AVN, the world’s foremost authority on the adult entertainment industry, today announced the launch of the 2009 AVN Erotic Film Festival.

The festival will run over a period of seven months and boasts cash prizes of $5,000 to be distributed among the top three filmmakers. All films must be under seven minutes in length and will be available online for open rating by viewers.

The top viewer-rated films will be then voted on by a panel of 20 expert judges from the adult and mainstream film industries. Besides a hefty cash prize, the first-place winner will also receive a production contract to direct a feature for a top adult film company.

“Nothing like this has ever been done before,” said Darren Roberts, CEO of AVN Media Network. “Erotic filmmaking and porn can be two entirely different things. The goal of this competition is to bring the focus back to the art of erotic filmmaking and to do so without depicting explicit sex. Just as some of the greatest Hollywood movies have no dialogue, great erotic films don’t have to be graphic.”

The Erotic Film Festival website at AVNFilmFest.com is now open for submissions, and will debut a large-scale national advertising campaign on Dec. 1.