Passionate speeches top winners at MTV awards – New gender revolution

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LOS ANGELES, May 8, (Agencies): Spirited speeches were front and center at the MTV Movie and TV awards on Sunday, where the night’s top winners at the usually irreverent awards show took to the stage to champion diversity and inclusion.

A rare spell of wet weather in Los Angeles shut down the red carpet before the awards show, but inside, drinks were flowing as host Adam Devine literally set the stage on fire as he kicked off MTV’s first awards celebrating both television and films.

Streaming platform Netflix enjoyed the night’s biggest spotlight when its 1980s sci-fi series “Stranger Things” won the inaugural Show of the Year award.

“Thank you to Netflix, where would we be without Netflix? Like literally, when you’re having a bad day, what do you do when you go home?,” “Stranger Things” star Caleb McLaughlin said on stage, as the audience shouted back “Watch Netflix.”

Disney’s live-action fairytale “Beauty and the Beast” won Best Movie and director Bill Condon thanked the female audience, saying “women have proven that they are huge and powerful audience and it’s going to change the movie business.”

MTV did away with gender-specific acting categories this year for its fan-voted awards, where “Beauty and the Beast” star Emma Watson won best actor in a movie and “Stranger Things” newcomer Millie Bobby Brown, 13, won best actor in a show.

Ability

“Acting is about the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and that doesn’t need to be separated into two different categories,” Watson said on stage.

MTV’s annual fan-voted, youth-orientated awards show is known for its irreverent moments, explicit jokes and unconventional award categories, which Devine played up in off-kilter quips about his genitals and smoking marijuana. But this year’s show saw presenters and winners get passionate about issues on stage.

MTV billed Sunday night’s Movie & TV Awards as the year’s biggest party, but this party also made a serious statement with its new policy of breaking down gender barriers in its new format, as men and women competed jointly in the acting categories.

The policy was put into practice by Asia Kate Dillion when she proudly noted she has been able to break down gender barriers as “the first openly non-binary actor to play an openly non-binary actor on a major TV show” (Showtime’s drama series “Billions”), then presented the Best Actor in a Movie award to Emma Watson of “Beauty and the Beast.” A non-binary person is someone who doesn’t identify with either gender.

There was another big difference in the 26th edition of what was formerly known as the MTV Movie Awards: TV shows were newly eligible for Golden Popcorn trophies.

The second award of the night — Best Actor in a Show — went to Millie Bobby Brown of Netflix’s “Stranger Things.”

A new award, Best Fight Against the System, went to the film “Hidden Figures,” which tells the story of a team of African-American women mathematicians who served a vital role at NASA during the space program’s early years.

The mission of the filmmakers, said one of its stars, Taraji P. Henson, was to dispel a wrong-headed cultural myth “so another young girl wouldn’t grow up thinking that her mind wasn’t capable of grasping math and science.”

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. used the MTV Movie & TV Awards on Sunday to premiere a brand new trailer for “Wonder Woman.”

While clips for “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and the “It” remake were teased ahead of the event, Gal Gadot’s superhero entry dropped a surprise 2:34-long trailer of its own. Just like the handful of sneak peeks that came before it, the most recent look at Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman” keeps most of the attention squarely on Gadot’s Diana.

However, this final preview ditches the character development between Diana and Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor in favor of sweeping, epic action shots.

The surprise trailer was just one of many changes to the inaugural MTV Movie & TV Awards — formerly known simply as the MTV Movie Awards. While long-time fan favorite categories like best kiss, best hero, and best villain remained, MTV replaced its former best actor and best actress categories with the non-gendered distinctions, best actor in a movie and best actor in a show.

A new “It” sneak preview spooked audiences during the MTV Movie & TV Awards on Sunday.

Some of the film’s stars, including Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, and Finn Wolfhard — known collectively in the film as “the losers’ club” — were on hand to introduce the never-before-seen footage to fans.

The new look showed the children venturing into an “unsanitary” sewer, but the germs end up being the last of their concerns when they find the shoe of Betty Ripsom, a member of the Losers Club who was an early victim of It. “What if she’s still here?” the children ask.

It then cuts to several scenes, including one where we get a clear shot of the new Pennywise as red balloons rise to reveal his smiling face.

The sneak peek offers the latest look at the supernatural horror film since the record-breaking trailer’s release in late March. The first trailer garnered 197 million views globally in its first 24 hours, breaking “The Fate of the Furious’” record (139 million views) for the most-watched trailer online in a single day.

This news has been read 5317 times!