Last year’s institution of a new, far more serious voting “academy” at the MTV Movie Awards restored a sense of dignity to a night devoted to honoring the year’s cinematic achievements in making a lot of money and having sexy people. This year that dignity lingers, like the piercing shriek of a teenaged girl who saw a person she recognizes: Formerly perennial champion Twilight ends its run with a single nomination—Taylor Lautner for Best Shirtless Performance, an award he seems destined to lose to Magic Mike’s Channing Tatum—after claiming Best Movie at the past four ceremonies. Now who will be recognized as worthy of that esteemed pantheon, when even sexy vampire movies no longer qualify?
Reflecting those more mature sensibilities, it’s a showdown between R-rated fare Django Unchained and Ted (both leading total nominations with seven apiece), with competition from The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers, and Silver Linings Playbook—all boasting their own merits that will be carefully weighed by teenagers on the Internet. In that sense, Silver Linings Playbook seems to have an advantage, given the affinity whatever generation we’re on now has for Jennifer Lawrence—an affinity so strong, even House At The End Of The Street earned Lawrence one of her five overall nods, for “Best Scared-As-Shit Performance.”
That category, by the way, returns after being scrapped in favor of last year's “Best Gut-Wrenching Performance” and “Best On-Screen Dirtbag,” which are nowhere in sight. Between this and the Twilight snub, it’s almost like MTV chooses these things arbitrarily, based on calculated bids for celebrity attendance and ephemeral trends. But that would be silly, and they’re more serious now.
Movie Of The Year
Django Unchained
Silver Linings Playbook
Ted
The Avengers
The Dark Knight Rises
Best Male Performance
Ben Affleck, Argo
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Jamie Foxx, Django Unchained
Channing Tatum, Magic Mike
Best Female Performance
Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
Mila Kunis, Ted
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emma Watson, The Perks Of Being A Wallflower
Rebel Wilson, Pitch Perfect
Best Scared-As-Shit Performance
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Alexandra Daddario, Texas Chainsaw 3D
Martin Freeman, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Jennifer Lawrence, House At The End Of The Street
Suraj Sharma, Life Of Pi
Breakthrough Performance
Ezra Miller, The Perks Of Being A Wallflower
Eddie Redmayne, Les Misérables
Suraj Sharma, Life Of Pi
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts Of The Southern Wild
Rebel Wilson, Pitch Perfect
Best On-Screen Duo
Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson, Django Unchained
Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo, The Avengers
Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, The Campaign
Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlane (as Ted), Ted
Best Shirtless Performance
Christian Bale, The Dark Knight Rises
Daniel Craig, Skyfall
Taylor Lautner, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2
Seth MacFarlane (as Ted), Ted
Channing Tatum, Magic Mike
Best Fight
Christian Bale vs. Tom Hardy, The Dark Knight Rises
Daniel Craig vs. Ola Rapace, Skyfall
Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner vs. Tom Hiddleston, The Avengers
Jamie Foxx vs. Candieland Henchmen, Django Unchained
Mark Wahlberg vs. Seth MacFarlane (as Ted), Ted
Best Kiss
Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman, Moonrise Kingdom
Mila Kunis and Mark Wahlberg, Ted
Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Kerry Washington and Jamie Foxx, Django Unchained
Emma Watson and Logan Lerman, The Perks Of Being A Wallflower
Best WTF Moment
Javier Bardem — “Oops… There Goes His Face” in Skyfall
Anna Camp — “Hack-Appella” in Pitch Perfect
Jamie Foxx and Samuel L. Jackson — “Candieland Gets Smoked” in Django Unchained
Seth MacFarlane (as Ted) — “Ted Gets Saucy” in Ted
Denzel Washington — “Final Descent” in Flight
Best Villain
Javier Bardem, Skyfall
Marion Cotillard, The Dark Knight Rises
Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained
Tom Hardy, The Dark Knight Rises
Tom Hiddleston, The Avengers
Best Musical Moment
Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp, Brittany Snow, Alexis Knapp, Ester
Dean and Hana Mae Lee, Pitch Perfect
Channing Tatum, Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, Kevin Nash and Adam Rodriguez, Magic Mike
Emma Watson, Logan Lerman and Ezra Miller, The Perks Of Being A Wallflower