1. Angela White

I’ve seen so much of Angela White in the last couple of years that it just feels like she’s been winning the AVN award for Best Female Performer all along, but it turns out this is her first win, so congratulations to the lovely and charming Aussie siren with the best natural boobs in porn. Angela is a veteran of well over four hundred movies and webscenes, she’s the proprietor of her own amazing website, she loves women, she loves anal, she loves threesomes – what’s not to love? And now AVN loves her too.

2. Deadpool XXX: An Axel Braun Parody

Studio: Wicked

A movie like “Deadpool” is hard to follow up, especially with a porn parody — it was raunchy enough to satisfy most of what you want in a porn movie anyway. But it didn’t have the tits or the ass or the fucking that porn has, so there’s only one solution: turn legendary parody director Axel Braun loose on it, and cast Seth Gamble as the Merc with a Mouth. Gamble is pretty much indistinguishable from his mainstream counterpart — with a mask on, you can’t tell the difference. Deadpool XXX has everything its inspiration had, plus hardcore sex, and that’s why Gamble won Best Actor in a Feature and Deadpool XXX also landed trophies for Best Art Direction, Best Makeup, and — of course — Best Parody.

3. After Dark

Studio: Vixen

If there’s anything that Greg Lansky’s studios have going for him – and they have a lot of things going for them – it’s striking visuals. From the stark sets that make his stars stand out to his talent for matching the very whitest girls with the very blackest men to create stunning contrasts, Lansky makes porn that looks like art. “After Dark”, surected by Kayden Kross, is no exception – as the Vixen imprint’s first feature production it had to look fantastic, and it does! It looked good enough, in fact, to win the 2019 AVN award for Best Cinematography. Take a look at the sweeping cityscapes, the steamy pool scene, and the lush sets, and you’ll agree.

4. Aubrey Kate – TS Superstar

Studio: Grooby Productions

You can say whatever you want about porn — and you probably do — but you can’t say it’s not inclusive. For all the fuss that’s going on around the country about transsexual people, porn has never hesitated: this is an industry that is willing — eager, in fact — to exploit trans people in exactly the same way it exploits cis-people. And thank heavens, because if porn were as backward as North Carolina, Texas, and the Oval Office, you wouldn’t get to be seeing a movie like “Aubrey Kate: TS Superstar”. Flirty, sexy, and downright dirty, Aubrey is the ideal standard-bearer for sexy trans porn. Every movie she’s in is a candidate for Best Trans Movie.

5. Joey Silvera’s Trans-Visions

Any series of trans movies Joey Silvera — the most important cis-dude in trans porn — turns his hand to is going to be in the running for Best Trans Series. With an eye for beauty, grace, and absolute down-and-dirty sluttiness, not to mention an appreciation for trans sex that was years ahead of the curve, Joey Silvera has produced a multitude of spectacularly sexy trans lines, of which Trans Visions is only the latest. Since AVN started giving out awards in trans categories, there hasn’t been a year when a Silvera production wasn’t in the running. You can also check out Rogue Adventures, Ladyboy Adventures, Big Ass She Male All Stars, Big Ass She-Male Road Trip, Black She-Male Idol: The Auditions, How to Please a She-Male, Next She-Male Idol, She-Male Idol: The Auditions, or Trans X-Perience.

6. Stormy Daniels

It would be hard to argue that any porn star besides Stormy Daniels has a legit claim in any way to the title of Mainsteam Star of the Year. Aside from any consideration of exposure or influence — and nobody comes close there — I think it’s worth saying that any woman who has done as much to blacken the reputation of the unmoderated comments section currently occupying the White House deserves every award we can give her. She certainly deserves more than a hundred and thirty thousand dollars worth of dirty money. Are her motives pure? I don’t think so. But I’m willing to settle for means and opportunity, as long as her name continues to be synonymous with heaping shame on Cheeto Voldemort.

7. Cherie Deville

In contrast to Stormy Daniels, there’s nothing scandalous or controversial about Cherie Deville. She’s just a good, clean, horny woman of a certain age (at this writing, that age is 40, and doesn’t she wear it well?) whose boundless joy in the art of fucking bubbles out of her in every scene. Blonde, lean, clever, and funny, she has a gorgeous face and a knockout body, and you can’t take your eyes off of her. Just as porn welcomes with open arms trans people, brown people, queer people, fat people, and enyone else who wants to celebrate their sexuality on film, it provides us with an opportunity to see some amazing action from women who aren’t just generic teens, and we can thank that for Cherie Deville.

8. The Possession Of Mrs. Hyde

Studio: Wicked

Sometimes something truly astonishing comes along in porn. In this case it’s Axel Braun’s “Possession of Mrs. Hyde”, a new take on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic suspense tale starring Avi Love, Reagan Foxx, Charlotte Stokely, Kenna James and Jessica Drake. In spite of its inspiration, it’s not a parody — but it is Axel Braun’s first serious feature in fifteen years. Shot entirely in atmospheric black-and-white, with a script co-written by Braun, his father, and his son, “The Possession of Mrs Hyde” is a landmark, and well-worthy of the Movie of the Year statue it brought home in 2019.

9. Chanel Santini

There are a couple of dozen trans women who could stake a legitimate claim to being 2019’s Trans Performer of the Year, and you can make a case for any of them — Aubrey, Michelle Austin, Khloe Kay, Domino Presley — but you can’t argue that any of them deserves it more than Chanel Santini. This gorgeous, sultry, sexy New Mexico native has been all over porn for the last couple of years, working with all the best directors and studios. Trans porn has always been a rich source of women with old-school style and elegance, and Chanel Santini is one of the best.

10. Ivy Wolfe

I love Ivy Wolfe. Partly, it’s that I love girls with bangs, and she often has them, but there’s something about her that reminds me of the women in Hollywood I grew up with who had that look of sensuality about them – a sleepy, seductive, invitational sexuality that smoldered but wasn’t the kind of wild sluttery that so many women trade on. She looks like the girl next door who’s going to surprise you with what she knows, like Virginia Madsen or Rebecca de Mornay. Anyway, I’m glad I get to see lots more of her, because she just won the 2019 AVN award for Best New Starlet.

11. Kayden Kross

Kayden Kross is a revelation: she’s got a great sense of humor, she’s a good physical comedian, she loks fantastic fucking, and she’s smart as a whip. Not so long ago, only a couple of those things were readily apparent, but her ascension to the ranks of the porn elite has shown her in some new light. It’s not all of a sudden, either – for a few years, she has been making a name for herself as a versatile director of funny, clever, sexy movies (especially in collaboration with Stoya), and AVN has finally rewarded her with more than just lip service. Kross’ nod as Director of the Year comes after a sudden explosion of work – she directed twice as many in 2017 and 2018 as in the four years before that – and we can hope there are many more to come. Congratulations, Kayden!