Autumn is a time of year that is steeped in traditions, from the first pumpkins of October to the last celebratory toast of New Year’s Eve. Here at AVN, we’ve started our own tradition: the annual AVN Awards Nominations Party. For the second year in row, AVN threw a big party the Thursday before Thanksgiving that drew hundreds of attendees out to learn which movies, performers, directors, websites and companies had been selected for recognition.

This year’s party, sponsored by MyFreeCams.com, took place tonight at Avalon nightclub in Hollywood. Members of the adult entertainment community assembled for an on-stage announcement of some of the big categories, and then attendees received a full list of the nominees as they left the club. Among those on stage were the hosts of the 2016 AVN Awards Show, Anikka Albrite and Joanna Angel.

Recognizing achievements that range across the industry’s four main sectors–video production, online enterprises, retail outlets and pleasure product manufacturers–these nominations honor the best work created in virtually every facet of the adult sphere over the past 12 months. The AVN Awards nominating committee spent weeks poring over pre-nominations submitted by industry members to compile the finalists. Individual members screen all submitted material to come up with the strongest contenders in each category, and then the committee votes on the final nominees.

AVN Senior Editor Peter Warren said, “We went back to the drawing board in a sense this year and reexamined how we as an awarding body acknowledge the product on the market, with an eye toward begining to focus more on the individual sex scene as the predominant, driving archetype for adult entertainment, as opposed to the full-length movie. Of course, full movies of all stripes are still very much a part of the adult landscape, and we hardly moved away from giving them their due. As always, it was an intense, painstaking process, but I’m tremendously proud of the results, and on behalf of my fellow committee members, I offer the highest congratulations to all the nominees.”

As is true every year, AVN continues to tweak the categories in the AVN Awards, looking to keep up with changes in the industry. The biggest change this year was the inclusion of scenes distributed solely on the web in several major categories. Therefore, among the nominees for sex scenes this year were performances that have yet to be distributed on DVD but instead were released directly on the web. These included content produced by X-Art.com, PervCity.com and Brazzers.com.

Another change this year was the addition of Best Polyamory Movie, added to recognize the abundance of movies released that celebrated the many aspects of non-traditional sexual liaisons.

“Reviewing this category was one of the biggest pleasures of this year’s nominations process,” said AVN editor-in-chief Sharan Street. “We enjoyed many hours of erotic fantasies produced with great creativity.”

Among the nominees for Best Polyamory Movie are some titles that celebrate swinger communities and show footage of real-life swingers, among them Real American Swinger Stories 2 (Forbidden Fruits/Exile), Swingers Wife Swap 3 (Adam & Eve Pictures) and How to Swing (Homegrown/Girlfriends). Others are fictional dramas that focus on the emotional nuances of the lifestyle, including Just the Two of Us (Girlfriends Films), Marriage 2.0 (LionReach/Adam & Eve), Sinners Ball (Wicked Pictures) and The Swinger 6 (Sweet Sinner/Mile High). And some are just plain fun, offering humorous vignettes, such as Seduced by the Bosss Wife 3 (Devil’s Film) and Slutty Wife, Happy Life (Brazzers/Pulse).

Also included in the category are two different takes on the concept of infidelity. Some explore the traditional cuckold fetish: Moms Cuckold 18 (Reality Junkies/Mile High), My Wife’s 1st Cuckold (Airerose/Pure Play) and Kinky Cuckold 2 (Severe Sex/Exile). Others draw on the “hotwife” fantasy, where husbands celebrate their wives’ extramarital adventures, as see in Francesca Le Is a #Hotwife (LeWood/Evil Angel) and A Hotwife Blindfolded and Watching My Hotwife (both New Sensations).

The full list of nominees can be found here.

This year’s inductees into the AVN Hall of Fame will be announced separately in the near future.

The final winners in all categories-as well as number of categories that are selected by fans in a voting process that will begin later this month–will be announced at the 2016 AVN Awards Show, taking place January 23, 2016 inside The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas. The show is sponsored by Chaturbate.com. The AVN Awards Show is the grand finale of AVN Week, a series of events produced by AVN Media Network that includes Internext, the AVN Novelty Expo and the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo.

Directly preceding the AVN Awards is the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, now in its 18th year, which takes place Jan. 20-23 at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. For details, go to AVNShow.com.

Now in its 33rd year, the AVN Awards Show has long been the adult industry’s biggest night, and the award itself is the industry’s highest honor. With a stylish red carpet pre-show and lavish star-studded ceremony, AVN celebrates outstanding achievements in the world of adult entertainment.

Tickets to the red carpet gala are available for fans to purchase at AVNAwards.Eventbrite.com. Reserved tickets for industry members are available for purchase here.

For more information about the 2016 AVN Awards, visit AVNAwards.com.