Category: Awards

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

Our Picks for the 2021 AVN Awards

Oh, it’s been quite a year. I’m not talking about the pandemic but the actual amount of reviewing that it takes to vote for the AVN Awards. As AVN founder, Paul Fishbein, once said, “It is a very long, horrible process”. You would think that with production stoppages this year there would be less things to vote on, but there seemed to be even more categories with 10-15 nominations in each. Apparently, everyone on the nomination committee worked for Oprah at one time, but you can’t please everyone. Sure, we have the option of not voting in every category – this year we voted in 69 of 89 categories – but you still have to watch all 10-15 nominees in order to fairly rank them in that category!

AVN doesn’t give us guidelines on how to vote so every voter has a different criteria on what they look for. As I mentioned last year, and for all of you analytic-minded masturbating prognosticators out there, I use a hybrid clinical approach in judging the technical aspects in the production and director categories and an overall feel for the scene and performer categories. People have asked whether voters have biases based on their experiences with the industry, and the answer is of course we do. Experience does impact how we view a product. No one has offered us blowjobs or even a handjob for a vote though, but that’s a lot of work to coordinate even for those that have publicists. Most of the performers just know me as a photographer while the producers/directors tend to be more savvy in their discussions around me.

But for the sake of transparency and further rumour mongering, here are some of our picks for the 2021 AVN Awards:

Movies

I wish Rocco would come to America more. He is a legend and his performing prime may be behind him, but you get see the excitement of the American performers that get to work with him which we don’t see as much in his European work. Jane Wilde is such a filthy performer and Jonni Darko, who I believe is the most technically adept director out there, make a great pairing for her showcase.

Directing

I realise that feature directors have a very difficult job juggling more factors on their sets than their gonzo, umm I’m sorry, non-narrative counterparts. However, I still place a lot of weight on the heat of their scenes/movies which is why I favour someone like Miles Long or Chris Streams who show a workmanlike approach to their craft; technically proficient in capturing the heat without being glossy or abstract. I also find that female directors/producers like Casey and Scarlett are stronger at answering the “Why are these people having sex?” premise beyond “THEY ARE HOT & HORNY!” and bridging the “Why are they taking so long to have sex?” filler that differentiates features from gonzo non-narratives.

Acting

Angela White would have made an excellent phone sex operator in the days before we had camming. Her dialogue and charisma would turn a eunuch on. I think it’s the Australian accent. Penny Pax has shown great range in the movies I’ve watched over the years. She can go from shy housewife to goofy nerd to seductive vixen. Even though Mainstream Venture is not a traditional acting category, Lily Labeau was the only nominee there for her acting. I found her acting chops and comic timing appropriate in the series where she switches between being the straight woman and comic foil.

Performing

After the year we had, I didn’t want to repeat any winners from 2020 so we voted for a new group of performers. Mary Moody is the first performer chosen that I knew mainly from camming. Every time I see her in public at the conventions, her delighted interactions with her cam colleagues also translated into her partnerships in scenes. She is very easy on the eyes and incredibly nice to boot. Anna de Ville and Erik Everhard, both veterans of American porn, continue to put out great scenes in Europe. I would be hanging out at my buddy’s house all the time as a kid if Sarah Vandella was his mom. Last, I am a big fan of Kenna James’s scenes. They do not involve much theatrics, but there is something about how her squinty eyes, the curl of her lips, and crooked smile contribute to her girl next door charm and accessibility. Her costars, men or women, all seem to be really into her. I may be clumsy compared to say Don Juan DeMarko in describing her appeal, but there was a reason why she was Penthouse Pet of the Year and why we feel she should be Female Performer of the Year.

Good luck to all of the nominees we supported.

The 2021 AVN Award Nominees

And here we go with the granddaddy awards show – the one they call The Oscars of Porn. On January 23, 2021 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.

Hats off to this year’s nominating committee, no errors that we found!

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:

Grand Reel

All-Girl Performer of the Year

Best Actor – Featurette

Best Actress – Featurette

Best All-Girl Group Sex Scene

Best All-Girl Movie or Anthology

Best Anal Movie or Anthology

Best Anal Sex Scene

Best Art Direction

Best BDSM Movie or Anthology

Best Blowbang Scene

Best Boy/Girl Sex Scene

Best Cinematography

Best Curve Appeal Movie or Anthology

Best Directing – Comedy

Best Directing – Drama

Best Directing – Foreign Production

Best Directing – Non-Narrative Production

Best Directing – Site/Network Content

Best Double Penetration Sex Scene

Best Editing

Best Episodic Movie or Anthology

Best Featurette

Best Female Mixed-Age Movie or Anthology

Best Foreign Production

Best Foreign-Shot All-Girl Sex Scene

Best Foreign-Shot Anal Sex Scene

Best Foreign-Shot Boy/Girl Sex Scene

Best Foreign-Shot Group Sex Scene

Best Gangbang Scene

Best Girl/Girl Sex Scene

Best Gonzo/Wall-to-Wall Movie or Anthology

Best Gonzo/Wall-to-Wall Series or Site

Best Group Sex Movie or Anthology

Best Group Sex Scene

Best Ingenue Movie or Anthology

Best Leading Actor

Best Leading Actress

Best Makeup

Best Male Newcomer

Best MILF Movie or Anthology

Best New Foreign Starlet

Best New Starlet

Best Niche Movie or Anthology

Best Non-Sex Performance

Best Oral Movie or Anthology

Best Oral Sex Scene

Best POV Sex Scene

Best Quarantine Sex Scene

Best Screenplay – Comedy

Best Screenplay – Drama

Best Solo/Tease Performance

Best Soundtrack

Best Special Effects

Best Squirting Movie or Anthology

Best Star Showcase

Best Supporting Actor

Best Supporting Actress

Best Taboo Relations Movie or Anthology

Best Three-Way Sex Scene – B/B/G

Best Three-Way Sex Scene: G/G/B

Best Transgender Group Sex Scene

Best Transgender Movie or Anthology

Best Transgender One-on-One Sex Scene

Best Virtual Reality Sex Scene

Clever Title of the Year

Director of the Year

Female Foreign Performer of the Year

Female Performer of the Year

Mainstream Venture of the Year

Male Foreign Performer of the Year

Male Performer of the Year

MILF Performer of the Year

Most Outrageous Sex Scene

Niche Performer of the Year

Transgender Performer of the Year