LOS ANGELES: Crime caper American Hustle and financial greed tale The Wolf of Wall Street each landed eight nominations for the MTV Movie Awards on Thursday, edging out dystopian saga The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and comedy We’re the Millers.
American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street, which each went home from Sunday’s Oscars empty-handed, will have a shot at redemption at the unbuttoned MTV event that hands out golden, popcorn-shaped trophies in categories like Best Fight Scene.
American Hustle stars Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper each picked up nominations in top acting categories, while Adams and Christian Bale picked up a nod for Best On-screen Duo in the film.
Oscar Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave earned four nominations, while outer space thriller Gravity scored a single nod for Sandra Bullock as Best Actress after winning seven Academy Awards — the most this year for any film.
Nominees for Best Movie, the only category in which voting will continue during the broadcast, include 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, fantasy film The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and The Wolf of Wall Street.
Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto, who both won Oscars for their performances in AIDS drama Dallas Buyers Club, earned nominations together for Best On-screen Duo and separately for Best On-screen Transformation.
The annual awards serve as a lead-in to the summer movie season and will include preview clips from would-be summertime Hollywood blockbusters.
This year’s odd-ball categories include Best Shirtless Performance and Best Cameo Performance. The 15-actor fight scene in comedy Anchorman 2 earned a nomination for Best Fight Scene.
Former boy band the Backstreet Boys also scored a nomination for Best Musical Moment in apocalyptic satire This Is the End, and octogenarian comic Joan Rivers notched a nomination for Best Cameo for her part in superhero blockbuster Iron Man 3.
The fan-voted awards will be hosted by comedian Conan O’Brien at the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles on April 13.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 10th, 2014.
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