YNOT EUROPE – Saturday, Jan. 8, will mark the presentation of the 2011 AVN Awards, “the Oscars of porn,” at the Pearl Theatre in Las Vegas inside the Palms Hotel & Casino. A must for all lovers of adult entertainment, the 2011 gala will feature as hostesses 2010 Female Performer of the Year Tori Black and Digital Playground contract girl Riley Steele in addition to a very special celebrity guest host who will be announced soon.

“I’m excited about our mainstream host, but we cannot reveal the name yet,” said AVN founder Paul Fishbein. “We also have some great musical talent and a bunch of surprises for the show. The goal is to make it extremely entertaining, while still rewarding the industry and talent for their great work this year. I applaud all of the nominees.”

As usual, hundreds of actors and actresses are competing for recognition in a variety of categories. Black has won record nominations: 22 as an individual, plus several as part of groups. Bobbi Star gathered 14 nominations. Manuel Ferrara collected 33 between acting, directing and producing with Evil Angel.

For the global list of nominees, click here or here, or visit the official website of the AVN Awards.

“This may have been the toughest nominations period I’ve been through at AVN, as the quality of movies released this year has been simply staggering, making it harder than ever to give everyone their just due,” Senior Editor Peter Warren said. “But I feel like we really did a diligent and exhaustive job of identifying the true cream of the crop among the cornucopia of amazing productions, performers, directors and other artists out there. I definitely give them all my heartiest congrats.”