17th AVN Awards

The 17th AVN Awards ceremony, presented by Adult Video News (AVN), took place January 8, 2000 at the Venetian Hotel Grand Ballroom, at Paradise, Nevada, U.S.A. During the ceremony, AVN presented AVN Awards (often dubbed the "Academy Awards of Porn" ) in 77 categories honoring the best pornographic films released between Oct. 1, 1998 and Sept. 30, 1999. The ceremony was produced by Gary Miller and directed by Mark Stone. Adult film star Juli Ashton hosted the show.

Double Feature! won 10 awards including Best Director—Video for Jonathan Morgan while the night's other big winner, Seven Deadly Sins captured eight awards including Best Film and Best Director—Film for Ren Savant. Several other movies won two trophies apiece including: Cashmere, Chloe, Dark Garden, Playthings, Search for the Snow Leopard, Tristan Taormino's Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women, What Makes You Cum and When Rocco Meats Kelly 2: In Barcelona.

Winners and nominees
The nominees for the 18th AVN Awards were announced in November 1999. Seven Deadly Sins received the most nominations with 15, followed by Nothing to Hide 3 & 4 with 12 and Double Feature! and The Awakening with 11 apiece.

The winners were announced during the awards ceremony on January 8, 2000. Besides winning Best Actress—Film, Chloe also won or shared in four other awards: Best Solo Sex Scene, Best Anal Sex Scene—Film, Best All-Girl Sex Scene—Video and Best Group Sex Scene—Video. The most sought-after awards, Best New Starlet and Female Performer of the Year, went to Bridgette Kerkove and Inari Vachs respectively. Dark Garden was named best video feature, the fourth time a Michael Ninn-directed feature had won either Best Film or Best Video.

Major awards


Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger (‡).

Additional Award Winners
These awards were announced, but not presented, in two winners-only segments read by Taylor Hayes and Christi Lake during the event. Trophies were given to the recipients off-stage:


 * The Adult Video Nudes Award: Kid Vegas: Whoremaster
 * Best All-Girl Feature: The 4 Finger Club 2
 * Best All-Girl Series: The Violation of ...
 * Best Alternative Video: DreamGirls—Real Adventures 5
 * Best Anal Sex Scene—Video: Anastasia Blue, Lexington Steele, Whack Attack 6
 * Best Anal Sex Scene—Film: Chloe, Chris Cannon, Breaking Up
 * Best Anal-Themed Series: Rocco's True Anal Stories
 * Best Art Direction—Video: Double Feature!
 * Best Art Direction—Film: Seven Deadly Sins
 * Best Cinematography: Johnny English, Search For The Snow Leopard
 * Best Classic Release on DVD: The Devil in Miss Jones, Part III & IV
 * Best Continuing Video Series: The Voyeur
 * Best Director—Foreign: Anita Rinaldi, Return to Planet Sexxx
 * Best DVD Extras: Electric Sex, Digital Sin
 * Best Ethnic-Themed Video: Freaks, Whoes and Flows 10
 * Best Film Editing: Ren Savant, Seven Deadly Sins
 * Best Foreign Feature: Amanda's Diary 2
 * Best Group Sex Scene—Film: Wendi Knight, Brandon Iron, Pat Myne, Michael J. Cox, Nothing to Hide 3 & 4
 * Best Group Sex Scene—Video: Final Orgy (Chandler, Chloe, Inari Vachs, Ava Vincent, Nina Hartley, Sydnee Steele, Tristan Taormino, Kyle Stone, Nacho Vidal, Tony Tedeschi), Tristan Taormino's Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women
 * Best Interactive DVD: Vivid Virtual Vixens
 * Best Non-Sex Performance: Anthony Crane, Double Feature!
 * Best Oral-Themed Series: Blowjob Adventures of Dr. Fellatio
 * Best Oral-Themed Feature: Shut Up and Blow Me! 14
 * Best Overall Marketing Campaign—Company Image: Vivid Video
 * Best Overall Marketing Campaign—Individual Project: Condom PSAs, Wicked Pictures; Wrestling Promotion, Extreme Associates (tie)
 * Best Packaging: Double Feature! Wicked Pictures
 * Best Pro-Am or Amateur Line: Homegrown Video
 * Best Pro-Am or Amateur Tape: GM Video #242: Labor Day Wet T&A '99, Vols. 1–3
 * Best Screenplay—Film: Ren Savant, Eugenie Brown, Seven Deadly Sins
 * Best Screenplay—Video: Martin Brimmer, Double Feature!
 * Best Sex Scene in a Foreign Release: Rocco Siffredi, Kelly, Alba Dea Monte, Nacho Vidal, When Rocco Meats Kelly 2: In Barcelona
 * Best Solo Sex Scene: Chloe, What Makes You Cum
 * Best Special Effects: Michael Ninn, Cashmere
 * Best Specialty Tape—Big Bust: Natural Wonders of the World 5
 * Best Specialty Tape—Bondage & D/s: Rough Sex 1
 * Best Specialty Tape—Other Genre: Barefoot Confidential 2
 * Best Specialty Tape—Spanking: Spanking Hotline
 * Best Supporting Actor—Film: Michael J. Cox, Seven Deadly Sins
 * Best Supporting Actor—Video: Tom Byron, L.A. 399
 * Best Supporting Actress—Film: Janine, Seven Deadly Sins
 * Best Supporting Actress—Video: Shanna McCullough, Double Feature!
 * Best Tease Performance: Dahlia Grey, Playthings
 * Best Trannie Tape: Rogue Adventures 3: Big-Ass She-Males
 * Best Video Editing: Jonathan Morgan, Double Feature!
 * Best Videography: Barry Wood, Dark Garden
 * Best Vignette Series: Perverted Stories
 * Most Outrageous Sex Scene: Mila, Herschel Savage and Dave Hardman in "The Devil Made Her Do It," Perverted Stories 22
 * Safe Sex Award: What Makes You Cum?, VCA Xplicit

