AVN Week 2023

Adult Entertainment Expo

The AVN Adult Entertainment Expo returned to Las Vegas this month after a 3-year absence due to the coronavirus pandemic. This year, it was concurrent with the return of the Consumer Electronic Show, something that hadn’t happened since 2011. Because of crossover attendance, this was the busiest AEE that I remember but also the most expensive. Prices for rooms, food, and transit have jacked up since the three years.

The host Resorts World is huge, and I saw families with children walking around the facilities which did not happen when AEE was at the Hard Rock. Because of this, there was a more restrictive dress code that people were expected to adhere to when leaving the confines of the convention. Given the size and complexity of the show and the limited production staff, it was definitely a success. Sure, there were quirks that can be ironed out at future shows but that happens at every new venue.

Besides the adjoining Adult Novelty Expo, AEE featured three main halls. One focused on production companies and webcam platforms, one focused on the gay side of the industry, and the last was mainly talent agencies. At any given point of the day from opening to close, you could find new people to meet walking back and forth between the halls. With the production company booths, most talent had 4 hour signing shifts while the talent at the agencies booth and the AVN booth averaged around 2 hours.

Outside of the actual expo grounds, Vixen rented space in the Resorts World mall to host a pop-up store featuring their clothing line and contract stars. Riley Reid appeared for two days exhibiting her Eighteen Plus clothing line, and the overall line to get into the store lasted about 3 hours.

Expo photos on Flickr

AVN Awards 2023

So weird thing happened to me. After the end of the expo with drink in hand, I was trying to find a ticket for IAFD spokeswoman, Alex Blake, to walk the red carpet for the AVN Awards. When the nice producer saw that I had a press badge for IAFD, he handed me a press badge to be behind the Awards red carpet. I was not prepared to shoot the Awards since I had not charged my camera and flashes after finishing the expo, and I was already 30 minutes late for the call time.

After sheepishly explaining to Alex what had happened and cancelling two shoots, I ran up to my room to throw on my suit, grabbed my camera and strobe, and came back down. The only space that was available was at the end of the carpet what was only half covered by a wall background. I shared my spot with two guys, Jay of Jay’s Playhouse and Bobby of Girlsincars or something similar to that, who were great guys as we coordinated our shots rather than compete with each other. I took about 3-4 shots per look and tried not to miss anyone, but several people skipped us since we were the end of the line and they just wanted to move on.

The carpet started at 5:30pm and kept going until 9pm with 750+ walkers. It does not need to be this grueling. They tried to limit the walkers to nominees, but the problem is that there are too many nominees! Most categories have around 10 nominations each (some with multiple performers), but the fan award categories can have 20-30 nominations with no overlap with the other categories. This Oprah approach builds interest but is too overwhelming on the red carpet. Perhaps the fan awards should be separated into another event.

Awards red carpet photos on Flickr

As for the Awards themselves, they went pretty much as predicted. We were correct with several of our projections. I was pleased as fuck to see Kira Noir win Female Performer of the Year; not just because of its historic nature but that she is one of the nicest and best people in the industry. Congratulations.

Miscellaneous

Because of the expense and limited room blocks, it seemed like more talent stayed outside of Resorts World so you wouldn’t see them at night outside of the expo. I was reluctant to leave Resorts World out of laziness so I mostly stuck to the events that were hosted there.

Alex Blake at the AVN White party

I mostly hung out with my boys at IAFD and AdultDVDTalk along with IAFD spokeswoman Alex Blake. I would like to thank Mark Spiegler, Don Juan de Marko, Tim Von Swine, and East Coast Talent for their hospitality at several events into the late hour.

Thank you, Liz, Chanel, and Alex for making magic with me.

AVN Nominees 2023

It’s that time of year again! Time for the Annotated list of AVN Awards nominees for 2023. (Really, the material is from 2022, but the show is in 2023, so they call it 2023.)

