Now in its 12th year, the MTV Video Movie Awards will be taped on 31 May at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Indian viewers should be able to catch the event sometime in June.

Readers may recall that last year's show set a new record with an average of over seven million viewers. Eight million fans cast their vote last year on the website mtv.com. This year's show will be seen in 166 countries / territories through 84 channels and in 17 languages in over 380 million households.

The second instalment in the Lord of The Rings trilogy The Two Towers and Spiderman bagged five nominations each. Besides these two, another competitor in the best film category is Curtis Hanson's rap themed provocation 8 Mile with Eminem. Interestingly, Oscar winner for Best Picture Chicago failed to make the cut. What doesn't come as a surprise is that mature films like Far From Heaven, The Hours which are not easy to watch and which a large part of MTV's audience will have some trouble coming to grips with being left off the list. In an effort to tip its hat towards the latest advances in film making, MTV has announced a new category Best Virtual Performance. Here you will find the likes of LOTR's Gollum whose onscreen split personality was a treat to watch as well as Dobby the house elf in Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets.