Since it’s inception the awards have always been fluid. Without locking ourselves into ‘must do’ we’ve been able to tailor and change the awards to fit with the times and the industry, from changes of names, to acceptance of sponsorship from different companies to adding or amending categories and changing of the venues. This is important on keeping us current and relevant.
We originally had only a ‘Best non-TS Performer’ which in recent years was split to ‘Best Non-TS Female’ and ‘Best Non-TS Male’ when it was clear we couldn’t fairly judge them together. With the rise of the camming & VR industry, we added ‘Best Cam Performer’ and ‘Best VR Title’ and added ‘Best ClipSite Performer’ with so many now producing their own content, and different from ‘Best Website’ (which may eventually be removed).
With new sponsors, we’ve found new categories, with ‘ManyVids Model of the Year’ and Dr. Sinclair’s ‘Transcendence Award’.
Over the years we’ve removed ‘Best DVD Director’ and ‘Best DVD Performer’ (as most of production is now scenes), replaced ‘Best Alternative’ with ‘Miss Unique’, removed ‘Voluptuous Diva’ when there weren’t enough BBW scenes being produced and removed ‘Best FTM Scene’ when there weren’t enough companies producing scenes in that category.
We’ve resisted companies/sponsors wanting to put forward ‘Best Cam/Dating/Clip/Paysite’ as I don’t believe this show is about the companies and there are other events from Xbiz, AVN, Ynot, etc. which tailor to them, this show is about the performers and the producers.
Each award cost us money. Not just the value of the statuette, but the costs involved in running the show, the program, the voice over artist and everything that goes with the show. Many of these awards are covered by our generous sponsors, but the others have been absorbed by Grooby as part of building the show.
This year’s changes include the removal of ‘Best Photographer’ which is always hard to judge and crosses over with ‘Best Scene Producer’ too easily, and we’ve also removed Best Trans Male Performer, simply because we haven’t seen many trans men scenes getting produced by larger studios or production houses, or many trans men performers. We’ve also opened up the ‘Best non-TS Male’ and ‘Best Clipsite Producer’ categories to trans men (as well as the general categories they were always able to be part of) to be more inclusive across the board.
Each time we change the categories, we get some pushback, and I can already see a few online voices perturbed by the removal of the trans man category.
These are the questions we’d need answering;
- Are there 12+ trans men scenes that have had proper distribution (not just on a clip upload site) that we can put into contention?
- Are there 12+ trans men who have appeared in multiple general releases over the past 12 months?
- Is there any company producing trans men content who are interested in sponsoring this category?
We’re not opposed to bring it back, or being shown the above scenes, or from hearing from a sponsor but it’s pointless having a category, with no or little competition in it, and especially when we’re inclusive in so many other areas.
I can be reached directly at admin@grooby.com
