TheWrap took home four first-place Southern California Journalism Awards at the Los Angeles Press Club’s 65th annual awards ceremony held Sunday at L.A.’s Millennium Biltmore Hotel.
Sharon Waxman, TheWrap’s founder and editor-in-chief, won the Entertainment Feature on Film category with her story about the HFPA’s failure to meet its reform goal and the embarrassing ouster of one of its members in her story, “Golden Globes Falls Short of 300 Voter Goal by 101, Expels Reformist Member Frank Rousseau for Falsifying Stories (Exclusive).
The category’s nominees included GQ and Variety, as well as TheWrap’s Andi Ortiz, who won third place for her oral history of the cult that has grown around Disney’s “Hocus Pocus” since its 1993 release, “How ‘Hocus Pocus’ Went From Box Office Bomb to Disney’s Halloween Darling.“
Reporter Sharon Knolle was nominated for two awards and won in both categories. In the Entertainment Feature on TV/Radio, Knolle won for her examination of the sequel series to “Sex and the City” and whether the show negatively portrays women in middle age, entitled “Is ‘And Just Like That’ … Ageist? Why Carrie and Her Friends Seem Over the Hill at 50.“ The category also included nominees from Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and Bloomberg News.
Knolle’s second win was in the Entertainment Feature on Music/Theater/Arts with a look at safety issues for women in stand-up comedy: “Forget Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle – Female Comics Say Stand-Up Has ‘Never Been Safe’ for Women.” Knolle’s story beat finalists from Fast Company, Yahoo, KCET and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ Palabra.
Writer Brenda Gazzar rounds out TheWrap’s SoCal Press Awards with a Lifestyle Feature win for her story looking back on the #MeToo movement on its fifth anniversary, “5 Years of #MeToo: How the Movement Spread Beyond Hollywood – for Better and for Worse.“ It beat nominees from Bloomberg, Yahoo, BBC and KCET.
“It fills me with great pride to see that these specific writers and stories were awarded first-place SoCal Journalism Awards,” co-executive editor Jethro Nededog said. “TheWrap finds great purpose in shedding light on the experiences of women in entertainment. And as the only major entertainment trade publication without corporate ties to the HFPA, it has become our responsibility to cover that organization closely. Thank you L.A. Press Club for recognizing the work and congratulations to these deserving writers!”
In total, TheWrap had eight SoCal Journalism Awards nominations. In addition to Ortiz’s story on “Hocus Pocus,” Waxman got a nod for her ongoing WaxWord column, critic Robert Hofler was nominated as an individual in the Criticism of Theater/Performing Arts category and Ada Guerin, Tatiana Leiva and Catie Laffoon were nominated in the Cover Art category for TheWrap magazine’s story on Amanda Seyfried.
The following honorary awards were also presented: Joseph M. Quinn Award for Lifetime Achievement to ABC7’s David Ono; President’s Award for impact on media to Spectrum News 1’s Giselle Fernandez; Daniel Pearl Award for courage and integrity in journalism to filmmaker and author Bernard-Henri Lévy; President’s Award for impact on media to actor John Leguizamo; Bill Rosendahl Public Service Award to actor Gary Sinise and the Guardian Award for contributions to press freedom to the Los Angeles Times’ Alene Tchekmedyian.
Sunday’s ceremony was dedicated to Ukrainian journalists and Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was wrongfully imprisoned in Russia.
