''Portrait of a Call Girl'' is a 2011 American

pornographic film Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, and 18+ films are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include eroticall ...

starring

Jessie Andrews Jessie Andrews (born March 22, 1992) is a retired American adult film actress, designer, producer, model, DJ, entrepreneur and photographer. Andrews was active in the adult film industry from 2010 to 2015, where she was honored with several Act ...

, and directed and written by Graham Travis. In 2012, the film received 19 nominations for both creative and technical awards, winning four

AVN Awards The AVN Awards are film awards sponsored and presented by the American adult video industry trade magazine '' AVN'' (''Adult Video News'') to recognize achievement in various aspects of the creation and marketing of American pornographic fi ...

for best actress, best director, best feature and the AVN's first Movie of the Year award;Mark Kernes, "Joint Production", ''Adult Video News'', Vol. 28, No. 3, March 2012, pp. 44–58. one

XRCO Award The XRCO Awards are given by the American X-Rated Critics Organization annually to people working in adult entertainment and it is the only adult industry awards show reserved exclusively for industry members. Once every calendar year, XRCO m ...

for best epic; and six

XBIZ Awards XBIZ Awards are given annually to honour "individuals, companies, performers and products that play an essential part in the growth and success of adult films" and have been described by XBIZ publisher and founder Alec Helmy as being "born out of ...

for acting performance of the year – female, best cinematography, best non-sex acting performance of the year, director of the year – individual project, and feature movie of the year.

Release

The film was released as a two-DVD set on August 26, 2011. The first DVD included several special features including a

behind-the-scenes In film, cinema, behind-the-scenes (BTS), also known as the making-of, the set, or on the set, is a type of documentary film that features the Filmmaking#Production, production of a film or television program. This is often referred to as the E ...

featurette In the American film industry, a featurette is a kind of film that is shorter than a full-length feature, but longer than a short film. The term may refer to either of two types of content: a shorter film or a companion film. Medium-length film ...

, slide show, outtakes, a bonus scene promo teaser and interviews. The second DVD offered a 79:29-minute feature only version, minus any hardcore scenes.

Reception

Critical reviews of ''Portrait of a Call Girl'' were mostly favorable, with others acknowledging disappointments. The film received recognition and nominations for editing, art direction, and cinematography. The XBIX Awards honored Mason, Carlos Dee and Alex Ladd with the nod for cinematography, with Travis being honored by both XBIZ and the AVN Awards for Director of the Year for Individual Project and Feature Film, respectively."2012 XBIZ Award Winners Announced"
XBIZ. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
AVN. Retrieved 14 April 2012. Online reviewers Sean DPS and Don Houston of XCritic.com both give the project the site's highest rating of "XCritic Pick" for the Blu-ray and DVD versions of the film. Houston compared the film with selected films touring independent film festivals and director Travis to mainstream director,

Steven Soderbergh Steven Andrew Soderbergh (; born January 14, 1963) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer and editor. A pioneer of modern independent cinema, Soderbergh is an acclaimed and prolific filmmaker. Soderbergh's direc ...

and his film ''

The Girlfriend Experience ''The Girlfriend Experience'' is a 2009 American slice of life drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring then-pornographic actress Sasha Grey. It was shot in New York City, and a rough cut was screened at the Sundance Film Festiva ...

''. Gram Ponante of fleshbot.com describes the project as a "mainstream film that happens to have sex in it". ''Sex and the 405'' agreed with Ponante's assessment that the film is "thoughtfully acted, beautifully shot, and sparsely, elegantly orchestrated", yet faulting the script for "tired cliches" including childhood sexual abuse, self-loathing, self-destruction through involvement in the sex industry, and subconsciously crying out for a savior. ''Sex and the 405'' expressed criticism of the fact that professionals from the adult film industry, which operated on the legal side of the fence, would present a film focusing on the illegal branch of the sex industry, the film industry's "marginalized twin". The web site summarized their review stating, "If

he film He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

didn't perpetuate so many stereotypes about prostitution, we'd be tempted to thank the studio for keeping it real — ish. But its problems are a little too big to ignore."

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 2071559 2010s pornographic films Films about prostitution in the United States AVN Award winners 2010s English-language films 2010s American films