2010 AVN Awards: A closer look at this year's award-winning adult entertainment

Kayden Kross, star of Best Video Feature winner The 8th Day. Photo via AVN.com

On Saturday night the 2010 AVN Awards closed out this year's annual AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas.

As I reported yesterday, Tori Black and Manuel Ferrara took home Performer of the Year honors, and Sasha Grey – my pick for the 2009 Sexaminer Award for Porn Star of the Year – went home with nods for Best Oral Sex Scene and Best Anal Sex Scene, as well as a special award, the Jenna Jameson Crossover Star of the Year Award.

So, dear consumer, which of the winners are worth taking a closer look at?

Start with Best Video Feature winner The 8th Day, from Adam & Eve Pictures. I couldn't find a single safe-for-work image from the film for me to share with you, but then again, this is adult entertainment we're talking about, so settle your peepers on the pic at right of star Kayden Kross vamping in the AVN Winner's Circle. The sexed-up sci-fi film, billed as an "apolcalyptic erotic adventure," won a total of seven AVN Awards: Best All-Girl Three-Way Sex Scene (Tori Black, Bree Olson and Poppy Morgan) Best Videography/Cinematography, Best Makeup, Best DVD Extras, Best Packaging Innovation, Best Online Marketing Campaign—Individual Project, and, the big one, Best Video Feature. The film stars Kayden Kross and Amber Rayne, and it's one of the rare pornographic films that's actually worth watching for other reasons: Think Stephen King's The Stand, but, you know, with a lot more sex.

Another high-end feature worth a look is 2040, from Wicked Pictures. The film, a dark sci-fi flick, won Best Art Direction, Best DVD Menus (they give out a lot of awards at AVN), Best Online Marketing Campaign, and Best Group Sex Scene for an epic scene involving Jayden James, Kaylani Lei, Alektra Blue, Tory Lane, Kalya Carrera, Randy Spears, Jessica Drake, Kristen Price, and Mikayla Mendez.

Sasha Grey, last year's Female Performer of the Year and this year's Adult Entertainment Expo keynote speaker, turned in award-winning performances in Throat: A Cautionary Tale (Vivid Entertainment) another dark film, this one billed as "porn noir." She won Best Oral Sex Scene for her role in the film, which also picked up AVN awards for Best Supporting Actor Tom Byron (oral sex scenes take two, after all), Best Supporting Actress Penny Flame (sometimes more than two), and Best Overall Marketing Campaign–Individual Project.

If you still haven't seen last year's Best Video Feature Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge (Digital Playground), you may be in the minority among fans of adult entertainment: The 2008 film won 15 awards at last year's AVN bash, and picked up another two this year: Best Selling Title of the Year and Best Renting Title of the Year. It's sexy, swashbuckling good fun, and laugh-out-loud funny, to boot, thanks to the ever-ridiculous Evan Stone.

Tristan Taormino, one of my personal favorites, picked up an award for Best Educational Release for her instructional Tristan Taormino's Expert Guide to Threesomes (Vivid Ed).

2009 was the year of the porn parody, and AVN added a new category, accordingly: Not the Cosbys XXX (X-Play/Hustler) won the new Best Sex Parody category. Other parodies worth a look: Eric Swiss won the AVN Award for Best Actor for his role in Not Married With Children XXX (X-Play/LFP Studios), and Kimberly Kane won Best Actress for her role in The Sex Files: A Dark XXX Parody (Digital Sin/Revolution X). Teagan Pressly picked up best Solo Sex Scene for her work in Not The Bradys XXX: Marcia, Marcia, Marcia (X-Play/LFP) for those of you with lingering Brady Bunch fantasies. Of the bunch, The Sex Files is the only one I can much recommend (see my full review here), and Kane really does look like Agent Scully, for all you XXX Files pervs.

If your fantasies are a bit farther out there, check out Belladonna and Bobbi Starr, winners of this year's AVN Award for Most Outrageous Sex Scene for their performance together in Belladonna: No Warning 4 (Belladonna/Evil Angel).

For the full list of winners from the 2010 AVN Awards, visit AVNAwards.AVN.com.