The nominations for the 40th annual Golden Raspberry Awards (Razzies) were announced on Monday. The parody award chose the worst in cinema over the past year and coincided with their more illustrious cousin, the Academy Awards, which were announced on Sunday.
“Voting members of The Golden Raspberry Awards have sifted through a bumper crop of cinematic crud and made their selections for 2019’s Worst Achievements in film,” the organisation said on its website.
Leading the nominations were the much-derided A Madea Family Funeral, major-studio flop Cats, and the horror film The Haunting of Sharon Tate, the latter of which review website Rotten Tomatoes described as “dishonouring the events” it portrayed and “offensively exploitative” towards the innocent victims of the notorious Manson family killings.
Much had been made of the disaster that was Cats, which was directed by Academy Award-winner Tom Hooper, had a massive budget, and for which the studio planned a massive Oscar campaign that it quietly withdrew from in December. American media reported that the audience were turned off by the strange and poorly-executed graphics, uneven tone, and the disappointing turns by many celebrated actors and singers.
In the acting categories, other Academy favourites like Jessica Chastain and Judi Dench were nominated. Chastain for the X-men film Dark Phoenix, of which one reviewer said that the only good part of the film was that the credits were correctly spelled, and Dench for Cats.
Perennial Razzie nominee John Travolta was also called out for acting twice, in the critically-panned The Fanatic and the racing drama Trading Paint, which had a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed $0 in the North American box office.
A Madea Family Funeral was nominated for seven awards, famously having been shot in only seven days as creator Tyler Perry became increasingly well-known for the swiftness with which he put films together without regard to quality.
The Razzies also announced their nominees for the “Redeemer” award, honouring actors who have previously been in poor quality films but had redeemed themselves in 2019. This included Eddie Murphy, Keanu Reeves, and Jennifer Lopez. Many film critics had expected Lopez to receive a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars for her acclaimed performance in the crime drama Hustlers.
