Variety has been nominated for 97 National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards including nominations for best entertainment publication and best entertainment news website.
“We are incredibly proud of the Variety newsroom for another outstanding year as the No. 1 news organization covering the business of Hollywood,” said co-editors-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh and Cynthia Littleton. “We congratulate all these deserving nominees from our editorial staff, art department and video team.”
First up, Variety’s special WGA strike issue titled, “No Words: What the Writers Strike Means for Hollywood,” was nominated for best entertainment publication of the year. That same issue was also nominated for both its page layout and cover art (managed by creative director Haley Kluge).
Following last year’s trend, senior music writer and chief music critic Chris Willman once again topped the list of nominations. Willman secured nine nominations: print journalist of the year, best music critic, best books critic, action photo, music personality profile over 2,500 words for his profile on Jack White, theater feature with senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay, and best celebrity news and arts feature under 1,000 words.
Brent Lang follows with six nominations, including best film-related business writing (with senior entertainment writer Adam B. Vary for their piece on Warner Brothers and “Batgirl“), best film personality profile over 2,500 words (“Brendan Fraser’s Triumphant Comeback: How Playing a 600-Pound Gay Man in ‘The Whale’ Resurrected His Career”), and best TV/streaming personality profile over 2,500 words (another cover profiling Michael J. Fox). In addition to his nomination with Lang, Vary also received four nods himself.
Variety.com editor William Earl was nominated in five categories including double noms for hard news and singular nods for humor writing, personality profile of a TV personality and online journalist of the year.
Chief correspondent Elizabeth Wagmeister also received five nominations for her film personality profile on Cate Blanchett, her under-30-minutes short on Brooke Shields, her work in celebrity news and her work in celebrity feature.
Variety recipients of four nominations include features editor Jenelle Riley, senior music editor Jem Aswad, TV features editor Emily Longeretta, international correspondent Naman Ramachandran, senior TV editor Brian Steinberg and social media editor Katcy Stephan.
Earning three noms each were TV business reporter Selome Hailu, chief film critic for Variety Owen Gleiberman (who also landed the nom for best critic), senior awards editor Clayton Davis, senior entertainment writer Angelique Jackson and senior VP Tim Gray (who was nominated for best columnist as well).
With two nods each, the NAEJ honored senior film writer Matt Donnelly, executive editor of film and media Tatiana Siegel and TV editor Michael Schneider (who was also nominated for best columnist) and Jazz Tangcay.
Other Variety nominations include senior media reporter Gene Maddaus, chief TV critic Daniel D’Addario, deputy editor Pat Saperstein, Asia editor Patrick Frater, associate music editor Thania Garcia, film and media reporter Rebecca Rubin, associate editor Ethan Shanfeld, associate editor J. Kim Murphy, editor at large Kate Aurthur, senior editor Todd Gilchrist, deputy editor Diane Garrett and associate web editor Michaela Zee.
The Variety video team, led by Nicholas Stango, received a nod for its broadcast work about diversity in the TV industry thanks to their work on “Variety and DIRECTV’s Power of Women ‘On the Carpet’ Pre-Show Live.” This included noms for Jackson, Longeretta, Wagmeister, Davis and supervising producer Laela Schmidt.
“Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast” received a nomination for best hosts, including Schneider, Davis, Tangcay, Riley and Longeretta.
Visual content director Jennifer Dorn received seven nominations for her work in the visual field including nods for best photo essay with photographer Alexi Lumbomirski on Variety’s “Actors on Actors.” Kluge was also nominated seven times which included the the aforementioned “No Words” cover along with photographer Platon and Dorn for their work on Variety’s Michael J. Fox cover story.
Variety.com also earned the prestigious nomination for best entertainment website and social media editor Stephan took home double nominations for best journalistic use of social media to tell or enhance a story.
The National Arts & Entertainment Journalism awards are presented yearly by the Los Angeles Press Club. See the full list of nominees here.