Jennifer Aniston is being rewarded for being bad at the MTV Movie Awards.

The actresses picked up the best on-screen dirtbag award for her role as a man-eating dentist in Horrible Bosses at the beginning of Sunday's MTV Movie Awards.

"I would like to say thank you to the television show Friends for letting me unleash my inner-sweetheart, and here's to (Horrible Bosses' director) Seth Gordon for letting me be a dirtbag," Aniston said.

Bridesmaids and The Hunger Games are battling for the most buckets of golden popcorn trophies at the show. The raunchy comedy and survival saga are the top nominees at the 21st annual extravaganza with eight nods apiece, including movie of the year. The other contenders up for the night's top prize are Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, The Help and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1.

The live, fan-favourite ceremony is hosted by bawdy actor-comedian Russell Brand. He opened the show by poking fun of Michael Fassbender's full frontal endowment in Shame and Kim Kardashian's short-lived marriage, which he acknowledged was hypocritical. Brand filed for divorce last year from pop superstar Katy Perry after 14 months of marriage. Perry performed at the Brand-hosted MTV Video Music Awards in 2009.

"Tonight, I'm gonna keep my eyes peeled for my next wife," joked Brand. "Fasssssbender!"

Other early winners Sunday were Shailene Woodley for breakthrough performance for The Descendants and Josh Hutcherson for Best Male Performance for The Hunger Games.

- AP