Django Unchained and raunchy comedy Ted landed seven MTV Movie Awards nominations on Tuesday, leading a slew of comedies and superhero blockbusters among the nominees at the annual film awards voted for by youth audiences.
Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence, 22, landed five nominations, including Best Female Performance for her role as young widow Tiffany in quirky comedy “Silver Linings Playbook,” as well as Best Kiss, Best On-Screen Duo and Best Musical Moment with her co-star Bradley Cooper.
Cooper, 38, who plays bipolar character Pat in “Silver Linings,” tied with Seth MacFarlane as pot-smoking foul-mouthed bear Ted for four nominations each.
“Silver Linings” picked up six nominations, including the night’s top honor for Movie of the Year.
Quentin Tarantino’s spaghetti Western-style “Django” scored an array of nominations including Best Villain for Leonardo DiCaprio and Best On-Screen Duo for DiCaprio as plantation owner Calvin Candie and Samuel L. Jackson as his slave, Stephen.
“Family Guy” creator MacFarlane’s R-rated directorial debut “Ted” also picked up a Movie of the Year nod, along with Best Female Performance for Mila Kunis and Best WTF Moment.
While the star-studded Oscars, hosted by MacFarlane last month, honored critically acclaimed films, the MTV Movie Awards is a tongue-in-cheek, youth-orientated ceremony rewarding the box office hits often overlooked by the Academy Awards.
Hosted by “Pitch Perfect” actress and comedienne Rebel Wilson, the Movie Awards will hand out golden popcorn trophies in 12 categories, ranging from performances, Best Kiss, Best Fight and Best Villain.
“The Dark Knight Rises,” the final installment in Christopher Nolan’s Batman franchise which grossed $1 billion at the worldwide box office, landed five nods including Movie of the Year despite failing to pick up an Oscar nominations.
Superhero blockbuster “Avengers” and James Bond film “Skyfall,” teenage coming-of-age film “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” and musical comedy “Pitch Perfect” all scored four nods each.
For the second year in a row, the “Twilight” franchise was snubbed, as final film “Breaking Dawn – Part 2” only received one nomination for star Taylor Lautner in the irreverent Best Shirtless Performance category.
“Twilight” used to reign at the awards as lead stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson dominated the Best Kiss category, but last year “Breaking Dawn – Part 1” only picked up one award, albeit for Movie of the Year.
The MTV Movie Awards have a long-standing tradition of adding cheeky categories each year, such as Biggest Badass Star and Sexiest Performance.
This year, Batman will face stiff competition from a male stripper, a werewolf, James Bond and a stuffed teddy bear for Best Shirtless Performance, as actors Christian Bale, Channing Tatum, Daniel Craig, Lautner and MacFarlane lock heads in the tightly contested category.
The Best Scared-As-S**T Performance category is another new addition this year, pitting five actors in roles that had thrilling terror-filled moments.
The category will see Lawrence from horror flick “House at the End of the Street” competing against Jessica Chastain in “Zero Dark Thirty,” Alexandra Daddario in “Texas Chainsaw 3D,” Martin Freeman in “The Hobbit” and Suraj Sharma in “Life of Pi” for the coveted golden popcorn trophy. (Reuters)