Academy Awards.
As of 2024, 77 films have been nominated for both an Oscar and a Razzie.
Razzie and Tony
Newsies was nominated for Worst Picture at the 1993 ceremony, and Alan Menken won Worst Original Song for "High Times, Hard Times". The 2011 stage adaptation, which did not include "High Times, Hard Times", was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical, and Menken won Best Original Score.[21][22]
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Current Awards
- Worst Picture: 1980 to present
- Worst Director: 1980 to present
- Worst Actor: 1980 to present
- Worst Actress: 1980 to present
- Worst Supporting Actor: 1980 to present
- Worst Supporting Actress: 1980 to present
- Worst Screenplay: 1980 to present
- Worst Remake, Rip-off or Sequel: 1994 to present, except 1996 and 1999
- Worst Screen Combo: 2013 to present
- Razzie Redeemer Award: 2014 to present, except 2020
Retired
- Worst Original Song: 1980 to 1999, 2002
- Worst New Star: 1981 to 1998, except 1989
- Worst Musical Score: 1981 to 1985
- Worst Visual Effects: 1986 to 1987
- Worst Screen Couple: 1994 to 2009, 2011 to 2012
- Worst Screen Couple/Worst Screen Ensemble: 2010
- Worst Screen Ensemble: 2011 to 2012
Special categories
Special categories have also been introduced for specific years. Such special awards include:
Anniversary awards
Every decade-closing ceremony includes an award for the worst actors and movies of the decade—though the 2000 ceremony put the actors as worst of the 20th century instead. Special prizes for the 25th anniversary of the Razzies awards were also given out in 2005.
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Razzie Redeemer Award
The Razzie Redeemer Award is presented to a former nominee or winner who has subsequently made a comeback from critical or commercial failure. The award was introduced in 2014. Winners include Ben Affleck, Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson, "A Safe Hollywood-Haven", Melissa McCarthy, Eddie Murphy, Will Smith, Colin Farrell, and Fran Drescher.
Worst Career Achievement
This award has been given five times, to Ronald Reagan in 1981, to Linda Blair in 1983, to Irwin Allen in 1985, to "Bruce the Rubber Shark" from Jaws[25] in 1987, and to director Uwe Boll[26] in 2009 who received this for his achievement as "Germany's answer to Ed Wood".
Governor's Award
This is a special award given by Razzie Award Governor John J. B. Wilson to an individual whose achievements are not covered by the Razzies' other categories. It was awarded in 2003 to Travis Payne for "Distinguished Under-Achievement in Choreography" in the film From Justin to Kelly.[27] It would again be awarded in 2021 to the year 2020 for "The Worst Calendar Year EVER!"[28][29][30]
Barry L. Bumstead Award
This award is given to movies with particularly high budgets that bombed at the box office. It was awarded in 2015 to United Passions,[31][32] to Misconduct in 2016,[33] in 2017 to CHiPs and in 2018 to Billionaire Boys Club.
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By Films in a Single Year
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The following nominees received at least 10 nominations in a single year:
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The following winners received at least 6 awards in a single year:
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By Films Overall
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The following nominees received at least 10 nominations overall:
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The following winners received at least 6 awards overall:
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By Person
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The following people received at least 10 nominations overall:
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The following winners received at least 5 awards overall:
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- 1980: 1st Golden Raspberry Awards
- 1981: 2nd Golden Raspberry Awards
- 1982: 3rd Golden Raspberry Awards
- 1983: 4th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 1984: 5th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 1985: 6th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 1986: 7th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 1987: 8th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 1988: 9th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 1989: 10th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 1990: 11th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 1991: 12th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 1992: 13th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 1993: 14th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 1994: 15th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 1995: 16th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 1996: 17th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 1997: 18th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 1998: 19th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 1999: 20th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2000: 21st Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2001: 22nd Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2002: 23rd Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2003: 24th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2004: 25th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2005: 26th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2006: 27th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2007: 28th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2008: 29th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2009: 30th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2010: 31st Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2011: 32nd Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2012: 33rd Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2013: 34th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2014: 35th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2015: 36th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2016: 37th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2017: 38th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2018: 39th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2019: 40th Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2020: 41st Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2021: 42nd Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2022: 43rd Golden Raspberry Awards
- 2023: 44th Golden Raspberry Awards
The Razzies have received criticism, including from news sources such as IndieWire[34] and The Daily Telegraph,[35] for several issues, including that members of the Golden Raspberry Foundation are not required to watch the nominated films.[34] The awards follow a different set of rules[34] from the invitation-only Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[36][37] Critics take issue with the Razzies picking "easy targets" and critically panned mainstream films instead of those perceived as less popular but more deserving of notice,[38] and continuing to appeal to celebrities, seemingly for publicity and attention.[34]
Sam Adams of IndieWire has said the Razzies are "like hecklers hurling insults at comedians or a concertgoer yelling out 'Whoo!' during a quiet song, they're not-so-secretly crying out to be noticed. The Razzies, properly enough, avoid pouncing on the little guy; they don't trash no-budget indies no one has seen for having bad lighting or terrible sound".[34] Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph wrote, however, that "the Razzies' ongoing failure to train its sights on anything but the most obvious targets means it grows more tired and redundant by the year".[35] CraveOnline's William Bibbiani stated that the Razzies follow "a cheap shot of pranksterism", and "with only a handful of exceptions, the Razzies have only seen fit to nominate the most infamous movies of the year, and not necessarily the worst."[38] In 2018, Scott Meslow, writing for GQ, accused the Razzies of being "pretty lazy, very sexist, and a little racist" in their choices, reiterating criticism that voters were overreliant on films already widely perceived as notorious, and further asserting they disproportionally nominated films directed by and starring Tyler Perry and films marketed towards women.[39]
In 2021, Liam Gaughan of the Dallas Observer wrote, "It’s easy to find fault in any awards nominations, be it Oscars or Razzies, but the greater issue that the Razzies face is that making fun of bad movies is no longer original. Film criticism, essays and satire all live in abundance on the internet, from both established publications and non-professionals."[37] Daniel Cook Johnson of MovieWeb echoed a similar sentiment, writing, "Wilson and Murphy’s insulting event may have been a wonderfully snarky and skewering enterprise back in the ‘80s when there was much less film criticism and audience reactions to recent movies. But now, there’s little reason for such an invalid vehicle, and the retirement option should be recognized before their relevance and shaky reputation are completely gone."[40]
The Razzies have also seen significant criticism from both within the industry and its own voting body for including underage actors and actresses in their ballots and nominations, with many noting the outcome of their careers and later personal and legal issues. Among those who were nominated or won include Aileen Quinn (at age 11) for Annie (winner), Gary Coleman (at age 14) for On the Right Track in 1982, Macaulay Culkin (at age 14) for Getting Even with Dad, The Pagemaster, and Richie Rich in 1995, Jake Lloyd (at age 11) for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Jaden Smith (age 15) for After Earth (winner), Ryan Kiera Armstrong (at age 12) for Firestarter. Maddie Ziegler, though 18 years old when nominated, won Worst Supporting Actress for Music, released in 2021, for a role she played at 14 years old during filming in 2017. In 2023, the Razzies announced they would no longer nominate individuals under age 18.[9]
- The category was retracted after the disclosure of Bruce Willis having aphasia.[b]
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