The Wrap won four first-place Southern California Journalism Awards at the Los Angeles Press Club’s 65th Annual Awards ceremony held at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in LA on Sunday.
Sharon Waxman, founder and editor-in-chief of The Wrap, won the Entertainment Feature in the Film category with her story “Golden Globes Falls Short Off” about the HFPA’s failure to meet its reform goals and the shameful expulsion of one of its members. Voters target 300 by 101, expels reformist member Frank Russo for false stories (Special).
Nominees in the category included GQ and Variety as well as TheWrap’s Andy Ortiz, who was nominated for an oral history of the cult that has grown around Disney’s “Hocus Pocus” since its 1993 release, titled “How ‘Hocus Pocus’ Turned Out to Be the Box Office Bomb on Disney’s Halloween Darling”.
Reporter Sharon Noll was nominated for two awards and won in both categories. In the Entertainment Feature on TV/Radio, Noll won the award for an investigation into the sequel to “Sex and the City” and whether the show negatively portrays middle-aged women, titled “Is ‘And Just”. Like that’… agist?” Why Carey and her friends seem over the hill at 50.” The category also included nominees from Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and Bloomberg News.
Noll’s second win was in an entertainment feature on Music/Theater/Arts with an Eye on Safety Issues for Women in Stand-Up Comedy: “Forget Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle – Female Comics Say Stand-Up ‘Never been safe’ for women.” Noll’s story beat out finalists from Fast Company, Yahoo, KCET and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Palabra.
Author Brenda Gazar marks the fifth anniversary of the #MeToo movement with a lifestyle feature win for her story “#5 Years of #MeToo: How the Movement Spread Beyond Hollywood — For Better and for Worse” TheWrap’s SoCal Press Awards concluded. It beat out nominees from Bloomberg, Yahoo, BBC and KCET.
“I am so proud to see that these exceptional writers and stories were honored with a first place SoCal Journalism Award,” said Co-Executive Editor Jethro Nededog. “The Wrap has a larger purpose in shedding light on the experiences of women in entertainment. And as the only major entertainment trade publication without a corporate relationship with the HFPA, it has become our responsibility to cover that organization closely. Thank you to the LA Press Club for recognizing the work and congrats to these deserving writers!”
Overall, TheWrap had eight SoCal Journalism Award nominations. In addition to Ortiz’s story on “Hocus Pocus”, Waxman received nods for his ongoing Waxword column, critic Robert Hoefler was nominated as a Person of the Year in Criticism in the Theater/Performing Arts category and Ada Guerin, Tatiana Leiva and Katy Laffoon was nominated. Cover art category for The Wrap magazine’s story on Amanda Seyfried.
The following honorary awards were also presented: the 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; Presidential Award for Impact on the Media to actor John Leguizamo; Actor Gary Sinise was presented with the Bill Rosendahl Public Service Award and Ellen Tchekemedian of the Los Angeles Times received the Guardian Award for his contribution to freedom of the press.
Sunday’s ceremony was dedicated to Ukrainian journalists and Wall Street Journal reporter Ivan Gershkovich, who was wrongfully imprisoned in Russia.
