2023 Mtv Movie Awards Turns Into Advance After Host Pulls Out

NEW YORK — The hostless, pre-recorded and muted MTV Movie & TV Awards on Sunday were the first major awards to take place during the screenwriters’ strikeoffering a commercial-heavy stream with tons of past recycled live clips.

“Scream VI” took home the best picture trophy, beating out “Avatar: The Path of Water,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Elvis,” “No,” “Smile” and “Top Gun: Maverick.” ” In a pre-recorded response, the Ghostface killer was modest: “To all the fans who voted, you finally answered my question: What is your favorite scary movie?”

The Last of Us was the top TV show, beating the likes of Stranger Things, White Lotus, Wednesday and Yellow Jackets. Pedro Pascal accepted the award and said that he, the cast and the creators stand in solidarity with the strikers.

Tom Cruise won Best Actor in a Motion Picture Top Gun: Maverick beating out Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Michael B. Jordan and Keke Palmer. In a pre-recorded response, Cruise was seen piloting a jet and thanking fans, while also plugging his next film, Mission Impossible.

Jenna Ortega won the award for Best Performance in a TV Show for Wednesday, beating out Aubrey Plaza, Christina Ricci, Riley Keough, Sadie Cink and Selena Gomez. Stranger Things won for Best Cast.

The Kardashians won Best Documentary Reality Show, Best Breakthrough went to Joseph Quinn for Stranger Things, and Pascal won Best Actor for The Last of Us. Pascal also won half of the prize for best duet with co-star Bella Ramsay.

Best Comedy Performance went to Adam Sandler for Murder Mystery 2, while Scream VI won Best Fight, with Ghostface again thanking voters: “It’s time to finally appreciate my work.”

Host Drew Barrymore pulled out of the show in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America — she later won Best Host — and the show’s red carpet was rolled out. Faced with a guild picket, MTV pulled the plug on the live event altogether.

While Barrymore was gone, she left plenty of sponsored bits, one featuring Cheetos popcorn and another pretending to play Skipper’s little sister in the upcoming Barbie movie. She also starred in a commercial for Pluto TV and the tape “Wednesdays”. She opened the show by reprising her role as Josie Grossi from Never Kissed, trying to screw over several nominees in carefully edited comedic moments.

Jennifer Coolidge accepted the Comedic Genius Award at the taping and praised the great writers, saying that almost all great comedy starts with great writers.

“Tonight I stand before you side by side with my sisters and brothers of the WGA,” she said. Coolidge later also won for Best Scared Performance for White Lotus.

“RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” won for “Best Competition Series” and the honorees called for the protection of drag acts, while the award for best kiss went to “Outer Banks” Madison Bailey and Rudy Pankow. Many awards did not provoke a reaction from the winners.

MTV filled the show with dozens of old clips, such as the all-star performance of “Lady Marmalade” in 2001, Face singing her hit “Juice” in 2019 or Rihanna in 2002 singing “Umbrella” and other brilliant performances on awards previous winners such as Melissa McCarthy, Kevin Hart and Jack Black. There was also a sneak peek from an upcoming episode of Yellow Vests and a clip from Transformers: The Beast Rise. Sometimes it was hard to tell what was new and what was old.

“Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me” won best music documentary, “Come Back Home” from “Purple Hearts” won best musical moment, and Taylor Swift’s “Carolina” won best song. Elizabeth Olsen in the film “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” is recognized as the best villain.