X-rated

X-rated, X certificate, X classification or similar terms are labels for movies implying strong adult content, typically pornography or violence. The precise meaning of the "X" and whether it is an official rating or an unofficial labelling varies from country to country.

Significant/Important X-rated films

• Midnight Cowboy is the only X-rated film ever to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. At the time the X-rating did not have the stigma it later took on. Midnight Cowboy has also been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Due to a degree of relaxation in attitudes regarding sex in film, the film has since been re-rated R.
• Because filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles had refused to submit his film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song to the MPAA, it received an automatic X rating. The film was released with the tagline "Rated X by an All White Jury" because of this fact. It was re-rated R in the mid-90s.
• Fritz the Cat, released in 1972, was the first animated film to receive an X rating in the United States, promoted with the tagline "He's X Rated and Animated!" The material in the film itself wasn't pornographic, and the film was later released with an "Unrated" mark on VHS and DVD.
• 1974's The Street Fighter, starring Sonny Chiba, was the first film to receive an X rating for violence in the United States.