The five adult titles nominated for the Adult Title of the Year at this year’s Home Entertainment Awards were all high profile releases. With the exception of ClubJenna’s Bella Loves Jenna, the nominees were all winners at the AVN Awards Show in January.
Adult Title of the Year is the only category out of 26 that adult titles are eligible to compete for. The winner will be named on July 14 at Home Entertainment 2004, an expo run by the Video Software Dealer’s Association, a trade organization for home entertainment retailers.
The nominations for the 2004 Home Entertainment Awards Adult Title of the Year are: Bella Loves Jenna, The Scottish Loveknot, Rawhide, Beautiful, and Compulsion.
Adam & Eve’s western porn Rawhide and Beautiful, Wicked Pictures adult take on Snow White, tied for the 2004 AVN Award for Best Video Feature.
Rawhide, which starred Carmen Luvana and Evan Stone, also won 2004 AVN Awards for Best High-Definition Production, a new category, Best Supporting Actress – Video (Brooke Ballenytne), Best Videography (Steele) and Best DVD Packaging.
Michael Raven won the 2004 AVN Award for Best Director – Video for his work on Beautiful, and his wife Julia Ann won the AVN Award for Best Actress – Video. Beautiful also landed the AVN Award for Best Screenplay – Video (George Kaplan and Michael Raven).
"It's an honor to receive this continuing praise forBeautiful, which was of course a team effort and a fine feather in Wicked's cap," Michael Raven told AVN.com in an email interview.
Elegant Angel’s Compulsion, the only film nominated,won the 2004 AVN Award for Best Screenplay – Film (Axel Braun) and Best Couples Sex Scene – Film (Kurt Lockwood and Ashley Long).
Elegant Angel’s owner Patrick Collins was pleased with the recognition. “The nomination is somewhat of a validation for the hard work and agony that was put into it,” Collins said. “It’s always good to be noticed by the retailers.”
The Scottish Loveknot, directed by Gazzman for Private USA, was placed in the foreign category for the AVN Awards and took home trophies for Best Foreign Feature and Best Director – Foreign Release (Gazzman).
The one video that didn’t win an award, Bella Loves Jenna, wasn’t released yet, but will likely be nominated in several categories for the 2005 AVN Awards.
In the mainstream categories The Adventures Of Indiana Jones box set and The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers tied to lead the field by earning four Home Entertainment Award nominations apiece.
The award nominations and even the categories are decided upon by VSDA's Home Entertainment Awards Nominating Committee, which is comprised of retailers, distributors, and journalists. The membership of the VSDA will vote to determine the winners, whom will be announced on July 14 at a special event at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas.
Adult titles are also eligible for consideration for appropriate categories in the DVD Technical Awards. Unlike the Home Entertainment Awards, the DVD Technical Awards are not voted upon the VSDA membership. Each company must submit their work for consideration, which will then be considered by a group of jurors, consisting mostly of DVD reviewers.
