American singer-actress Zendaya dominated the MTV Movie and TV Awards on Sunday as her teen drama Euphoria and big-screen superhero blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home were voted best show and best movie, respectively.
The light-hearted awards, taking place at the start of the summer blockbuster season, are voted for online by the public, and underscored the huge popularity of the 25-year-old former Disney child star.
Zendaya won best performance in a show for Euphoria, HBO’s often bleak and hard-hitting look at modern teen life, which also won offbeat awards for “best fight” and a new award for the best on-screen “hookup.”
The MTV awards have long bestowed tongue-in-cheek “golden popcorn” statuettes for categories ranging from “best kiss” to “most frightened performance.”
With obsessive fans encouraged to vote multiple times for their favorites, the awards tend to recognize mainstream and commercial hits with large and devoted social media followings.
It was little surprise therefore that “Spider-Man: No Way Home” — by far the biggest box office hit since the pandemic — won best movie.
The film has earned almost $1.9 billion worldwide and is the third-biggest hit for domestic theaters ever.
It also won best performance in a movie for Zendaya’s on-screen and real-life boyfriend Tom Holland, who plays the latest incarnation of the web-slinging superhero — although neither attended the ceremony in Santa Monica, near Los Angeles, in person.
Lending some A-list stardust to the room, Jennifer Lopez was presented a non-competitive “Generation Award.”
She thanked “true love” before telling her fiance Ben Affleck “and everybody at home” that she was on her way back for dinner.
Lopez also won best song, for On My Way (Marry Me), while 19-year-old multiple Grammy winner Olivia Rodrigo won best music documentary Olivia Rodrigo: driving home 2 u.