UFCJC Students Honored in 2025 BEA Festival of Media Arts Competition
University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) students were honored in the 2025 Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Festival of Media Arts competition. In 2025, the contest received 2,285 entries from over 300 participating schools.
In the Student News Competition, “WUFT News First at Five” received Best of Festival in the Television Newscast (4/5 days per week) category and Journalism junior Juan Carlos Chaoui’s “A Special Singer: Woman Expresses Herself Through Music” received Best of Festival in the Television Short Feature 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 fourth 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 Newscast – 4/5 days per week): “WUFT News First at Five” by “WUFT News First at Five” Staff
- Best of Festival (Television Short Feature): “A Special Singer: Woman Expresses Herself Through Music” by Juan Carlos Chaoui
- Radio Newscast: Award of Excellence: “The Point: Communism in the Classroom” by Serra Sowers
- Television Short Feature: Award of Excellence: “Drawing the Line” by Kirsten Maselka
- Television Long Feature: Award of Excellence: “Limitless Legends” by Alexander Land
- Television Hard News: Award of Excellence: “Jacksonville Cemetery Reveals Forgotten History” by Bailey Korinek
- Television Hard News: Award of Excellence: “Remembering Tiffany Sessions 35 Years After Her Disappearance” by Christopher Will
- Television News Anchor: Second Place: Bailey Korinek
- Student Television News Reporter: Award of Excellence: Alexander Land
- Student Television News Reporter: Award of Excellence: Kirsten Maselka
- Television Weathercaster: Third place (tie): Derrah Getter
- Student Television News Special Event: Second place: “Hurricane Milton Continuous Coverage” by Student Staff
- Student Television News Special Event: Third place: “Election 2024” by Student Staff
- Student Television News Special Event: Award of Excellence: “Hurricane Helene Continuous Coverage” by Student Staff
Student Sports Competition:
- Audio/Video Sports Event – Play by Play Talent: Ethan Eibe
- Video Story/Feature (Short): Second place: “’Jada Strong:’ Teenager Offers an Indomitable Spirit for Gators Lacrosse” by Ethan Eibe
- Video Sports Talent (Anchor/Host): Award of Excellence: Ben McLeish
- Video Sports Talent (Anchor/Host): Award of Excellence: Bradley Shimel
Student Documentary Competition
- Short-Form Documentary: Award of Excellence: “March of the Mangroves” by Sophia Abolfathi and Augustus Hoff
- Short-Form Documentary: Award of Excellence: “A Race Against Time” by Evan Kiddy, Taylor Koon, Gabriella Aulisio and Natalia Hall
Student Film and Video Competition
- Narrative: Award of Excellence: “REMinisce” by “REMinisce” Staff
- Narrative: Award of Excellence: “Bloodline” by Ben Senior and Erica Negrini
- Narrative: Award of Excellence: “Grade A Love” by “Grade A Love” Staff
- Narrative: Award of Excellence: “Cigarella” by “Cigarella” Staff
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 2024 rankings feature UFCJC as fourth overall for number of winning programs, third in news programs, fourth in documentary programs, sixth in film and video programs and ninth in sports programs.
The winners will be celebrated at the BEA2024 Conference on April 7 in Las Vegas.
Posted: February 11, 2025
Category: College News, Student News
Tagged as: 2025 BEA Festival of Media Arts
