18 Comments so far

1. Eddie Santos on January 9, 2008 9:39 pm

   In what Bizzaro world do the friggin’ “Lord of the Boyz” directors get a GayVN Best Director Nomination?! It’s one the worst friggin’ movies I’ve ever seen! It wasn’t even a movie; it was one LONG scene with no close-ups or any other coverage. And, like all their movies, it has stolen music in it. When are the ASCAP and BMI finally wise up to that? That’s just f**cked up! Who the hell did they pay off?!

2. Mark on January 9, 2008 10:21 pm

   *sigh* My hero, Joe Gage, once again not nominated, despite Gunnery Sgt. McCool getting a nod for Best Picture. I think he’s the Scorcese of porn. Some of the nominations must be a joke. Oh well, Joe’s day will come.

3. Ronnie on January 10, 2008 12:23 am

   It’s good to see that a a few of the non-mainstream companies and performers are recognized for some of their really “hot” work such as Supreme and Tiger Tyson. They may not win, but it’s good that they get to be at the party.

4. Sean on January 10, 2008 9:51 am

   PERFORMER OF THE YEAR

   Tommy Blade and Erik Rhodes.

   One of these guys should win.

5. ricci on January 10, 2008 12:05 pm

   odd choices here and there (the industry’s money does matter) but then u always get this polemic situations with this kind of awards. Tommy BLADE is indeed a sUPERHUNK and since jonathan vargas hasn’t been mentioned i’ll go for him with my other fetish eddie diaz coming a close second.
   Best picture from the ones mentioned the kazan film in spite of some serious drawbacks….just my two cents. My film of the year hasn’t been included and that’s mansize’s FLATMATE or the French Citébeur series but those may be too much european orientated. Oh, well…..

6. Peter Z on January 10, 2008 12:42 pm

   I think that Vlado Iresch is the best and most prolific Gay porn director working right now anywhere in the world. (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2040451/ ) He’s a true artist who reminds me of JD Cadinot. I don’t know Mr. Iresch personally, nor have I anything to do with him. I just admire him as a fellow director, whom I consider brilliant. And I consider myself a mere amateur compared to this man. That’s why I’m stupefied how he can be overlooked while others (whom shall remain nameless) made the cut. I don’t support the fact that a majority of Mr. Iresch’s movies are bareback; but he also directed really good condom movies this year as well. At some point we have to acknowledge the new people in the industry whom are innovative, and stop nominating the same old people over and over again, just because everyone expects them to be nominated, and just because some of them have developed a misplaced sense of entitlement. If we continue rewarding mediocrity, then we are doomed to be an industry of mediocrity. And I’m talking straight from the heart here, and not because I’m bitter. We are very proud to have received four nominations. I’m being serious now, which is quite rare for me.

7. ricci on January 10, 2008 2:51 pm

   peter as everyone you’re entitled to your opinion but of the complete vlado irisch output there’s not even a handful of films i’d like to re-view. Sort of fifth rate bel-ami and not all the guys are really cute or sexy to say the least. No kidding but some of his best scenes are the ones which involves two guys and a girl. Cadinot is really going down the drain and he’s making the same mistake as Mr lucas by making his films ‘harder’ with fisting and piss sex etc.
   I agree there’s a market for it but that market is wonderfully served for by other companies.
   Just my not so ‘humble’ opinion of course

8. Jérôme on January 10, 2008 3:47 pm

   Mentioning Iresch and Cadinot in the same sentence is outrageous. Iresch is a hack, a straight pig, who has churned out a deluge of bareback videos, where the most revolting homophobic content (see “Raw Meat” which is homophobic throughout) is standard fare. Countless Czech models have been physically abused in the making of those films, some of them have had their health impaired. In the year 2007, Vlado Iresch directed the grand total of TWO condom films (one being Cameron Jackson’s final performance) plus one scene with Johan Volny in an otherwise bareback movie. This was before Johan was persuaded by Eurocreme’s money to renege on his intention not to shoot bareback. Iresch being prolific just means that he (and his henchmen at AVI Production, all of them straight guys) accepted Eurocreme’s commission to invade and conquer the European market with cheaply produced bareback movies, with the most complete disregard for the models’ integrity and welfare. It seems the worst is behind us now and Eurocreme is clearly on the decline. I do hope, though, that the people who engineered all this, at Eurocreme and AVI Production, are made to pay for what they did.

