The Golden Raspberry Awards is a satirical annual award ceremony to commemorate some of the worst works from the industry. It was first started by John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, the now industry veterans who were UCLA graduates at the time. This award encourages filmmakers, producers, and actors to embrace the work that they’re not quite proud of. Being first held on March 31, 1981, the show has been returning every year for four decades now.

Similarly, it is set to return around the same time this year. Thus, resealed its nominees to the public and in turn, received backlash for it.

The Golden Rasberry awards
The Golden Raspberry awards

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Where did the Razzies go wrong?

It became the very thing it swore to destroy. John Wilson said stating his regret.

“Sometimes, you do things without thinking,–Then you are called out for it. Then you get it. It’s why the Razzies were created in the first place.”

The Razzies award nominated a 12-year-old actress Ryan Kiera Armstrong for the worst actress category. The committee was subjected to criticism as soon as the news broke. Armstrong landed the nomination for starring in the second adaptation of Stephen King’s 1980 novel Firestarter opposite Zac Efron. And understandably so, the film was a success in the box while also receiving terrible reviews from critics. The Guardian wrote,

“No one here seems to know what they’re doing and, more importantly, why,” 

Although the film received some terrible reviews, Ryan Kiera Armstrong was called the only breath of fresh air in the movie by Rolling Stone, which called the movie a “four-alarm disaster,”

“Armstrong does her best in a mostly impossible role.”

Ryan Kiera Armstrong in <em>Firestarter</em>
Ryan Kiera Armstrong in Firestarter

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Nominating a 12-year-old might feel like a harsh move. The kid who was just starting with their career feels not an appropriate choice for the award in the first actress category. Thus, fans came to her support and voiced their opinion on Twitter. Here, are some of them,

The Razzies apologized publically and set an age limit

Although the founders of the Golden Raspberry awards stood by their decisions earlier this week to nominate the 12-year-old Ryan Kiera Armstrong. They later issued an apology and implemented an age limit following the backlash stating,

 “The recent valid criticism of the choice of 12-year-old Armstrong as a nominee for one of our awards brought our attention to how insensitive we’ve been in this instance.–Having learned from this lesson, we would also like to announce that, from this point forward, we are adopting a Voting Guideline precluding any performer or film-maker under 18 years of age from being considered for our awards,–We have never intended to bury anyone’s career. It is why our Redeemer Award was created. We all make mistakes, very much us included.”

They are now regretful for the hurt she had to experience because of them,

“We regret any hurt she experienced”

And further decided to live up to its motto by ending its statement with,

“Since our motto is ‘Own Your Bad,’ we realize that we ourselves must also live up to it,”

J.B. Wilson , the founder of the Razzies
J.B. Wilson, the founder of the Razzies

Earlier this week, founder John Wilson defended their choice by saying,

“I can see how it could be taken that way [as mean]. I don’t think that was how it was meant,–I think people who get upset about it — I don’t even know how to say this. The rage is interesting — perhaps somewhat justified, but I think overblown.–There’s a righteousness about it. It’s the Razzie Awards, for goodness’ sake!”

Clearly, the people did not take it in a light manner and the Razzies also seem to have realized exactly where they went wrong.

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Source: Variety

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