Best Actor – Featurette

Best Actress – Featurette

Best All-Female Movie or Limited Series

Best All-Girl Group Sex Scene

Best Anal Movie or Limited Series

Best Anal Sex Scene

Best Anthology Movie or Limited Series

Best Art Direction

Best BDSM Movie or Limited Series

Best Blowbang Scene

Best Cinematography

Best Curve Appeal Movie or Limited Series

Best Directing Portfolio – International

Best Directing Portfolio – Narrative

Best Directing Portfolio – Non-Narrative

Best Directing Portfolio – Specialty

Best Double Penetration Sex Scene

Best Editing

Best Featurette

Best Female Mixed-Age Movie or Limited Series

Best Female/Female Sex Scene

Best Foursome/Orgy Sex Scene

Best Gangbang Scene

Best Gonzo/Cinemacore Movie or Limited Series

Best Hair and Makeup

Best Ingenue Movie or Limited Series

Best International All-Female Sex Scene

Best International Anal Sex Scene

Best International Group Sex Scene

Best International Male/Female Sex Scene

Best International Production

Best Leading Actor

Best Leading Actress

Best Male Newcomer

Best Male/Female Sex Scene

Best MILF Movie or Limited Series

Best Multi-Partner Movie or Limited Series

Best New International Starlet

Best New Starlet

Best Niche Movie or Limited Series

Best Non-Sex Performance

Best Oral Sex Scene

Best POV Sex Scene

Best Screenplay – Featurette

Best Screenplay – Movie or Limited Series

Best Solo/Tease Performance

Best Soundtrack

Best Star Showcase

Best Supporting Actor

Best Supporting Actress

Best Taboo Relations Movie or Limited Series

Best Thespian – Trans/X

Best Three-Way Sex Scene – F/F/M

Best Three-Way Sex Scene – M/F/M

Best Trans Group Sex Scene

Best Trans Movie or Limited Series

Best Trans Newcomer

Best Trans One-on-One Sex Scene

Best Virtual Reality Sex Scene

Clever Title of the Year

Female Performer of the Year

Female/Female Specialty Performer of the Year

Grand Reel

International Female Performer of the Year

International Male Performer of the Year

Mainstream Venture of the Year

Male Performer of the Year

Mark Stone Award for Outstanding Comedy

MILF Performer of the Year

Most Outrageous Sex Scene

Niche Specialty Performer of the Year

Oustanding Directing – Individual Work

Trans Performer of the Year

XRCO Nominees

The XRCO Awards are Thursday night, so it seems the last minute to be posting the nominees list (and even more last minute for the upcoming 2021 Spank Bank Awards…)

They put together a video announcing the nominees, but we also compiled a list for easy persual.

All in the Family Theme

Awesome Analist

Best Actor

Best Actress

Best Comedy

Best Director (Features)

Best Director (Non-Features)

Best Director (Parody)

Best Director (Web)

Best Gonzo Movie

Best Parody

Best Release

Female Performer of the Year

Girl/Girl Performer of the Year

Hall of Fame

Male Performer of the Year

MILF of the Year

New Starlet

New Stud

Personal Favorite

Star Showcase

Superslut

Teen Dream

The Vicki Chase Orgasmic Oralist Award

Trans Performer of the Year

Unsung Siren

Unsung Swordsman

Our Picks for the 2022 AVN Awards

Wow! We did it. We actually voted in every non-retail-pleasure category that we could vote for, and I have to thank my colleagues for pulling this off. It’s not like we did this in any organised manner like assigning categories so that everything would be covered. The most important thing was coming to a consensus since we had to rank every nominee in a given category.

I still think there are too many nominees in each category, but you have to keep everyone but the voters happy. Are there really more than 5 contenders in a given category that could or should win, and if there are, what does it say about about the indiscriminate evaluation or quality of what we are reviewing?

Each voter has their own criteria on how they judge the category. I generally defer to my colleagues in categories that I am clueless about or disinterested in. It would not be fair to the nominees if I tried to vote in every category, and it was crucial that we did have someone that knew their shit in specific categories. For example, Best Soundtrack: Would I listen to and enjoy this porn groove if it was outside a porno? The answer would frankly be no to every soundtrack that has ever been nominated. Same with Best Makeup: I appreciate the beauty that makeup brings when it is pertinent to the story, but most of the time the makeup I appreciate most is one where the viewer wouldn’t even notice.

Here is a sampling of our picks for the 2022 AVN Awards:

Movies

Like I mentioned last year, Jane Wilde is such a filthy performer, and Jonni Darkko, technically proficient cameraman and director, combine to make great showcases. Love, Sex, and Lawyers continues perhaps a series of movies by Will Ryder, unrelated except by title. This romantic comedy is lighthearted and funny, and I like watching Kenna James having sex.

Directing

Known mostly for his comedies and parodies, Will Ryder is a self-deprecating perfectionist or pessimist. His movies may not have the extensive budget of his competition, but Ryder writes the screenplays and squeezes every last take to get the shot that he wants for his vision, often to the exasperation of his production partner, Scott David.

Acting

Big surprise that Maitland Ward, with extensive mainstream acting experience, would be the best actor in porn today. It is obvious that she enjoys the amount of control in her scenes both in and out of the storyline.

