Tributes paid to Hunger Games at MTV Movie Awards

Hunger Games: Catching Fire cleaned up at the MTV Movie Awards over the weekend, scooping not only the top award but also a bunch of acting honours. The film was voted movie of the year, and stars Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson both won for best female and male performance.

It’s unsurprising that Hunger Games, youth culture phenomenon that it is, proved to be so popular with the MTV Awards crowd, as the ceremony is very much aimed at younger movie fans. Conan O’Brien hosted the show, which was its usual cheeky and irreverent self. For example, Zac Efron had his shirt ripped off him by Rita Ora when he took to the stage to accept the award for best shirtless performance.

Still, it wasn’t all fun and games; Hutcherson made sure to take the time to remember his co-star Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died of a drug overdose earlier this year. “I know that if Philip were here, he would think this is really cool,” he told the audience.

Other award winners on the night included Jonah Hill for best comedic performance in The Wolf of Wall Street, and Jared Leto for best onscreen transformation in Dallas Buyer’s Club, where he played a transgender woman.

In a surprise win, Divergent‘s Tris (played by Shailene Woodley) beat off stiff competition from Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen to be crowned favourite character of the year. Voting continued throughout the show and Everdeen was pipped at the post, with both characters receiving over nine million votes each.

The Hunger Games series has two more films to come, Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2, the first of which will be released in November this year.