Variety wins 16 Southern California journalism awards
Variety wins Southern California Journalism Awards recognition with 16 first-place trophies Sunday night, as the Los Angeles Press Club presented the 68th annual honors at downtown L.A.'s Biltmore Hotel—cementing the trade's lead in entertainment reporting across film, TV, and music criticism.
The milestone matters because Variety entered the ceremony as the night's top nominee with 100 nods, then converted a strong share into wins spanning profiles, features, photography, and business reporting tied to Hollywood and streaming.
Key Takeaways
- Variety claimed 16 first-place wins at the 68th Southern California Journalism Awards on Sunday night.
- Jem Aswad, Owen Gleiberman, and Aramide Tinubu won top honors for music, film, and TV criticism.
- The Los Angeles Press Club presented awards at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
- Variety led all outlets with 100 total nominations across print, digital, TV, radio, podcasting, and social media categories.
- Winning stories covered Sundance controversy, Bravo, the BBC crisis, the Diddy trial, and CBS Evening News overhaul.
What happened at the Southern California Journalism Awards?
On Sunday night, the Los Angeles Press Club handed out the 68th annual Southern California Journalism Awards during a lengthy ceremony at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Variety scored 16 first-place wins—one of the night's standout hauls among outlets spanning newspapers, magazines, broadcast, digital news, radio, podcasting, and social media.
According to Variety's report, the publication went into the evening as the top nominee overall with 100 mentions across the competition's wide-ranging categories.
Who were Variety's top-winning critics?
Three of Variety's most visible bylines took home first-place criticism prizes. Music chief Jem Aswad won for music criticism, veteran critic Owen Gleiberman earned first place for film criticism under 1,000 words, and Aramide Tinubu was honored for TV criticism.
For readers who follow streaming and TV alerts, Tinubu's win underscores how Variety's television coverage continues to earn peer recognition in a year packed with high-profile series and platform shifts.
Which Variety stories took first place?
Beyond criticism, Variety staffers swept multiple feature and reporting categories. Selome Hailu won for a feature on Planned Parenthood's Caren Spruch and on-screen abortion portrayals. Brent Lang took first for a Sundance documentary piece on "The Stringer" and the "Napalm Girl" photo controversy.
Trish Deitch earned a personality profile win for her Jamie Lee Curtis interview, while Ellise Shafer won for a Diana Silvers music profile. Richard Phibbs, Jennifer Dorn, and Jennifer Halper shared an entertainment photo award for Variety's May 2025 A$AP Rocky cover.
Daniel D'Addario won for a Rob Reiner obituary appreciation. K.J. Yossman was honored for BBC crisis reporting, Kate Aurthur for a Bravo production history feature, and Naman Ramachandran for a theater piece on "MJ the Musical." Ethan Shanfeld won for music coverage of the Diddy trial courthouse scene.
Ramin Setoodeh took first for a TV/streaming feature with Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, and Ayo Edebiri on "After the Hunt." Brian Steinberg won twice—for a CBS Evening News overhaul story and for business reporting on TV anchors chasing digital revenue.
Why does this awards night matter for entertainment journalism?
The Southern California Journalism Awards function as a regional benchmark for newsroom quality, and Variety's 16 first-place finishes reinforce its position as a leading trade publication in Los Angeles—the industry's company town.
With nominations across criticism, investigative features, photography, and business beats, the results reflect breadth rather than a single specialty. For audiences tracking film, TV, and music, the wins signal which Variety coverage industry peers consider essential reading.