1996 MTV Movie Awards
Host: Ben Stiller & Janeane Garofalo
Venue: Walt Disney Studios
City: Burbank, California
Date: June 8, 1996
Best Movie: Seven
1996 Movie Awards Summary
Presiding over the surreal events was the appropriate
Reality Bites
tag team of Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo. In keeping with MTV Movie Awards tradition, they opened the night with a spoof, sending up laugh-out-loud action flop,
Twister
. The spoof featured cameos by Jay Leno and Jon Voight and introduced Stiller's Tom Cruise obsession, a running joke that reappeared throughout the night. The night's real Tom Cruise joke: Nicole Kidman (
Batman Forever
), Cruise's 'wife' at the time, losing Most Desirable Female to Alicia Silverstone (Clueless). Harsh. In other upsets, Braveheart lost Best Action Sequence to
Bad Boys
and Seal's "Kiss From A Rose" (
Batman Forever
) lost to Brandy's "Sittin' Up In My Room" (
Waiting To Exhale
). That song was everywhere!
Speaking of songs everywhere, they were all over the 1996 MTV Movie Awards. Whitney Houston performed "Why Does It Hurt So Bad," Garbage ripped through "Only Happy When It Rains," Adam Sandler performed a tribute to a pre-crack-up Hollywood leading man called "Mel Gibson," and the Fugees were joined by Roberta Flack on their cover of her "Killing Me Softly." Needless to say, the crowd was impressed. But they didn't really freak out until KISS appeared in full make-up to present ... what else? Best Kiss. The award went to Natasha Henstridge and Matthew Ashford for their Species spit-swap.
But the night did still have moments of class. A then brand new face, Wes Anderson, was awarded Best New Filmmaker for his hilarious Bottle Rocket (good eye, MTV!) and Steve James, director of landmark basketball documentary Hoop Dreams , won a Lifetime Achievement Award. Other than that it was knock down, drag out and dirty. But what else do you expect from the MTV Movie Awards? Anything goes.
