The MTV Movie & TV Awards was a film and television awards show that was presented annually on MTV from 1992 to 2023. It began as the MTV Movie Awards in 1992, when its first edition was held, and adopted its current name in 2017, beginning with its 26th edition.
The awards ceremony has traditionally been tied to the start of the summer blockbuster season for the film industry, and since the launch of the television awards, the opening of that industry's awards season. The nominees are decided by producers and executives at MTV. The winners are then decided by the general public. From 2007, voting was done only through an official website. Winners are presented with the "Golden Popcorn" statue made by New-York-firm Society Awards.
The 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards were the final event.
Production process For much of its history, the ceremony was recorded for later broadcast, unlike the MTV Video Music Awards, which are usually live, but not live-to-tape, where the ceremony occurred in chronological order with appropriate edits. This meant that the ceremony was recorded out of order with the host segments recorded all at the start, followed by the musical performances and then award presentations, where those artists and actors nominated could choose to stay only for their award category and then depart after, with a seat filler filling their seat before or afterwards. After 2006, when Survivor producer Mark Burnett (who took over duties from Joel Gallen for the 2007 awards) took over production duties, it began to be broadcast live most years, though since 2017, it has been recorded live-to-tape, with a one or two-day delay before airing.
Since 2007, polls for several awards have been voted on through MTV's web and social media presences.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 awards were cancelled. Internally, the network had discussed a permanent move of the ceremony to December, which would place it in the early portion of awards season before the Golden Globe Awards. Instead, MTV aired a Vanessa Hudgens-hosted clip show, MTV Movie & TV Awards: Greatest of All Time, on December 6, 2020, which featured highlights from past ceremonies and highlighted notable moments from film and television since the 1980s.
The network stated that it aimed to hold a larger, weekend-long ceremony in 2021. On March 11, 2021, MTV announced that the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards would be held on May 16 and 17, 2021, with the first night focusing on films and scripted television, and a new, second night (MTV Movie & TV Awards: Unscripted) focusing exclusively on awards in reality television. The 2022 ceremony maintained the split format, but with both segments airing back-to-back on a single night. The 2023 ceremony was originally to be hosted by Drew Barrymore, but Barrymore and other planned guests dropped out in solidarity with the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike. As a result, the in-person ceremony was cancelled and replaced by a pre-recorded virtual ceremony with no host. The awards have not been held since 2023.
Award categories Current awards Category Year(s) NotesMovie awardsMovie of the Year 1992–2023 Best Actor in a Movie 2017–2023 Movie & Television awardsBest Musical Moment 2017–2023 Best Breakthrough Performance known as "Next Generation" in 2017Best Comedic Performance Most Frightened Performance Best Hero Best Villain Best Kiss Best Fight Best Duo known as "Best On-Screen Team" in 2018 and "Best Team" in 2022Television awardsBest Show 2017–2023 Best Performance in a Show Best Host 2017, 2019–2023 Best Competition Series 2017, 2021–2023 known as "Best Reality Competition" in 2017Best Docu-Reality Series 2018–2023 known as "Best Reality Series/Franchise" in 2018 and "Best Reality Royalty" in 2019Best Music Documentary 2018, 2021–2023