AVN Special Achievement Award/Reuben Sturman Award

 * Howard Stern, David Sturman

Hall of Fame
AVN Hall of Fame inductees for 2000 were: No announcement at the show

Multiple nominations and awards
The following releases received the most nominations.

The following 12 releases received multiple awards:

Presenters and performers
The following individuals presented awards or performed musical numbers or comedy. The show's trophy girls were Layla and Alexa Rae.

Ceremony information
For 2000, the event was moved to the eight-month-old Venetian Hotel and Casino and Genesis magazine noted the annual show "was as much style as substance as several thousand porn stars, directors, producers and fans poured into the massive ballroom."

Following criticism of the previous year's four-hour show, host Juli Ashton announced she was going to try to keep the 2000 show short; it ended up running slightly longer than two hours.

Alisha Klass tried to shock the audience during the show, first by coming out wearing a microscopic dress and with a ball-gag in her mouth to announce the winner of Best New Starlet, then later by pulling off her clothes as adult stars jumped on stage to dance to orchestra Jimmie Lykes and the Club Swingers prior to announcement of the final two awards.

AVN founder Paul Fishbein, who presented the AVN Special Achievement awards, announced they were being renamed the Reuben Sturman Memorial Award to honor Sturman for his contributions to the industry. Meanwhile, when Howard Stern refused to attend and accept his Achievement Award, Beetlejuice took to the podium to accept on his behalf and "rambled incomprehensibly" and had to be interrupted to stop what seemed like an endless speech.

Meanwhile, Hustler noted, "This year's AVN Awards inspired many catcalls and boos from the allies of losing nominees, prompting Jill Kelly to remark that the camaraderie of past awards shows had been replaced with a mean-spirited competitiveness this year."

Several new awards were introduced for this years show; among them: Best Specialty Tape—Big Bust. The show was recorded and a video of the awards show was issued by VCA Pictures.

Performance of year's movies
The Houston 620 was announced as the adult movie industry's top selling movie while The Devil in Miss Jones 6 was the top renting movie of the previous year.

In Memoriam
The annual moment of silence tribute for those who died during the past year, presented by AVN founder Paul Fishbein, honored the following people: Bob Vosse, Bruce Walker, Stanley Fleischman, Paul Wisner, Kim Kataine, Albert Sanchez, David Chandler, Lou Perraino and Rene Bond.