GayVN Nominations: A Closer Look
If you've already seen the list of nominations for this year's GayVN Awards, you know that it's going to be the biggest one yet--47 different categories and hundreds of individuals and films nominated. You can argue that maybe the number of nominees per category could be smaller with a standard amount, but we like the fact that so many people are nominated and recognized for a year's worth of hard work. For the next few weeks we'll be going over this list and giving our analysis and our picks in the categories where we've seen enough of the nominees.
We'll be a doing a countdown type of review going over the list of nominations as they're listed at GayVN, in reverse order leading up to the Best Picture category. First up, a whole new series of categories--Website Nominations. In the case of this new category we think it would be a good idea for a nominating committee to do the job here. Some of the choices here are perfect, others seem completely out of left field. There just seems to be a little too much room left for mischief-making and ballot-stuffing.
BEST TWINK SITE. There are 8 nominees to choose from here including the newest edition Twinkscape which just made it under the gun, having started in later December of '08. Here's where we don't know enough about the genre but Bel Ami is such a recognizable name we figure it's a shoo-in for the award.
BEST BEAR SITE. As with the category above we know the name Butch Bear and think it might win. We are slightly perplexed that the list didn't include sites that could fit in here--Butch Dixon, Hot Older Male and others.
BEST AMATEUR SITE
With the variety of sites out there should be many more categories and this category should have many more nominations. It's truly odd that Sean Cody, Randy Blue, Next Door Studios, Mike Hancock, FratMen, and so many other sites didn't make it. That said all the sites listed here deserve nominations and we can't really decide between two of them which we'd like to see win. If the selection is based solely on being "amateur" it makes it even harder to decide.
Active Duty. This one has really turned into a springboard for future porn careers. The site's studio Dirty Bird Pictures has become a major force too thanks to Jett Blakk and his multiple nominations for Endgame.
Amateur Straight Guys. So much content and so little time to catch up with the sexy studs here.
Bait Bus. The outrageous premise of a film crew convincing passers-by to get in the van and have sex is pretty amusing if unbelievable. Pure fantasy.
Chaos Men. What more can we say about this site with it's always fascinating variety of videos and seemingly endless supply of new faces.
College Dudes 24/7. This too has become a launching pad for porn careers--so much so that several studios must be looking at the site constantly to snatch up potential stars.
Dirk Yates Live. If you like your sites with studly military amateurs then you can't go much farther than this site.
Str8Boyz Seduced. We hadn't heard much about this one until the nomination but it's pretty as it sounds. Naturally you have to take the premise with a grain of salt, but this is fantasy after all.
You Love Jack. Last year we figured out why this site had so much buzz---the site owner lets the models do all the work by giving them a camera to film themselves. The result is a bunch of super turned-on exhibitionists for your pleasure.
BEST SITE OF THE YEAR
Many of the sites here had the advantage of major studios backing up their nominees which is perfectly acceptable since just about all of these nominees are worthy. But realistically many of these sites wouldn't exist were it not for the success of the many sites that were NOT nominated.
Bang Bang Boys, Bel Ami Online (see above), Channel 1 Releasing,Collin O' Neal,COLT Studio Group ,Falcon Str8 Men, Hot House, Hot Older Male, Jet Set Men, Lucas Entertainment, PureFCUK.com, and Titan XXX all give you a chance to see studio flicks as well as original online content and all are well-designed. Some have more preview content than others but all are working hard to provide
a big supply of member content. Active Duty and XXX Amateur Hour are part of the same membership package. We found the least amount of info on Bound Muscle so we can't gage this one. Then there's Damien Cross & Francesco D'Macho's StagHomme which is new but has plenty of content since it includes the stuff from D'Macho's former site.
BEST WEB PERFORMER.
As with the category above studio sites seem to have an advantage and yet there a couple guys that benefited from an enthusiastic fan following. Here's that list with where they appeared last year:
Mitch Branson. Randy Blue fans will remember him from many videos there, including The Coach (with Reese Rideout & Chris Rockway)but now he's got his own mini-site at COLT
Luke Bryant. He must have a strong following because we had to look him up. He's the host of Hot Boy Camz which we haven't seen so we couldn't make a judgment on him.
Luke Cassidy. He's another new-ish guy who has been an exclusive at Hot House Backroom.
Ty Colt. Certainly one of the "IT" guys of 2008. He's gone from Falcon Str8 Men into studio films and it's very probable he'll be nominated for his film work next year.
Damien Crosse & Francesco D'Macho. Frankly it's odd to see these two in this category since we associate them with film work, but we can't argue that they've created a big presence online.
JakeCruise. This was a big surprise but Jake IS one of the few site owners to appear in his own videos. He's not OUR cup of tea but it's hard to ignore his onscreen charm.
Leo Gamiani. Sexy, handsome, muscular, and hung it's not hard to see why he's been so popular and so sought after. Fans have had a lot of places to see Leo -- Mighty Men, Massive Studio, Jake Cruise, Cocksure Men, Straight Guys For Gay Eyes, Randy Blue, Falcon Str8 Men and now movies. He may be the man to beat.
Aaron James. He's gone from College Dudes 24/7 to movies for Jet Set Men, appearances on MTV and Tyra Banks so we know he's his own best publicist.
Barrett Long. Talk about HUNG! While this may be his claim to fame he's also very sexy & charming and turned his online success into his own site venture XXX Amateur Hour.
Collin O' Neal. He's cut back on his performing duties but he's such a sweet and affable site and everyone seems to love him that he made it on this list.
Dempsey Stearns. Skater duded turned Suite 703 (Hot Jocks, Nice Cocks, My Brother's Hot Friend, Men Hard At Work) exclusive. We don't want to nitpick but there's been such a lack of new videos at Suite 703 that Stearns hasn't been seen for awhile.
This list is strong but there are some glaring omissions: Tommy D, Cody Cummings, Brodie Sinclair, Jesse Santana, Reese Rideout, Chris Rockway, Mason Wyler, Rusty Stevens, Vince Ferelli, and so many others who have had such an impact in this media. Again, the process by which these nominees are arrived at needs some review.
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