Cronkite students and faculty earn top honors in BEA Festival of Media Arts
From coverage of dental care to cross-border issues and a Final Four showdown, work produced by students at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication took top honors at the 2025 Broadcast Education Association's (BEA) Festival of Media Arts competition.
The festival is known internationally and showcases student and faculty work in categories like audio, documentary film, film & video, interactive media & emerging technologies, news, scriptwriting and sports.
The Cronkite School took home 20 awards, including four first-place finishes and eight awards of excellence.
"Year after year the work of students at the Cronkite School continues to stand out as some of the best in the country," said Cronkite School Dean Battinto L. Batts, Jr. "Their exemplary work is the reason why the Cronkite School has ranked as BEA's top overall program. We congratulate all of the winners."
This year's haul included 14 undergraduate awards, five graduate awards and one faculty honor, with Cronkite students and faculty receiving recognition for podcasts, newscasts, multimedia, hard news, feature and sports stories for television and radio.
First place winners
Student Audio Competition, Narrative Audio
Student News Competition, Television Long Feature
- Grand Champion Family; Blake Niemann
Student News Competition, News Reporter
- Denzen Cortez
Graduate Sports Competition, Video Sports Talent (anchor/host)
- De'Aundre Sanders
Second place winners
Student Sports Competition, Audio/Video Sports Event, Play-by-Play Talent
- Cavan Malayter on the MBB Call; Cavan Malayter
Graduate Interactive Media & Emerging Technologies Competition, Multimedia Storytelling
- NAGPRA in Arizona Investigation; NAGPRA in Arizona Investigation Staff
Third place winners
Student Documentary Competition, Short-Form Documentary
- 'Our No. 1 job is to make sure that they're safe': America confronts election intimidation; Denzen Cortez, Gabi Morando & Marshal Farmer
Student Sports Competition, Video Sports Talent (anchor/host)
- Lauren Avenatti
Graduate Interactive Media & Emerging Technologies Competition, Social Media
- Chicanos Por La Causa and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's "Come Get Health Services with Me"; "Come Get Health Services with Me" Staff
Awards of Excellence
Student Documentary Competition, Micro-Documentary
- Us Against U(ranium); Karen Bartunek, Samatha Mooth Kanoa, Joseph Kalaulani & McNicoll Jacang
Student Interactive Media & Emerging Technologies Competition, Social Media
- The Crookie; Courtney Dwaileebe
Student News Competition, Television Short Feature
- Congress Office Lottery; Macy Markham & Jackson Sutter
- Cutting For Community; Andres Armenta
Student News Competition, Television Hard News
- Families at the Border; Denzen Cortez
- Homeless Solutions; Tabitha Bland
Student Sports Competition, Video Sports Talent (anchor/host)
- Ethan Tuttle
Student Sports Competition, Video Sports News Program
- Cronkite Sports Report Final Four Special; Henry Domine & Paul Schultz
Graduate News Competition, Television News Magazine
- Cronkite News: Paris Olympics Special; Adriana DoPadre
Graduate Sports Competition, Video Sports News Program
- Cronkite Sports Report Pregame Show; Adriana Dopadre, Quinton Pressley & Thomas Coltrain
Best of Competition
Faculty Audio Competition, Radio Station Promo, PSA, Commercial Category
A Deeper Listen Clips Promo; Assistant Teaching Professor Roddy Nikpour