Performing

The IAFD staff like buxom blondes like Blake Blossom and Britney Amber, but we also like lithe redheads like Lottie Magne so we don’t have a particular preference with looks in picking performers. Performance over the voting period does matter, and it’s not just clicking off the checkboxes of acts that you can see on our website. It’s whether they consistently put out great scenes even while their co-stars and productions constantly change.

Reviewing the myriad scene categories confirmed that Gia Derza is an incredible performer. Her beautiful eyes accentuates every blowjob that she gives, and she throws every hole into sexual abandonment while moaning and squeaking into ecstasy. That’s my best Don Juan de Marko impression that I can do because I’ve ran out of words to describe just how great it is to watch her on screen.

[NOTE FROM JEFF: If I had to change anything about the awards process, it would be the voting site we have to use. It’s a simple list of nominees on one side and we drag them in order to the other side to cast our vote. Simple enough task, but the source list is unsorted, so it’s harder than necessary to find Angela White’s name when it’s buried somewhere in the bottom third of the list instead of at the top where the A’s should be sorted. (I do concede that perhaps there’s a reason for the random ordering in the source list – random ordering might keep the list free from unconscious bias. By way of example, I had a client who named their company so it started with an AB so they’d be at the top of every list of sponsors they were listed in.)

We vote via spreadsheet and we average out our scores so a polarizing performer might end up in the middle of the pack instead of at either extreme. This year I didn’t watch nearly as much as I had in the past, so my role was mostly as tiebreaker – visiting those specific scenes/performers and then voting between those. The ties were almost exclusively middle-of-the-pack; I don’t think I had to break any win/place/show ties….]

The 2022 AVN Award Nominations

And here we go with the granddaddy awards show – the one they call The Oscars of Porn. On January 22, 2022 the porn world will virtually gather to celebrate the work done by members of the adult film community. And we’re here to bring you our annual annotated guide.

This is not the exhaustive list of nominees – it’s just a subset of the performers and titles in categories that we track in the database.  The full list of nominees can be found at the AVN Awards site.

(Disclosure: we’re voters again this year. Please, no wagering.)

Our breakdowns of the nominees:

Acting Awards

Best Leading Actor

Best Leading Actress

Best Actor – Featurette

Best Actress – Featurette

Best Supporting Actor

Best Supporting Actress

Best Thespian – Trans/X

Best Non-Sex Performance

Directing Categories

Director of the Year

Best Directing – Banner/Network

Best Directing – International Production

Best Directing – Narrative Production

Best Directing – Non-Narrative Production

Best Movies

Grand Reel

Best Featurette

Best Anal Movie or Limited Series

Best Anthology Movie or Limited Series

Best BDSM Movie or Limited Series

Best Curve Appeal Movie or Limited Series

Best Group Sex Movie or Limited Series

Best Gonzo/Compendium Movie or Limited Series

Best Ingenue Movie or Limited Series

Best Lesbian Movie or Limited Series

Best MILF Movie or Limited Series

Best Mixed-Age Fantasy Movie or Limited Series

Best Niche Movie or Limited Series

Best Star Showcase

Best Taboo Relations Movie or Limited Series

Mark Stone Award for Outstanding Comedy

Performers of the Year

Female Performer of the Year

Male Performer of the Year

Best Male Newcomer

MILF Performer of the Year

Lesbian Performer of the Year

Niche Performer of the Year

Best New Starlet

Trans Categories

Trans Performer of the Year

Best Trans Group Sex Scene

Best Trans Movie or Limited Series

Best Trans Newcomer

Best Trans One-on-One Sex Scene

Best Trans Series or Channel

International Categories

Best International Production

International Female Performer of the Year

International Male Performer of the Year

Best New International Starlet

Best International Anal Sex Scene

Best International Boy/Girl Sex Scene

Best International Group Sex Scene

Best International Lesbian Sex Scene

Production Categories

Best Art Direction

Best Cinematography

Best Editing

Best Makeup

Best Screenplay

Best Screenplay – Featurette

Best Soundtrack

Clever Title of the Year

Mainstream Venture of the Year

Best Scenes

Best Anal Sex Scene

Best Blowbang Scene

Best Boy/Girl Sex Scene

Best Double Penetration Sex Scene

Best Foursome/Orgy Sex Scene

Best Gangbang Scene

Best Girl/Girl Sex Scene

Best Lesbian Group Sex Scene

Best Oral Sex Scene

Best POV Sex Scene

Best Solo/Tease Performance

Best Tag-Team Sex Scene

Best Three-Way Sex Scene

Best Virtual Reality Sex Scene

Most Outrageous Sex Scene