Awards Watch: MTV Movie Awards 2008

Transformers may have snatched the Best Movie prize at the 17th Annual MTV Movie Awards this past weekend, but it was Johnny Depp who was the biggest winner, nabbing two Golden Popcorn awards. Depp was voted Best Villain for his throat-slashing title character in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Best Comedic Performance for his Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. The latter was his third MTV Movie Award as the rum-soaked swashbuckler of the blockbuster franchise.

I Am Legend's Will Smith and Juno's Ellen Page took the top performance prizes, while Hairspray's Zac Efron trumped the Superbad boys for Breakthrough Performance. Three 2008 movies, Step Up 2 the Streets, Never Back Down and Iron Man, round out the rest of the winners.

Awards Watch: I Want My MTV

It was a good day for Michael Cera yesterday. The star of Superbad and Juno saw both of his movies from last year nominated for this year's MTV Movie Awards, with a combined total of nine nominations, including three nods for himself. Joining the two comedies in the Best Movie race are I Am Legend, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Transformers (that's right, Toto, we're not at the Oscars any more).

The Enchanted Amy Adams also picked up three nods, and Johnny Depp was nominated for both his Captain Jack and Sweeney Todd. Hairspray cuties Nikki Blonsky and Zac Efron are up for Breakthrough Performance (along with Superbad's Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Jonah Hill), but not Best Kiss (!). The biggest headscratcher though is Jessica Biel actually being nominated for her acting (and for I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, no less).

For a quick look at the nominees, see the comments section below, then head over to MTV.com to vote on the awards yourself. The "Golden Popcorns" will be handed out June 1 on, naturally, MTV. Mike Myers will be on hand to shill his upcoming movie The Love Guru ... I mean host.

Countdown to AFI's 10 Top 10: Fantasy

"Still round the corner there may wait,
a new road or a secret gate."
-- J.R.R. Tolkien

Giant apes, talking pigs, flying nannies, sword-fighting skeletons ... these are among the many fantastic elements that make up the next genre in the Movie Dearest countdown to AFI's Ten Top 10: fantasy.

Ranging from 1924's The Thief of Bagdad to 2005's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the fifty films nominated (see the comments section below for the full list) range from the obviously fantastical (anything based on Greek mythology) to more subtle variations on the theme (Being John Malkovich, The Purple Rose of Cairo). Fitting into the former category is the original King Kong, while the holiday perennial It's a Wonderful Life covers the latter; both are strong frontrunners for this top ten due to the fact that they have both been honored by the AFI five times in past 100 Years ... 100 Movies lists. But topping them both, with seven previous mentions, is a sure thing: The Wizard of Oz.

The other multiple honorees from the past countdowns are more recent: Field of Dreams and Ghost, plus The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (representing the entire trilogy), which placed in last year's top movies list and also won an AFI Award; Spider-Man 2 is the only other nominee that also won the annual award. Single list honorees also nominated this go round include Babe, Batman, Beetlejuice, Big, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Groundhog Day, Harvey, Mary Poppins, Miracle on 34th Street, The Princess Bride, Superman and Topper.

It is most likely that the final ten will be culled from these past honorees, but don't count out some potential first-timers, such as Brazil, Jason and the Argonauts, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Harry Potter, here represented by The Prisoner of Azkaban.

The results will be revealed when AFI's 10 Top 10 airs on CBS on June 17.