University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) students were honored in the 2024 Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Festival of Media Arts competition. In 2024, the contest received almost 1,900 entries from over 300 participating schools.

In the Student News Competition, “Inside ICAC” by Journalism senior Chris Will received the “Best of Festival” in the Television Hard News category. Best of Festival is awarded to the first-place winner in a category that is also chosen as the top entry in comparison to the other winners in the same category group. This is the third year in a row a UFCJC student journalist has won a Best of Festival award in the news category.

The full list of honorees includes:

Student News Competition

• Best of Festival (Television Hard News Category): “Inside ICAC” by Chris Will
• Radio Feature Category: 2nd place: “Gainesville’s Abortion History” by Siena Duncan
• Radio Feature Category: Award of Excellence: “UF IDF Reservists Deploy to Israel” by Ailee Shanes
• Radio Newscast: Award of Excellence: “The Point Newscast – What Makes a Monument?” by Serra Sowers
• Television Hard News Category: 1st Place: “Inside ICAC” by Chris Will
• Television Long Feature: Award of Excellence: “UF Turf Team” by Chris Will
• Television Weathercaster: 3rd Place (tie): Derrah Getter Weather Anchor Reel

Student Sports Competition

• Video Sports Story/Feature: Award of Excellence: “Women’s Sports History at UF” by Ashley Hearn

Student Interactive Media & Emerging Technologies Competition

• Multimedia Storytelling: 3rd Place: “Unintended” by Avery Lotz

Student Documentary Competition

• Micro-Documentary: Award of Excellence: “The Aftermath: Turlington Plaza Stampede” by Serra Sowers
• Short-Form Documentary: Award of Excellence: “A Seat at the Table” by Sophia Abolfathi, Rob Bailey, MJ Holloway, Jordan Kocarek and Chloe Mazloum

 Student Film & Video Competition: Music Video

• Award of Excellence: “Could Have Been Friends” by Isabel Crist, Rachel Coffey and Sophia Abolfathi

 Student Film & Video Competition: Narrative Category

• Award of Excellence: “The Pinball Witch” by Nadia Cox, Teresa D’Angelo, Ty Capellini, Isabella Nielsen and Sean Bonnet
• Award of Excellence: “Bonnie” by Jake Criser, Tiffany Franco, Tatum Homer-Dibble, Bridget Perdomo and Harrison Reisler
• Award of Excellence: “Night is My Sister” by Mariella Hogg, Rylie Spicker, Cassidy Campbell, Keesia Hagley and May Curl
• Award of Excellence: “Losers” by Luigi Bencosme, Chante Da Silva, Darek Blackburn, Sarah Simon and Erin Hall
• Award of Excellence: “Mira Donde Nos Encontramos” by Stephanie Garcia, Isaac Grossman, Jillian Dingus, Xinyue Li and Alex Nazareth
• Award of Excellence: “Graze” by Carolina Zamora, Rebeca Prieto and Jalen Chance

The BEA Festival is the preeminent international media competition focused on student and faculty creative endeavors. Since 2022, participating schools are ranked based on the results from the BEA Festival of the Media Arts. The 2023 rankings feature UFCJC as sixth overall for number of winning programs, third in news programs, fifth in documentary programs, seventh in film and video programs and ninth in sports programs.

The winners will be celebrated at the BEA2024 Conference on April 13-16 in Las Vegas.

Posted: February 20, 2024
Category: Alumni News, College News, Student Awards
Tagged as: 2024 BEA Festival of Media Arts, Broadcast Education Association, Chris Will