9. TR on January 10, 2008 5:38 pm

   I am an American and I have seen or own all of Mr. Iresch films. The implication that he is some evil monster and Eurocreme is on the decline is ridiculous. If anything all the major studios in Europe including Belami (I saw online a bareback scene from them with the full Michael Paris pull out, cum on the hole and put it back in) are going bareback.

   Bareback is the future and the Gay AVN is going to have to deal with that reality sooner or later.

10. Bill in S.F. on January 10, 2008 6:50 pm

    Great to see those Brazilian boys being nominated (Ricardo Onca, the amazing Tommy Lima). Non-U.S. performers rarely get their proper due.

    I wish there had been something for Danny Roddick, though. All those noms for “Amazonia” and none for him? And “Brotherhood” with just two measly nominations?

11. Peter Z on January 10, 2008 9:59 pm

    Like I said in my post, I don’t know Vlado Iresch from a hole in the wall. It is just my opinion that he is a talented director… That’s all. I don’t know if he is good, evil or a homophobic, baby-seal clubbing anti-Christ; I wasn’t making a moral judgment. It was an artistic observation.

    The last thing I wanted to suggest was that bareback films should be eligible for GayVN Awards. TR, I totally disagree with you that bareback is the future. The future is creativity and innovation, not immoral hacks risking the lives of our Gay youth to make a quick buck.

    But I do agree with TR that GayVN will have to deal with the bareback issue sooner or later. So will other publications that take bareback advertising money with one hand, and wag their self-righteous finger denouncing bareback with the other. Now that was a moral judgment.

12. Jérôme on January 11, 2008 4:58 am

    Iresch is a skilled cameraman, which certainly puts him way above most of the clueless hacks working out of Prague. He is no director, can’t tell a story (his consistent use of that most cliché trick, the voiceover narration, is evidence enough), and his attempts at showing “gay love” as in “Boys in the Snow” are embarrassing and ludicrous to the point of being offensive. As to the homophobia, you don’t have to know him, just watch the films and how the models are being treated (I’m talking of what happens on the set and of the editor’s consistent choice to insert shots of the models in unsimulated pain and discomfort). Even paid reviewers on promotional websites couldn’t help but write there was something wrong with a film like “Raw Meat”.

    Anyone collecting Iresch’s films and not seeing a decline in the recent output, both in quantity (the standard film is now a 90′ four scene quickie) and in quality, is in denial. On the European scene, like elsewhere, creativity is definitely on the side of condom productions. Which major European studio is going bareback? The condomless content available online from the BA site (4 scenes), ceaselessly pointed out by advocates of the bareback agenda, were all made ca. 2003. That hardly constitutes a trend! I’ll just quote an American reviewer, from xxfactor.com, writing a few days ago on another blog : European porn has made huge strides this past year, and if you’re not watching the films of Lucas Kazan, Robert Boggs, Tom Bradford and Danny Ray, you’re missing out. (I believe Cadinot is missing from that list because he has no American distribution.)

13. ricci on January 11, 2008 3:49 pm

    Lucas Kazan has indeed made some stupendous films with always gorgeous looking guys but there’s also a “butt” coming up, lots of these hunks make ‘love’ in a very artificial way and some of the directing is all but hot with some clumsy, unsensual, non-erotic ‘play’. His hotel Italia nr1 though had it all. Tom Bradford does know about getting scenes to stir me up and his flatmate film for mansize is the most underestimated film of the last 24 months.
    As for Cadinot, i didn’t like his last movies that much especially not when he goes into leather and heavy stuff which is so unsuited to his models and may i say dvd buying public?

14. JC Adams on January 11, 2008 3:58 pm

    I’m going to stay out of the Vlado Iresch thing for now.

    But as for Joe Gage, why do you guys think he has received so little GAYVN love? What’s the problem? He’s clearly one of the most technically skilled, not to mention consistently strong (periodically excellent) directors out there.

    And I am mystified at two measly reviews for BROTHERHOOD from Jerry Douglas and Buckshots. Do you think voters just forgot about it?

    Regards,
    JCA

15. JC Adams on January 11, 2008 3:59 pm

    Two measly “nominations* for BROTHERHOOD, I meant to say.

