Too broke to afford the trip (and the $$$ cash bar) of this year's GayVN Awards in San Francisco? Or maybe you were there, but way too busy oogling all the hot porn star man-meat to pay attention to who actually won. Worry not, Unzipped's got you covered with all the juicy details from the biggest night in gay porn. Better pay close attention - there'll be a pop quiz later, and if you get enough answers correct, we might even let you be the lucky one who gets to suck off Erik Rhodes from the front row of next year's award show! Fingers crossed!
Raging Stallion Studios, swept 2008 with some big wins on Saturday night. The San Francisco-based studio managed to walk off with 10 awards--the most awarded to any studio--including four of the night's major trophies for its military-themed sweat fest Grunts: Best Director (Chris Ward), Best Sex Scene-Duo (Ricky Sinz and Roman Ragazzi), Best Actor (Jake Deckard) and Best Picture. Additionally, Grunts' Sinz tied with The Intern's Christian Cruz for the Best Supporting Actor award and also won Best Solo Performance, photographers Kent Taylor and Geof Teague shared the award for Best Still Photography, Ward and Ben Leon shared Best Editing honors and the DVD of the film won for Best DVD Extras/Special Edition.
Jake Deckard and Scott Tanner dress to impress
Raging Stallion's sweep could be considered something of an upset, as many had predicted that Lucas Entertainment (which won Best Picture and Best Director for the past two years in a row) would again take home those honors for Gigolo, its moody hustler drama that was released at the end of last year. Company owner Michael Lucas was not too happy with the outcome, issuing an email to the press the day after the awards complaining that Gigolo was ignored in favor of The Intern, which, in addition to its win for Cruz, took home trophies for Best Sex Comedy, Best Non-Sexual Performance (Joe Shepard) and Best Renting Title of 2007.
"This film got raging reviews, where everyone was comparing it to a mainstream feature with five-star sex," Lucas wrote of Gigolo. "What kind of mystery is there for such an acclaimed film not getting awarded at all? Not for one category?"
Elsewhere, Channel 1 Releasing (parent company of Rascal Video and All Worlds Video) did quite well for itself, earning 8 trophies, including five for All Worlds' Link: The Evolution. The film expectedly won Best All-Sex Movie. Additionally, it was honored for Best Group Scene, Best Music, Best Art Direction, Best Packaging, and Best Overall Marketing Campaign. Rascal's When Bears Attack won Best Specialty Release (Bear), and Rascal exclusive Blake Riley snagged the award for Best Newcomer.
Cuties Blake Riley and Josh Vaughn say cheeez!
Titan Media received awards for the most films, with three of its big 2007 releases--Folsom Leather, Fear and H2O--receiving recognition in the Best Leather Video, Best Specialty Release (Extreme) and Best Videography categories, respectively.
Other notable wins from the night included Jake Deckard (Performer of the Year), Chaos Men's Edge Series 1 (Best Amateur Video), Collin O'Neal's World of Men's Edinburgh (Best Pro/Am Release), TLA Releasing's Naked Boys Singing (Best Alternative Release), The Men I Wanted's Jean Franko (Best Actor - Foreign Release), Falcon International's Knockout (Best Foreign Release) and Devil's Film's Bi Accident (Best Bisexual Release). Falcon also won the Best Classic Gay DVD award for its Falcon 35th Anniversary Box Set.
Sister Roma welcomes Buck Angel with a lil' mic action.
Meanwhile, Paul Barresi, Rod Barry, Terry LeGrand, Greg "Mocha" Lenzman, Lucas Kazan, David McCabe and Tiger Tyson were inducted into the GayVN Hall of Fame, and NakedSword.com's Tim Valenti was given a Special Achievement Award for his work in the industry.
The awards show itself was a mixed bag, with co-host Lady Bunny (who lip-synched all her material) delivering a wicked roasting to several of show attendees and the overhead video screen going in and out throughout the night. Bunny's co-hosts, Derek and Romaine of Sirius OutQ show The Derek and Romaine Show, did their best to keep the show moving along at a quick pace, though their efforts were mostly in vain--it was a long show! One of the night's best quips came from Sinz, who joked, “I never thought sticking AK47s up my ass would get me an award" as he accepted his Best Solo Performance trophy.
For a complete list of the winners, click here.
That's not Guy Parker pictured with Blake Riley, it's fellow Rascal Exclusive (as well as Blake's ex-boyfriend) Josh Vaughn.
Posted by: Angel Benton | February 20, 2008 at 02:32 PM
Who is the guy in the purple button-up here in this photo?
http://unzipped.typepad.com/blog/2008/02/gayvnawards9.jpg
Posted by: Andy | July 27, 2008 at 03:39 PM