Five-time Oscar winner Francis Ford Coppola has just walked away with a Razzie for Worst Director, leading to a written response worth framing or sticking on a fridge only used by legends.
Coppola’s box-office bomb, Megalopolis, earned six Razzie nominations this year, including Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay. Unsurprisingly, the man behind The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now (which are both pretty good, so we hear) took the latest “victory” in his stride, posting his thoughts on the news via Instagram.
“I am thrilled to accept the Razzie award in so many important categories for @megalopolisfilm, and for the distinctive honor of being nominated as the worst director, worst screenplay, and worst picture at a time when so few have the courage to go against the prevailing trends of contemporary moviemaking!” Coppola wrote.
The director went on to give his analysis of current events, saying, “In this wreck of a world today, where ART is given scores as if it were professional wrestling, I chose to NOT follow the gutless rules laid down by an industry so terrified of risk that despite the enormous pool of young talent at its disposal, may not create pictures that will be relevant and alive 50 years from now.” We can only assume that even though this was a written response, Coppola had a microphone in his hand that was now halfway to being dropped in slow motion.
As with all traditional award speeches, Coppola rounded things off by thanking his cast, which included Jon Voight, who also won a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor. “What an honor to stand alongside a great and courageous filmmaker like Jacques Tati who impoverished himself completely to make one of cinema’s most beloved failures, PLAYTIME! My sincere thanks to all my brilliant colleagues who joined me to make our work of art, MEGALOPOLIS, and let us remind ourselves us that box-office is only about money, and like war, stupidity and politics has no true place in our future.”
Besides Megalopolis taking home some of the shiny fruit-shaped trophies, Madame Web also earned the title of Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay, with its star, Dakota Johnson, nabbing the credit of Worst Actress. As it stands, Coppola’s written thanks is up there with one of the greats, right alongside Halle Berry, who attended the ceremony back in 2005 for her performance in Catwoman while bringing her own Oscar that she won in 2002 for Monster’s Ball along for the celebrations. Check out that moment in movie history below, and once you’re done wiping the tears away, get a look at all the nominations for this year’s Oscars here.
