Variety won 16 first-place awards at the SoCal Journalism Awards Sunday night, more than any other entertainment outlet. The haul doubled Variety‘s tally of eight from last year, and set a new high mark for the publication at the awards, besting the previous peak of 14 achieved in 2023.
Among the wins were a top trophy for Variety.com as best website, and an honor for Chris Willman for entertainment journalist of the year.
The Los Angeles Press Club presented the awards at a sold-out banquet at the Millennium Biltmore attended by more than 550 journalists. The 2025 ceremony awarded work published during the 2024 calendar year. Variety went into the event with 93 nominations in 56 categories.
Variety staffers and contributors picking up first-place trophies included Daniel D’Addario, Jennifer Dorn, Owen Gleiberman, Angelique Jackson, Neil Jamieson, Ted Keller, Haley Kluge, Emily Longeretta, Jonny Marlow, J. Kim Murphy, Rebecca Rubin, Ramin Setoodeh, Tatiana Siegel, Greg Swales and Abbey White.
Variety‘s art and photography department fared especially well in this year’s awards, with creative director Haley Kluge and photo director Jennifer Dorn sharing three honors, and design director Ted Keller being awarded as well. The award for best portrait photo went to a photograph of Demi Moore (won by Kluge and Dorn with Greg Swales). Best cover art was won by the magazine’s Anna Taylor-Joy cover (with honors going to Kluge, Dorn and Jonny Marlow). And the team came through once again with an award for page design, for a “Star Trek” package (awarded to Kluge, Dorn, Keller and Neil Jamieson).
Willman, senior writer and chief music critic for Variety, won four awards during the night. In addition to entertainment journalist of the year, he was awarded best magazine columnist, for a selection of his opinion pieces; best music feature, for his cover story “How Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Took Over the Entire World”; and best theater feature, for “‘Randy Newman’s Faust,’ the Songwriter’s Brilliant but Rarely Produced Stage Musical, Rises Again for a Weekend in L.A. at the Soraya.”
Chief film critic Owen Gleiberman was a repeat winner in a category he has often claimed, best film criticism.
Chief correspondent Daniel D’Addario and co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh shared the honor for best film feature for the cover story “Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey on Making ‘Queer’.”
Tatiana Siegel, Variety‘s executive editor for film/media, won for best personality profile in the music personalities division for her article “Fugees Founder Pras Michél Speaks Out While Facing 22 Years in Prison: ‘I Never Wanted to Be a Spy’.”
Angelique Jackson, senior entertainment writer for Variety, picked up the personality profile award in the film personalities division for her story “Zoe Saldaña Rebooted: Why the Action Star Broke Her ‘Cycle of Sequels’ for ‘Emilia Pérez’ — And Her One Wish for Marvel’s Next Gamora.”
Emily Longeretta, the magazine’s TV features editor, won the award for personality profile in the TV personalities division for “Mariska Hargitay on Making a TV Icon, Dick Wolf’s ‘Tough Love,’ Fighting for Kelli Giddish and 20 Years of Helping Survivors of Sexual Violence.”
Rebecca Rubin, senior film reporter, was the recipient of the award for entertainment news, performing arts division, for her behind-the-scenes story “Inside the Tony Awards: From Jay-Z’s Lobby Act, an Accidental F Bomb to Overzealous Ushers, Here’s What You Didn’t See on TV.”
J. Kim Murphy, associate news editor for Variety.com, prevailed for best TV/streaming/radio feature for his story “Welcome to ‘Ren Faire’: Lance Oppenheim’s HBO Docuseries Follows a Festival Trapped in a Real-Life Game of Thrones.”
And for best online theater/performing arts feature, the award went to freelance writer Abbey White for their story “Disabled Comedians Speak Out on Performance and Career Barriers Due To Widespread Industry Inaccessibility: ‘I Want There to Be More of Us’.”
The entire staff of Variety.com shared in the publication winning the coveted award for best website for a traditional news organization.
Variety staffers also won more than 25 second- and third-place awards that were announced Sunday night as well.
The ceremony at the Biltmore included the L.A. Press Club‘s customary honorary awards to veteran newspeople or celebrities for their work in journalism or philanthropy. A standing ovation went to veteran Los Angeles Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke, who was given the Joseph M. Quinn Award for lifetime achievement. The Daniel Pearl Award for courage and integrity in journalism went to Clarissa Ward of CNN, who had to accept via a video message due to her being on assignment covering the breaking situation in the Middle East. And actress Kim Fields picked up the Bill Rosendahl Public Service Award for contributions to civic life.
The stage was overrun by perhaps more honorees than had ever taken the Press Club’s stage simultaneously before when a Special Award for Stellar Coverage of the 2020 Wildfires was accepted by news directors for all of L.A.’s local TV stations. The moving moment followed a montage of news coverage aired during the disastrous fire in January. Newspeople stepped up to accept congratulations on behalf of ABC7, Fox11, KCAL News/CBS Los Angeles, KTLA, NBC4, Spectrum News 1, Telemundo 52 and Univision 34.
The L.A. Press Club produces two awards shows each year. The other is the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards, which are presented to journalists from across the country; that event will take place at the Biltmore Dec. 7.
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