XCritic.com, the popular website for news on adult and mainstream entertainment, has named Vivid director Tristan Taormino #1 on its “The Top 10 Women Directors in Porn” list.

“We felt Taormino represents the best of the next generation of female directors.  She is a smart, talented and multifaceted director,” said editor Chris Thorn of the author and educator who heads up Vivid’s educational imprint.

In his feature (http://www.xcritic.com/columns/column.php?columnID=1179) about the top directors Thorn says, “Long time sex advice columnist Tristan Taormino stepped behind the lens and the porn industry has never been the same since.”

He goes on to cite Tristan’s “Chemistry” series, which he says shows that “great porn begins and ends with the connections and chemistry between people on screen.”  The Vivid-Ed series created by Taormino is “stimulating both intellectually and erotically.”

A Phi Beta Kappa from Wesleyan University, Taormino joined Vivid Entertainment as a director in 2006. For nine years she was a columnist for The Village Voice and is the author of three best selling books (”The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women,” “Down and Dirty Sex Secrets” and “True Lust:  Adventures in Sex, Porn and Perversion”) and editor of 14 anthologies. She has lectured at top colleges and universities, including Yale, Yale Law School, Columbia, Swarthmore, Sarah Lawrence College and New York University about gay and lesbian issues, sexuality and gender and feminism.