Every January, the AVN Adult Movie Awards Show celebrates the finest in adult films and videos by hosting a stylish red carpet event and a lavish star-studded awards show.

Hosted by the hottest stars of the adult industry, the Awards extravaganza is packed with live music, sexy entertainment and appearances by popular stars, innovative producers, and industry legends. Nearly 100 awards are given out in categories as diverse as Best Film, Best Video and Best Actor to Most Outrageous Sex Scene, Best Group Sex Scene and Best Selling Tape of the Year.

As has become tradition, each show is accompanied by numerous parties around Las Vegas, and this January's show will be the biggest and best Awards presentation ever. The theme for the 2009 annual awards show is "And the Winner is...." For the third consecutive year in a row the show will be held at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

Historically, the first AVN Awards were given out to the winners in February, 1983, with little fanfare as compared to now. "Scoundrels," by director Cecil Howard, was the first recipient of AVN's Best Film award.

The following year the Awards Show was held at a more upscale venue: the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. All the major stars of the day attended, as well as over 600 adult industry attendees. In what would have been a glorious Kodak moment for any industry historian, Traci Lords, Marilyn Chambers, Seka and Ginger Lynn all appeared on stage to celebrate the best of the best. "Talk Dirty to Me, Part III" won that year's Best Film award, and Henri Pachard's "Long Hard Nights" took the Best Video honors.

In 1986, the AVN Awards Show moved to the Tropicana Hotel, where, for the first time, a band was hired, entertainment added and luminaries from around the world attended. The AVN Awards Show began to take on the trappings of any major awards event.

After six years at the Tropicana, where the show grew to include over 1,500 attendees, AVN began its multi-year run at Bally's Hotel & Casino, where over 2,500 industry employees, stars and fans could attend. Some great comics hosted those shows, including Bobby Slayton, Robert Schimmel, Richard Jeni and the late Bill Hicks. Stars such as Ice-T gave out awards and such Hollywood elite as Red Foxx, Rich Little, Penn and Teller, Drew Carey, Andy Richter, and many others have attended. Such now-classic adult films as ìNight Trips, "The Devil in Miss Jones, Part 3"; "Justine," "Face Dance" and "The Masseuse" won major awards.

In 1996, AVN made the quantum leap to the "big time" with its first pay-per-view event on The Spice Channel. The show played the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts, where over 3,000 attended in a setting where the production values rivaled that of mainstream Hollywood. The venue inspired Entertainment Weekly to call the AVN Awards, "the Oscars of Adult."

"Latex" from Michael Ninn and "Blue Movie" from Michael Zen were the big winners that year.

AVN returned to the Vegas strip for the 1997 AVN Awards where the Riviera Hotel and Casino rolled out the red carpet. Nearly 3,000 people attended another sold out show which was hosted by Bobby Slayton. "Bobby Sox" won the award for Best Film while "Shock" took Best Video honors.

In 1998, AVN moved to the prestigious Caesar's Palace for the most elaborate awards show ever, complete with an international buffet that wooed even the harshest critics. That show was sold out months in advance, with 2,500 people squeezing into a relatively smaller ballroom. Al Goldstein received AVN's Special Achievement Award for his lifetime dedication to the First Amendment and big winners included "Bad Wives" and "Buda."

In 1999, AVN returned to its old stomping grounds, Bally's, where nearly 3,000 people were accommodated. That elaborate show was highlighted by a moving speech by Larry Flynt, who accepted a Special Achievement Award from AVN Magazine publisher Paul Fishbein. "Looker" was the surprise winner in the Best Film category while "Cafe Flesh 2" won for Best Video.

In the year 2000 the AVN Awards Show was hosted at The Venetian Hotel and Casino where it remained until 2006 and played to capacity crowds of 3,500 people each year. The 2005 Show, hosted by Jenna Jameson, saw the big awards go to Adam & Eve's "Rawhide," Wicked's "Beautiful" and Vivid's "Heart of Darkness."

Demonstrating the growth of the annual industry event and its broadening mainstream appeal, the AVN Awards moved to the Mandalay Bay Events Center in 2007 and opened its doors to the public with an estimated attendance of over 6,000. Indie rocker Buckcherry opened the show, while comic Jim Norton and Wicked Picture's Jessica Drake hosted the event. The industry's most celebrated and distinguished personalities were recognized, including Brad Armstrong whose high-octane movie "Manhunters" won The Best Film Category.

In 2008 the AVN Awards reached another milestone: the broadcasting of the show on SHOWTIME. Because of its universal appeal to both adult and mainstream, the name of the show was changed to The AVN Adult Movie Awards Show. Appropriately, the 2009 AVN show was hosted by the very talented and beautiful Tera Patrick. The big winners, both heavily nominated, were the film "Layout" (Vivid Entertainment Group) and the video "Upload" (SxZ Pictures) with eight awards each.