16. TR on January 11, 2008 4:48 pm

    I contacted Eurocreme in regards to Jerome’s first post, this was their response…

    Hi,
    Eurocreme has attracted 2 or 3 people determined to criticize and insult
    us at any opportunity, so this doesn’t come as a massive surprise.
    Generally any adult forum/blog/etc will have an anti-eurocreme rant
    somewhere written by the same people.
    I think they view us as a faceless monster taking over the industry,
    when we’re really just a bunch of guys who enjoy working in this
    industry and making good porn!
    No point trying to defend against comments like that though, they’re not
    going to listen to anything I’d have to say on the matter.
    But just to clear it up for your sake - Nothing we’ve ever done has been
    remotely homophobic, that would be a strange move for an office full of
    gay men! None of our models have ever been physically abused, and
    that’s an abhorrent claim. Many of us know them very well personally,
    and would never see a hair on their heads touched.
    We aren’t in decline at all, with offices in London, Amsterdam, and New
    York, things are going pretty well, and we’re producing more movies than
    ever (infact I’m pulling my hair out trying to keep up with the work!)
    I’m not sure what we ‘engineered’ that this hardworking joe is supposed
    to pay for, but if it’s just making porn movies that people want to see,
    then I suppose we’re all guilty as charged!

    If you enjoy what we do as much as we enjoy making it, then just read
    past these comments - I don’t know who they come from or why they hate
    us, but they seem determined to badmouth us regardless of whether
    they’re speaking the truth or not!

    Kind Regards,
    Andrew (Evil Overlord Graphic & Web Designer @ Eurocreme)

17. Jérôme on January 12, 2008 8:05 am

    How nice it is to hear from the horse’s mouth! Just two things.

    1) Please, don’t take my word for it. Just watch “Raw Meat” and decide if it’s homophobic or not! See, I’m even promoting the stuff… This message just shows that Eurocreme doesn’t have the same PR strategy as TIM’s Paul Morris with his “HIV- status = virginity” rant. As to the facts, however… I’ll keep this for another venue. I’ll just say for now that everyone in the industry I’ve talked to about this company (including people who do business with them) has the same things to say: they are bullies and thugs, nobody likes them.

    2) The remarkable thing in this message is the total lack of mention of Iresch and Prague. And the reason is, I think, very simple. AVI Production, the operation responsible for an overwhelming majority of Eurocreme’s Czech films, does not include ANY gay man. Ever wonder why AVI Production DVDs NEVER have any kind of Behind the Scenes material? And Iresch’s long-time co-worker, who goes by the stagename of Zdenek Ralcimge, is a notorious homophobe: all those whom I’ve heard talk about him, whether fellow-producers or models, concur on this, and on the fact that he and Iresch have a sort of bad cop/good cop routine. Those nice Eurocreme gay guys in London and Amsterdam were of course perfectly aware of all this when they hired AVI in 2004 to do their dirty work for them. As I wrote earlier, the Czech side of Eurocreme’s business is now winding down, fewer films are being made, compilations of previously released material abound, their attempt at setting up some kind of Czech “Dude dorm” was short-lived and, one presumes, unsuccessful; similarly, they haven’t been able to create any kind of paywebsite so far. The time will soon come, hopefully, to assess what took place in Prague from 2004 to, say, 2007. And then, all the funny sarcasm, all the hype and spin in the world won’t hide the damage caused to many people, both physically and mentally, as well as to the cause of “good porn” in general. Facts are stubborn and truth will out.

    But of course, Eurocreme is not going away, since they have now decided to exploit the UK bareback porn scene they helped to set up in the first place, through the initial success of their Prague business. They’ve been buying films produced by Rufus Ffoulkes and Adam Bailey, the latter being the producer in charge of the summer shoot where three young performers were contaminated with HIV last year, as reported by various gay media. We’ll see how this turns out. But as far as Prague is concerned, I repeat that I’m confident this ghastly episode is mostly behind us. The end will come all the faster if gay viewers/customers are made aware of what it is exactly they are watching/renting/buying. I trust that once information is widely available, EC sales will dwindle even further.

18. rickwmuscle on January 18, 2008 12:47 am

    Just another word for Joe Gage a true legend in the gay porn industry. I believe he has a win for his non-sexual role in Jerry Douglas’ Beyond Perfect but nothing else. As stated elsewhere, I feel he is one of the best overall directors around, technically skilled, the sexual action is very well done and he ratchets up tension beautifully.

    His work this year was not his absolute strongest yet it still ranks among the year’s memorable films. GAYVN wake up and give Gage more respect!!