The Adult Film Association of America, the AFAA, was the first American association of pornographic film producers. It fought against censorship laws, attempted to defend the industry against prosecution for obscenity, and held an annual adult film awards ceremony.
It was founded in 1969 in Kansas City, with Sam Chernoff of Astro-Jemco Film Co. as the first president. Other notable presidents included producer David F. Friedman, elected the third president in 1971, and re-elected four times before becoming Chairman of the Board, and erotic actress and magazine publisher Gloria Leonard.
It held adult film awards ceremonies from 1976 through 1985, for a time the most notable such awards. In later years this ceremony was increasingly accused of bias, especially for the victory of Virginia in 1984, [1] which led to the founding of the X-Rated Critics Organization. The role of adult film awards has been mostly supplanted by the AVN Awards.
With the advent of pornography on video, the AFAA renamed itself Adult Film and Video Association of America (AFVAA). Its role as the trade association of the adult entertainment industry has been taken over by the Free Speech Coalition, organized in 1991, which acknowledges the AFAA as its first ancestor. [2]
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The Awards were called the Critics Adult Film Award and was a gold plated round icon with decorative edges on a wooden base.