Page 22 - AVN March 2018

EDITOR’S DESK
WOMEN ON TOP
Female directors rocked the AVN Awards in 2018
Arabelle Raphael in All My Mother’s Lovers, which she co-directed with Mona Wales—one of a number of AVN Award-winning movies helmed by women.
There’s been a lot of talk recently about the glass
ceiling for women in Hollywood—especially
in the ranks of Academy Award-nominated
directors. Since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences first began bestowing awards in 1929, only one
woman has walked home with the Oscar statuette for
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, who won in 2010 for The
Hurt Locker.
This year there was talk of 2018 as a watershed year
for women at the Oscars. But once the nominees were
revealed, only one woman was up for Best Director:
Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird. And Gerwig’s film was the
only Best Picture nominee out of nine that was helmed
by a woman.
By contrast, at the 2018 AVN Awards, half of the 10
titles contending for Movie of the Year were directed
or co-directed by women—as was the winning title,
Half His Age: A Teenage Tragedy (Pure Taboo/Pulse), co-
directed by Bree Mills and Craven Moorehead. (For more
about the show, see page 60.)
Mills, in fact, is not only co-director of Best Drama
winner Half His Age but also head of production for
Gamma Films, parent company for AVN Award-winning
studios Girlsway and Pure Taboo. The charismatic,
articulate Mills made her presence felt at the 2018 AVN
Awards, with wins for Best Action/Thriller (Vampires,
directed by Stills by Alan) plus three acting wins for
studio projects (Sara Luvv in Girlsway’s The Faces of Alice
and Kristen Scott and Small Hands in Pure Taboo’s Half
His Age).
Mills’ presence on the stage was the first time the
Movie of the Year acceptance speech was given by a
female director, but it’s certainly not the first milestone
for female directors in adult. Last year, director Jacky
St. James was the first woman to win Best Director –
Feature honors for her movie The Submission of Emma
Marx: Evolved. Directors Joanna Angel and Stormy
Daniels have both had multiple wins in movie categories
(including Angel’s Joanna’s Angels 2 and Band Sluts, and
Daniels’ Operation Desert Stormy and Wanted). And in
2015 Mason was named Director of the Year, though the
famously reclusive director did not take the stage.
But the success of female directors at the 2018 show
is still noteworthy for the sheer number of wins. Among
the movie categories that are voted on for Movie of the
Year were the following: Kay Brandt’s Adventures With
the Baumgartners (Best Polyamory Movie; Adam & Eve
Pictures), Angela White’s Angela 3 (Best Star Showcase;
AGW/Girlfriends), Joanna Angel’s Jews Love Black Cock
(Best Comedy; BurningAngel/Exile) and Kayden Kross’s
Sacrosanct (Best Anthology Movie; Trenchcoatx/Jules
Jordan).
White and Angel also won for Angela Loves Women 3
(Best All-Girl Movie) and Babysitter Auditions (Best Lewd
Propositions Movie), respectively, while Kross won Best
Director – Non Feature.
EDITOR’S DESK | By Sharan Street
(Continued on page 110)
22 | AVN.com | 3.18