On Mar. 31, 1981, two awards shows were held. One was the annual Academy Awards, crowning the greatest movies of the year past. The other was the debut of the annual Golden Raspberry award, crowning exactly the opposite.
In 1980, publicist John J. B. Wilson saw a double feature of musical fantasy films “Can’t Stop the Music” and “Xanadu” playing at his local theater. Having disliked both of those movies, Wilson got it in his head that they needed some sort of award to acknowledge their awfulness.
One year later, after the Oscar ceremony had concluded, Wilson gathered his friends to vote on the worst film of the year. They held a parody ceremony, and at the end crowned “Can’t Stop the Music” as the worst film of 1980. The ceremony had gotten the attention of local newspapers, and the ceremony became an annual tradition held the night before the Oscars.
Despite the ever-growing popularity of the awards, many have accused them of being mean-spirited and generally unimportant to the landscape of criticism. As such, there have been cases where the organization behind the awards has retracted nominations. For example, Bruce Willis starred in many Razzie nominated films in 2021, though the nominations were taken back after it was revealed that Willis had been suffering from aphasia.
As such, a rule was created that no Razzie award would be given to a performance impacted by illness or other medical condition. In accordance with the rule, Shelly Duvall’s nominated performance in “The Shining” was retracted, a performance nominated in the very first Razzie ceremony. They also recently introduced a rule preventing actors under the age of 18 from being nominated, following backlash from the nomination of 12-year-old Ryan Kiera Armstrong for her performance in “Firestarter.”
In 1988, the Razzies received their first public acknowledgement. Bill Cosby won Worst Actor and Worst Screenplay for his work on “Leonard Part 6,” which also won Worst Picture. Cosby publicly called out the Razzies, insisting that he be awarded with a trophy for the honor. After some pushback, the committee folded and presented Cosby with a trophy on “The Late Show.” Five years later, Tom Selleck would accept his Razzie for “Christopher Columbus: The Discovery” in a similar manner, though he never attended the show itself.
The first Razzie winner to attend the show was Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, who accepted Worst Picture and Worst Director for his film “Showgirls.” This began a trend of Razzie winners accepting awards with humor, rather than spite. Few actually knew of the Razzies, as they were not nationally broadcasted, but those who did seemed to appreciate the honor. For example, Tom Green rolled out a fake red carpet to accept five awards for his film “Freddy Got Fingered.” He was dragged off the stage for refusing to stop playing the harmonica. In 2005, Halle Berry famously accepted a Razzie for her performance in “Catwoman,” and during her acceptance speech she parodied the speech she made for her Oscar win three years earlier. She thanked her manager and the director of the film, poking fun at the fact they had let her act in a Razzie-nominated movie.
The Razzie categories have changed throughout their 44 years of existence. The Razzies started with eight categories: Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Actor, Worst Actress, Worst Supporting Actor, Worst Supporting Actress, Worst Screenplay and Worst Original Song. All but Worst Original Song have survived through to the 2024 ceremony. In the second Razzie awards, two new categories were added, being Worst New Star and Worst Musical Score, though both were discontinued within the decade. Worst Visual Effects would be introduced as a category for the 1987 ceremony, but discontinued after only two years of use. The 1994 show saw two new categories, being Worst Screen Couple and Worst Remake, Rip-off or Sequel. Worst Remake, Rip-off or Sequel still exists as a category today, but Worst Screen Couple would be replaced by the still surviving Worst Screen Combo in the 2013 awards.
Occasionally, the Razzies will nominate a movie they deem to be so terrible that it deserves its own category. The first of these came in 1996, with “Twister” winning the category for Worst Written Film Grossing Over $100 Million. A year later they would introduce a new special category, being Worst Reckless Disregard for Human Life and Public Property. The award was given to “Con Air.” 22 years later, the award was gifted again to “Rambo: Last Blood.” Throughout the years following, special categories such as Worst Movie Trend of the Year, Worst Excuse for an Actual Movie, Worst Excuse for Family Entertainment, Most Tiresome Tabloid Targets and Worst Bruce Willis Performance in a 2021 Movie would be introduced and subsequently discarded.
The Razzies have also faced harsh criticism over the years. Many accuse them of having favorite targets– certain people that are targeted more than others. For example, Sylvester Stallone leads in most nominations, with 40. Madonna is also commonly cited as a frequent nominee. Though she has only 12 nominations, 28 less than Stallone, the Italian Stallion has seen action in over 130 films. Madonna has starred in far fewer.
Other criticism has come from the fact that the voting committee is generally taken less seriously than that of the Oscars. Razzie voters are not required to watch all the movies they’re voting on, and they pay an invitation fee to be part of the committee, rather than the invitation-only system used by the Oscars. This lends itself to the usual suspects being nominated again and again, as the committee is more drawn to names than to performances themselves. This also leads to larger celebrities tending to be selected, as the controversial nature of the pick is attractive.
Through the years, the Razzies have highlighted bad performances, controversially nominated acclaimed performances and have drawn the ire of many industry figures. They haven’t been safe from their fair share of controversy, but they continue on, putting a spotlight on the worst films every year. It seems that so long as bad movies continue to be made, somebody will be there to call them out.