Retired awards Category Year(s) NotesMovie awardsBest Male Performance 1992–2016 Best Female Performance Best Song from a Movie 1992–2002, 2005, 2009, 2012, 2013–2015 known as "Best Musical Sequence" in 2000–2002 and 2005, "Best Music" in 2012, and "Best Musical Moment" in 2013–2015Best Breakthrough Performance 1992–1998, 2006–2008, 2010–2016 known as "Breakout Star" in 2011–2012Best Male Breakthrough Performance 1999–2005, 2009 Best Female Breakthrough Performance Best New Filmmaker 1992–2002 Most Desirable Male 1992–1996 Most Desirable Female Best Action Sequence 1992–2005 Best Dance Sequence 1995, 1998, 2001, 2004 Best Comedic Performance 1992–2017 Most Frightened Performance 2005–2016 Best Hero 2006, 2010–2016 known as "Biggest Bad-Ass Star" in 2010–2011Best Villain 1992–2016 known as "Best On-Screen Dirt Bag" in 2012Best Kiss Best Fight 1996–2016 Best On-Screen Duo 1992–2006, 2013–2015 Best Sandwich in a Movie 1996 Best Cameo 2001–2004, 2014 Best Dressed 2001, 2002 Best Virtual Performance 2003, 2016 Best Video Game Based on a Movie 2005 Best Filmmaker on Campus 2006–2007 known as "MTVU Student Filmmaker Award" in 2007Sexiest Performance 2006 Dirtiest Mouth Moment 2007 Spoof Award Best Summer Movie You Haven't Seen Yet Best Summer Movie So Far 2008 Best WTF Moment 2009–2015 known as "Best Jaw-Dropping Moment" in 2011 and "Best Gut-Wrenching Performance" in 2012Best Latino Actor 2011–2013 Best Line from a Movie 2001–2002, 2011 known as "Best Line" in 2001–2002Best Cast2012, 2016 known as "Ensemble Cast" in 2016Best Shirtless Performance 2013–2015 Best On-Screen Transformation 2013–2014 Favorite Character 2014 Summer's Biggest Teen Bad-Ass 2013 Best Documentary 2016–2017 Best Action Performance 2016 True Story Movie & Television awardsMost Meme-able Moment 2017, 2019 known as "Trending" in 2017Best Fight Against the System 2017 Best American Story Tearjerker Scene Stealer 2018 Best Real-Life Hero 2019 Here For The Hookup 2022 Television awards Best Talk/Topical Show 2021–2022 Best New Unscripted Series Best Lifestyle Show Best Real-Life Mystery or Crime Series 2021 Best Comedy/Game Show Best Dating Show Best International Reality Series Best Reality Cast Best Reality Fight 2021–2022 Best Reality Romance 2022 Best Reality Return Miscellaneous awardsGlobal Superstar 2010 Breakthrough Social Star 2021–2022
Special awards Lifetime Achievement Award Year Recipient1992 Jason Voorhees1993 The Three Stooges1994 John Shaft1995 Jackie Chan1996 Godzilla1997 Chewbacca1998 Clint Howard
Silver Bucket of Excellence Year Recipient Notes2005 The Breakfast Club awarded to Anthony Michael Hall, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy2006 Do the Right Thing awarded to Spike Lee
Generation Award Year Recipient2005 Tom Cruise2006 Jim Carrey2007 Mike Myers2008 Adam Sandler2009 Ben Stiller2010 Sandra Bullock2011 Reese Witherspoon2012 Johnny Depp2013 Jamie Foxx2014 Mark Wahlberg2015 Robert Downey Jr.2016 Will Smith2017 The Fast and the Furious franchise2018 Chris Pratt2019 Dwayne Johnson2021 Scarlett Johansson2022 Jennifer Lopez
Trailblazer Award Year Recipient Age Received 2012 Emma Stone (23 years, 6 months, and 28 days) 2013 Emma Watson (22 years, 11 months, and 30 days) 2014 Channing Tatum (33 years, 11 months, and 13 days) 2015 Shailene Woodley (23 years, 4 months, and 28 days) 2018 Lena Waithe (34 years, 30 days) 2019 Jada Pinkett Smith (47 years, 8 months, and 28 days)
Comedic Genius Award Year Recipient2013 Will Ferrell2015 Kevin Hart2016 Melissa McCarthy2021 Sacha Baron Cohen2022 Jack Black2023 Jennifer Coolidge
Goat Award Year Award Recipient2020 Dance Your A** Off Kevin Bacon(Footloose)2020 Comedy Giant Kevin Hart2020 Dynamic Duo Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler2020 Scream Queen Jamie Lee Curtis2020 Legendary Lip Lock Sarah Michelle Gellar and Selma Blair (Cruel Intentions)2020 Heartbreaking Break- Up Jason Segel and Kristen Bell (Forgetting Sarah Marshall)2020 Zero to Hero William Zabka (Karate Kid and Cobra Kai)2020 Hero for the Ages Chadwick Boseman
Years