'Twilight,' 'Inception' and 'Harry Potter' lead MTV movie awards nominations

Posted Tuesday, May 3, 2011 at 3:48 PM Central
Last updated Tuesday, May 3, 2011 at 9:30 PM Central

by John Couture

MTV has always been a network that has danced to their own beat, so it's not surprising that they position their movie awards as far as possible from the traditional award season as possible. On June 5, MTV will broadcast the 2011 MTV Movie Awards live and today they announced the nominations.

It's no surprise that tween-leaning awards show dropped the most nominations on The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, but what is surprising is the seven nominations that Christopher Nolan's mind-bender Inception garnered, including "Best Movie." Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 was a close third nabbing six nominations including leading actor and actress noms for Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson respectively.

Of course, the MTV Movie Awards are best known for their, umm, unique categories such as their staples "Best Kiss" and "Best Fight." This year they have added a couple of new surefire hits such as "Best Line From a Movie," "Biggest Badass Star" and "Best Scared-as-S**t Performance."

This wouldn't be an MTV show without the requisite Justin Bieber appearance. The teen pop sensation somehow grabbed a nomination in the "Best Jaw Dropping Moment category. Umm, ok. For the purpose of full disclosure, it should probably be pointed out that MTV and Paramount (the studio behind Bieber's film Never Say Never) are owned by the same company.

Presenters have yet to be announced, but you can bet that some of the stars from the Summer's biggest movies to be released in June and July will be on hand. Another nice benefit of the Summer awards show is the seamless marketing opportunity. And since Paramount has some of the biggest movies due out this Summer including Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Captain American: The First Avenger, expect a steady stream of robots and comic book heros to be handing out famed golden popcorn bucket.

Jason Sudeikis has been tabbed to host this year's event and MTV has already hit the ground running with a series of "advice" videos for Jason including this one from fellow SNL cast mate and MTV Movie Awards host Andy Samberg.

You can check out all the nominees over at MTV.com. Voting is open and will run through the show which debuts live on June 5.