Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff in “WandaVision.” Image: screengrab from YouTube/Marvel Entertainment
LOS ANGELES — Television dominated the roster of nominees for the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards, which returns this May after a year-long hiatus due, at least in part, to the COVID-19 pandemic. But with the kind of crowd-pleasing, popcorn-ready films that the MTV awards show normally celebrates mostly delayed due to the pandemic, TV has taken a front seat this year.
Leading this year’s roster of nominees, announced on Monday: Marvel’s Disney Plus series “WandaVision,” which earned five nods including best show, best performance in a show (Elizabeth Olsen), best hero (Teyonah Parris), best villain (Kathryn Hahn) and best fight (Wanda vs. Agatha).
Receiving four nods were Netflix’s “Emily In Paris” (which is produced by MTV Studios) and Amazon Prime Video’s “The Boys.” Earning three are Netflix’s “Bridgerton,” Disney Plus’ “The Mandalorian” and the most-recognized film of the year, Amazon Studios’ “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.”
Simultaneously, MTV also announced the nominees for the first-ever edition of its spin-off ceremony “Movie & TV Awards: Unscripted.” In that show, VH1’s RuPaul’s Drag Race leads all nominees with four, followed by two for TLC’s “90 Day Fiance,” Netflix’s “Bling Empire,” HBO Max’s “Legendary,” VH1’s “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta,” MTV’s “The Challenge,” Netflix’s “Nailed It!” and MTV’s ubiquitous “Ridiculousness.”
In 2018, the show first integrated TV and film into joint categories such as “Best Hero,” “Best Villain,” “Best Duo,” “Best Fight” and “Best Comedic Performance.” This year, that means the majority of those categories are represented by TV. For example, best breakthrough performance has just one film entry (Maria Bakalova, from “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”), while the rest are from streaming shows like “Ginny & Georgia,” “Emily in Paris,” “Normal People” and “Bridgerton.”
Speaking of streaming, that’s how audiences watch TV now, and nearly every TV nominee comes from a streaming service, with the exception of single nods for “I May Destroy You,” “Killing Eve,” “Schitt’s Creek” and “Lovecraft Country.”
Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) received a posthumous nomination in the movie performance category this year. First-time nominees include Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman”), Zendaya (“Malcom & Marie”), Anya Taylor-Joy (“The Queen’s Gambit”), Emma Corrin (“The Crown”), Michaela Coel (“I May Destroy You”), Anthony Mackie (“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”), Jack Quaid (“The Boys”), Pedro Pascal (“The Mandalorian”), Teyonah Parris (“WandaVision”), Annie Murphy (“Schitt’s Creek”), Eric Andre (“Bad Trip”), Leslie Jones (“Coming 2 America”), Aya Cash (“The Boys”), Giancarlo Esposito (“The Mandalorian”), Kathryn Hahn (“WandaVision”), Nicholas Hoult (“The Great”), Antonia Gentry (“Ginny & Georgia”), Ashley Park (“Emily in Paris”), Maria Bakalova (“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”), Paul Mescal (“Normal People”), Rege-Jean Page (“Bridgerton”), Jurnee Smollett (“Lovecraft Country”) and Simona Brown (“Behind Her Eyes”).
For most of its existence, the telecast was known as the MTV Movie Awards, taking advantage of the spring kickoff of the summer box office season. In 2017, the name was changed to the “MTV Movie & TV Awards” and included television series for the first time. Also that year, the network went gender-neutral, embracing a decision to merge male and female performers into singular categories.
Last year, MTV decided to move the Movie & TV Awards to December, in order to capitalize on the start of movie awards season. But the pandemic put that decision on hold, and ultimately instead the network ran the special “MTV Movie & TV Awards: Greatest of All Time,” hosted by Vanessa Hudgens, in December.
The 2021 “MTV Movie & TV Awards” will air live on Sunday, May 16 from the Palladium in Los Angeles at 9 p.m. ET; the inaugural “Movie & TV Awards: Unscripted” will air the following night, May 17 at 9 p.m. ET.
The MTV Movie & TV Awards will be executive produced by Den of Thieves co-founder Jesse Ignjatovic and Barb Bialkowski on behalf of Den of Thieves. Additional details about the 2021 “MTV Movie & TV Awards” and “Movie & TV Awards: Unscripted,” including hosts, presenters and more will be announced in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, MTV has opened up fan voting in 25 gender-neutral categories at vote.mtv.com through April 30. JB
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