by Ryan Loftis

Created on: February 23, 2013   Last Updated: February 25, 2013

The awards ceremony the Hollywood film industry doesn’t want you to know about is back. The 33rd Annual Golden Raspberry (“Razzie”) Awards ceremony, “honoring” 2012’s worst achievements in film, was held on Saturday, Feb. 23. The Razzies have had the same purpose since the beginning: “It’s all about taking Hollywood’s favorite pastime – congratulating itself – and turning it on its head,” Razzies founder John Wilson

said. The nominating criteria are specific: “We focus on big-budget, big-name, well-known movies because they have no excuse to be as bad as they are.”

The inaugural Razzie Awards ceremony was held on March 31, 1981 – Oscar night – in Wilson’s living room alcove. “I was looking for something to do when the show was over, because in L.A. they end by 10 p.m.,” he recalled. “So I set up a cardboard podium in my living room, put a foam ball on a broomstick to create a microphone and just asked people to make random award presentations. This was the only year 10 nominees were each selected for Worst Picture, Actor, Actress, Screenplay and Director. “Can’t Stop the Music,” Neil Diamond in “The Jazz Singer,” Brooke Shields in “The Blue Lagoon,” Bronte Woodward and Allan Carr for “Can’t Stop the Music” and “Xanadu” director Robert Greenwald were the “winners” in those respective categories.

For the following year’s ceremony, Wilson distributed press releases to Southern California newspapers. The ceremony proved popular enough that by 1984 major newswires had started running the story. When the ceremony was scheduled for the night before the Oscars “it suddenly became this big deal,” Wilson said. “Part of it is that you have all this press in town for the Oscars from all around the world, and the night before the show they really have nothing to do.”

Worst of the Worst

Theoretically, any well-known actor, director or film is fair game for Razzies consideration, but certain individuals and films have been especially prominent in Razzies history.

As of the 32nd Annual Razzie Awards on April 1, 2012, Sylvester Stallone was the most “honored” actor, with 30 nominations and 10 “wins” to his credit. Stallone was named Worst Actor of the Decade for the 1980s at the 1990 ceremony and Worst Actor of the Century

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