Who won the first Razzie for ‘Worst Picture’?
Every year, Hollywood gathers for the Academy Awards ceremony to honour the industry’s best talents. For many filmmakers and actors, winning a golden Oscar statuette is a life goal, one that symbolises ultimate success. Yet, for some, they couldn’t care less; after all, some of the biggest stars in the business haven’t earned Oscars.
Some people question the merit of winning an Academy Award, especially because the organisation clearly has its biases. Certain genres and styles of acting are more likely to win than others, and the nominees and winners are always overwhelmingly white and male—just three women have won ‘Best Director’ in almost 100 years.
In the history of the Oscars, there have been some stars who have won both Academy Awards and Golden Raspberry Awards, the latter being awarded at the ceremony that heralds the worst contributions to cinema every year. The fact that certain stars have won Oscars and Golden Razzies, often in the same year, makes you question the merit of the prestigious Academy Award. This proves that, at the end of the day, they’re a rather subjective accolade.
The Golden Raspberry Awards are all about having fun. The founder, John J. B. Wilson, purposefully set up the ceremony to be a low-budget imitation of the Oscars, with the event taking place the night before. Several actors and filmmakers have taken home multiple Razzies in the past, often in good spirit. People like Sandra Bullock and Paul Verhoeven have even attended the ceremony themselves to accept their ‘Worst…’ awards, finding the humour in the situation and taking the time to poke fun at themselves.
However, the Razzies’ history dates back to 1980, when Wilson watched a 99-cent screening of two films—Can’t Stop The Music and Xanadu. He thought the movies were so painfully bad that he needed to do something about them. He couldn’t simply let their terribleness slip into the ether—their awfulness needed to be immortalised in history.
So, at one of Wilson’s annual Oscars parties, which involved having friends round to watch the ceremony in his house, he presented a list of movies he thought were the worst of 1980 and asked his friends to vote for the one that he thought was the most awful. From there, the Razzies were born, with Can’t Stop the Music earning ‘Worst Picture’.
Directed by Nancy Walker, the film revolves around the formation of The Village People, the band best known for their campy hits ‘YMCA’ and ‘In the Navy’. Can’t Stop The Music featured the band members as themselves alongside actors like Steve Guttenberg and Valerie Perrine. Even Caitlyn Jenner had a prominent role, making it her film debut, although she soon proved that acting wasn’t exactly her forté.
Unfortunately for the cast and crew, the movie was a box office bomb. It was Walker’s only directorial feature, and due to the sheer failure of her attempt to helm a film, she turned her attention back to what she was better suited to – acting – as a result. The movie was criticised for basically everything, from the direction to the poor screenplay to the terrible acting. The Razzies gave it ‘Worst Screenplay’, although Walker narrowly avoided winning ‘Worst Director’ – that award went to Robert Greenwald for Xanadu instead.
Watch the trailer for Can’t Stop The Music below.
