The 35th AVN Awards, presented by Adult Video News (AVN), honored the best pornographic movies and adult entertainment products of between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017 and took place on January 27, 2018 at The Joint in Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Paradise, Nevada. During the ceremony, Adult Video News presented AVN Awards (often referred to as the Oscars of porn [2][3][4][5] in more than 100 categories. Webcam star Harli Lotts and performer/director Angela White co-hosted the ceremony, each for the first time.[1] Master of ceremonies was comedian Aries Spears.
The show was webcast live on AVN.com originating from Livestream.com. This year also marked the return of GayVN Awards after extended hiatus held at same location a week before AVN awards; both being part of AVN Adult Entertainment Expo also known as AVN Week.[6]
Best Drama winner Half His Age: A Teenage Tragedy earned honors as Best Movie.[7] However, Justice League XXX: An Axel Braun Parody[2] and Angela 3 each won six awards, tied for the most honors at the show. Movie of the Year winner Half His Age: A Teenage Tragedy took four trophies.
Winners and nominees
The nominees for the 35th AVN Awards were announced on November 16, 2017, at the annual AVN Awards Nominations Party at The Edison lounge in downtown Los Angeles.[8]
The winners were announced during the awards ceremony on January 27, 2018.
The major performer awards went to Angela White, AVN Female Performer of the Year Award; Markus Dupree, Male Performer of the Year and Jill Kassidy, Best New Starlet. In terms of movies, the big winners were Justice League XXX: An Axel Braun Parody and Angela 3, each with six awards.
Major awards
Winners[7][9] of categories announced during the awards ceremony January 27, 2018, are highlighted in boldface and indicated with a double dagger (‡).
Justice League XXX: An Axel Braun Parody (Best Parody)
Adventures With the Baumgartners (Best Polyamory Movie)
Sacrosanct (Best Anthology Movie)
Dysfucktional: Blood Is Thicker Than Cum (Best Taboo Relations Movie)
(Rather than nominees for this category, contenders are chosen from the winners in the "Best Release" categories. Voting is conducted separately just prior to the awards ceremony.)
Justice League XXX: An Axel Braun Parody[2] and Angela 3, each with six, were the movies that won the most awards. Half His Age: A Teenage Tragedy was next with four trophies while Sacrosanct won three. Facialized 4 and Anal Savages 3 won two apiece while the Anal Savages series also won a best series award. Angela Loves Women 3 also won an award in addition to being part of the Angela Loves... series, which also won a best series award.
Justice League XXX: An Axel Braun Parody also had the most nominations, with 13.[5]
AVN Honorary Awards
Hall of Fame
AVN on January 6, 2018, announced the 2017 inductees into its hall of fame, who were later honored with a January 23 cocktail party and then a video as the awards show opened.
AVN announced the 2018 AVN Awards Trophy Girls would be Ayumi Anime and Sofi Ryan.[8]
Hip-hop artist Lil Wayne performed several musical numbers during the show.[13] Comedian and master of ceremonies Aries Spears cracked jokes and appeared in several comedy skits with various adult industry luminaries.
Ceremony information
For the first time, content released exclusively on membership websites was eligible for AVN Awards consideration in any sex scene category. AVN also added two new categories in the Web and Technology area: Best New Website and Best Clip Website. In addition, Best Specialty Movie - Other Genre and Best Specialty Series - Other Genre were renamed Best Niche Movie and Series and a new category, Niche Performer of the Year, was added.[14] At the nominations unveiling, two more new categories, Best Action/Thriller and Best Lewd Propositions Movie were announced.[8] Favorite BBW Performer was added later as a fan-voted category for 2018.[15] Another new fan category for 2018 wss Favorite Cosplay Cam Cosplayer.
Porn legend Ron Jeremy was banned from the year’s awards show. AVN felt he violated its code of conduct based on a Rolling Stone article published in November 2017, in which he was accused of sexual misconduct.[16]
In Memoriam
As the show was beginning, AVN used a video segment to pay a tribute to adult-industry personalities who had died since the 2017 awards show: James Baes, Sean Barnett, Ron Harris, Hugh Hefner, Morton Hyatt, Sonny Landham, Radley Metzger, Jocalyn Pink, January Seraph, Greg Steel, Michael Zen, Roxy Nicole, Olivia Nova, Olivia Lua, Yurizan Beltran, Shyla Stylez, August Ames
^Drillinger, Meagan (January 25, 2018). "6 Steamy Porn Trends You'll See In 2018". Men's Health. Retrieved February 4, 2018. Ahead of the Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE) and AVN Awards (a.k.a. the porn Oscars) in Las Vegas this year ...
^Frances Stead Sellers (January 27, 2018). "'Any exposure is good exposure': At porn expo, a Trump-size spotlight on two industry stars". Washington Post. Retrieved February 4, 2018. Instead, Trump's biggest impact at the annual porn convention at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino was to put a brighter spotlight on Daniels and Drake, who had both been nominated for honors Saturday night in a red-carpet awards ceremony regarded as the Oscars of erotica.