Golden Raspberry Awards

The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known in short terms as Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a mock award in recognition of the worst in film. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film-industry veterans, John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, the annual Razzie Awards ceremony in Los Angeles precedes the corresponding Academy Awards ceremony by one day. The term raspberry in the name is used in its irreverent sense, as in "blowing a raspberry". The awards themselves are in the form of a "golf ball-sized raspberry" atop a Super 8 mm film reel, all spray painted gold.

The first Golden Raspberry Awards ceremony was held on March 31, 1981, at John J. B. Wilson's living-room alcove in Los Angeles, to honor the worst in film of the 1980 film season. The 38th ceremony will be held on March 3, 2018.

History
American publicist John J. B. Wilson traditionally held potluck parties at his house in Los Angeles on the night of the Academy Awards. In 1981, after the 53rd Academy Awards had completed for the evening, Wilson invited friends to give random award presentations in his living room. Wilson decided to formalize the event, after watching a double feature of Can't Stop the Music and Xanadu. He gave them ballots to vote on worst in film. Wilson stood at a podium 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 for Worst Picture. The impromptu ceremony was a success and the following week a press release about his event released by Wilson was picked up by a few local newspapers, including a mention in the Los Angeles Daily News with the headline: "Take These Envelopes, Please".

Approximately three dozen people came to the 1st Golden Raspberry Awards. The 2nd Golden Raspberry Awards had double the attendance as the first and the 3rd awards ceremony had double this number. By the 4th Golden Raspberry Awards ceremony, CNN and two major wire services covered the event. Wilson realized that by scheduling the Golden Raspberry Awards before 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.

The term raspberry is used in its irreverent sense, as in "blowing a raspberry". Wilson commented to the author of Blame It on the Dog: "When I registered the term with the Library of Congress in 1980, they asked me, 'Why raspberry? What's the significance of that?' But since then, razz has pretty much permeated the culture. We couldn't have done it without Hollywood's help." Wilson is referred to as "Ye Olde Head Razzberry".

Format
Paying members of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation vote to determine the recipients. For the 29th Golden Raspberry Awards in 2009, award results were based on votes from approximately 650 journalists, cinema fans and professionals from the film industry. Voters hailed from 45 states in the United States and 19 other countries.



The ceremony, typically held one day before the Academy Awards, is modeled after the latter but "deliberately low-end and tacky".

Collecting in person
Most winners do not attend the ceremony to collect their awards. Notable exceptions include Tom Green (Worst Actor/Worst Director), Halle Berry and Sandra Bullock (Worst Actress), Michael Ferris, J. D. Shapiro (Worst Screenplay), and Paul Verhoeven (Worst Director).

Contradicting awards
Three people won both the Razzies and Oscars the same weekend: Alan Menken in 1993, Brian Helgeland in 1998, and Sandra Bullock in 2010, although all three for different films. Two actors had performances in the same movie scoring Oscar and Razzie nominations, James Coco (Only When I Laugh) and Amy Irving (Yentl). Neil Diamond, winner of the inaugural Worst Actor Razzie for 1980's The Jazz Singer, was nominated for the Golden Globe in the same role. The Aerosmith song "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing", as part of the original soundtrack to the 1998 film Armageddon, was nominated for both an Academy Award for Best Original Song and a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song, as was the Trisha Yearwood song "How Do I Live" from the 1997 film Con Air and the Tony Bennett song "Life in a Looking Glass" from the 1986 film That's Life!. In 1981, Stanley Kubrick was nominated both for a Razzie Award as Worst Director at the 1st Golden Raspberry Awards as well as for a Saturn Award for Best Director at the 8th Saturn Awards for the same film: 'The Shining'. In 2017, Darren Aronofsky was nominated for both the Golden Lion and the Worst Director Razzie for Mother!

Wall Street (1987) is the only film to date to win both an Oscar and a Razzie. Michael Douglas won the Academy Award for Best Actor, however Daryl Hannah's performance was not as well received and earned her a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress.

Categories
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 Screen Combo: 1994 to present
 * Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel: 1994 to 1995, 1997 to 1998, 2000 to present
 * Worst Screenplay: 1980 to present
 * The Razzie Redeemer Award: 2014 to present
 * Worst Screen Combo: 2013 to present

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.

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 in 1987, and to director Uwe Boll 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.

Barry L. Bumstead Award
This award is given to a critical and financial failure that would've been nominated if it had received an eligible release. It was awarded in 2016 to United Passions and in 2017 to Misconduct.

Criticism
The Razzies have received criticism, including from news sources such as Indiewire and The Daily Telegraph, for several issues, including that members of the Golden Raspberry Foundation are not required to watch the nominated movies, and that seemingly anyone can join the Golden Raspberry Foundation, so long as they pay at least $40, which is different from the invitation-only Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Critics take issue with the Razzies picking "easy targets" and mainstream films instead of those perceived as less popular but more deserving productions, continuing to appeal to celebrities, seemingly for publicity and attention, over other, worthier films and performances.

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". Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph has said "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". CraveOnline's William Bibbiani stated that the Razzies follow "a cheap shot of pranksterism", and "with only a handful of exceptions, only seen fit to nominate the most infamous movies of the year, and not necessarily the worst." Carolyn Burke of Cracked.com describes the awards as "...a ramshackle operation run by a bunch of lazy trolls who are guilty of all the same smug self-importance they claim to be lampooning" and further states that "the Razzies are an antiquated 'joke' that has long outlived any goodwill or relevance they once had, and have become nothing more than a mean-spirited cesspool of joyless criticism worse than any of the movies they tear down with artless comedy."