LOS ANGELES: One day before Hollywood honours the year’s best films at the Oscars, the Razzies honour the year’s worst — and the winner is The Emoji Movie.

The animated film beat other dud 2017 films such as Baywatch, Fifty Shades Darker, The Mummy and Transformers: The Last Knight to win an infamous Golden Rasberry award.

The year saw “Hollywood’s recycled trash heap attain an all-time high,” with a “toxic-level lack of originality,” the organisers said in a statement.

The Emoji Movie, the first animated movie to win the award in the Razzie’s 38-year history, also “won” in the categories of worst screenplay, worst screen combo and worst director.

Tom Cruise won in the Worst Actor category for his star role in another reboot of The Mummy, while a cross-dressing Tyler Perry won in the Worst Actress category for BOO 2!: A Madea Halloween — the ninth “Madea” film.

Mel Gibson won the Worst Supporting Actor award for the comedy Daddy’s Home 2, and Kim Basinger won for supporting actress in the erotic thriller Fifty Shades Darker.

A video announcing the award winners included an “In Memoriam” segment, with pictures of Hollywood luminaries — including Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Woody Allen and Bill Cosby — caught up in sex scandals.

“Very sorry ... but we won’t be missing you — or your kind,” the video said.

The Razzies were created in 1980 as an antidote to Hollywood’s star-studded, back-slapping annual awards season, which climaxes Sunday with the Academy Awards.

Nominees rarely attend the Razzies, usually held in small venues somewhere in and around Los Angeles.

Sandra Bullock turned up in 2010 to accept worst actress for All About Steve, a day before winning best actress Oscar for The Blind Side.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2018