Brie Larson (center) with her stunt doubles Joanna Bennett (left) and Renae Moneymaker (right), accepts the award for Best Fight for “Captain Marvel” during the 2019 MTV Movie & TV Awards. Image: AFP/Valerie Macon
Box office-busting “Avengers: Endgame” dominated the MTV Movie and TV Awards Monday, June 17, as “Captain Marvel” star Brie Larson led tributes to real-life heroines by ceding the spotlight to her stunt doubles.
“Endgame”, the second-highest grossing film of all time, picked up the Best Movie award, as well as the Best Hero award for Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man and Best Villain for Josh Brolin as Thanos.
Oscar-winner Larson added to the superheroes’ haul by picking up the Best Fight award, praising her stunt workers as the “living embodiment of Captain Marvel” as she brought them up on stage.
Joanna Bennett and Renae Moneymaker, who also trained Larson for the first female-led Marvel Studios and Disney superhero film, said it was an “honor” to work on the film and “be a part of bringing such a strong female character to life.”
The awards show also paid tribute to women beyond Hollywood such as trailblazing Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the subject of documentary “RBG”, who won a new category for Best Real Life Hero.
In the evening’s most poignant moment, victims of sexual abuse were honored by the producers of “Surviving R. Kelly,” which won Best Documentary.
“Survivors walked through the fire and then stood again to tell this story,” said Lifetime network executive Brie Miranda Bryant.
The docu-series led Chicago prosecutors to publicly seek out potential victims of R&B star Kelly, who has pleaded not guilty to felony sex crime charges.
“This is not just a trophy to us because this really speaks to the important cultural impact that this generated from this documentary,” Bryant said.
Newcomer Noah Centineo was the night’s biggest individual winner, scooping awards for Breakthrough Performance and Best Kiss alongside Lana Condor for Netflix teen romance film “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before”.
But it was a disappointing night for “Game of Thrones”, which won Best Show but lost out in three other categories. The epic fantasy’s final season was widely panned by critics and audiences.
The MTV Movie and TV Awards have been taking a sideways look at Hollywood since 1992, honoring films and their actors with “golden popcorn” statuettes.
The nominees are decided by producers and MTV executives, while the winners are chosen by the public who voted online.
As a result, the awards have historically recognized commercial favorites, in contrast to the Oscars and other events based on critical or industry acclaim.
This year it added offbeat new categories for “Most Meme-able Moment” and “Reality Royalty”.
It also gave non-competitive awards to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jada Pinkett Smith.
For its second year running, the show was pre-recorded on Saturday, June 15, in a cavernous hangar at Santa Monica Airport in southern California.
Here is the full list of winners:
BEST MOVIE: “Avengers: Endgame”
BEST SHOW: “Game of Thrones”
BEST PERFORMANCE IN A MOVIE: Lady Gaga – “A Star Is Born”
BEST PERFORMANCE IN A SHOW: Elisabeth Moss – “The Handmaid’s Tale”
BEST HERO: Robert Downey Jr. – “Avengers: Endgame”
BEST VILLAIN: Josh Brolin – “Avengers: Endgame”
BEST KISS: Noah Centineo and Lana Condor – “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before”
REALITY ROYALTY: “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta”
BEST COMEDIC PERFORMANCE: Daniel Levy – “Schitt’s Creek”
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE: Noah Centineo – “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before”
BEST FIGHT: Captain Marvel vs. Minn-Erva – “Captain Marvel”
BEST REAL-LIFE HERO: Ruth Bader Ginsburg – “RBG”
MOST FRIGHTENED PERFORMANCE: Sandra Bullock – “Bird Box”
BEST DOCUMENTARY: “Surviving R. Kelly”
BEST HOST: Nick Cannon – “Wild ‘n Out”
MOST MEME-ABLE MOMENT: Colton Underwood jumps the fence – “The Bachelor”
BEST MUSICAL MOMENT: Shallow – “A Star Is Born”
HM/NVG
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