Variety picked up six honors at the 47th annual Telly Awards — including a gold award for “Variety’s Behind the Show with Emily Longeretta,” which won in the Social Video: Media & Entertainment category.
Overall, Al Jazeera English won the most gold Telly Awards, with 12, followed by a tie between Asharq Network and Hearst Media Production Group (10) and then National Geographic (9). The Telly Awards recognize “video and television across all screens,” and this year received almost 14,000 entries from creators, brands and production companies out of 55 territories.
“Video has never been more contested, more creative, or more consequential than it is right now,” said Telly Awards managing director Amanda Needham in a statement. “The Telly Awards has had a front-row seat to this industry for 47 years, and today’s entertainment is happening in multiple formats, across every screen, and at every budget level.”
The Telly Awards handed out prizes to Generative AI entrants for the first time, including the music video “Let It Show” by Lainey Wilson and “Plastic Ocean,” by Unshot. The Telly Awards also honor the fast-growing vertical video field (as well as online shows and series). This year’s winners in that space include Bilt’s “Roomies Roomies Roomies,” American Picture Company’s “The Ick,” Dan Rodo Productions’ “The Tony Hawk Mystery Skater Series,” “Challenge Accepted,” by Michelle Khare, InStyle’s “The Intern,” and Smosh Pit’s “Smosh Reads Reddit Stories.”
Telly Awards also expanded its animation and VFX honors, with winners including Buck, Bodega Virtual, and Bento Box, as well as the series “Total Drama Island, “The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball” and “Bob’s Burgers.”
Arabic-language TV channel/news network Asharq won the most medals overall, giving it the award for Telly Media Company of the Year (beating out Hearst Media Prods. and China Global Television Network). Ox Productions was named Telly Production Company of the Year.
Among other winners, the fan-voted People’s Telly Awards went to Action Factory, which worked on the Taylor Swift music video “The Fate of Ophelia.” Also winning gold awards were 42West for “The Rabbit Hole with Jimmy Kimmel,” as well as Paramount for “South Park.”
Besides the gold for “Behind the Show,” other Variety winners included: “Variety‘s Actors on Actors” won silvers in People’s Telly Online Series: Shows & Segments, and in Online Series: Entertainment; “Variety on Location: The Studio” won silver in Social Video: BTS; “Variety‘s Knows Their Lines: Gary Oldman” won silver in Social Video: Media & Entertainment; “Variety‘s Golden Globes Official Live Red Carpet” won bronze in Online Live Events & Experiences; and Variety x mitu x Walmart won bronze in Branded Content Campaign: Culture & Lifestyle.
Telly Awards are chosen by a judging council made up of more than 250 experts from video. New judges this year included Google head of content/sponsorships Tamara Kruger, HBO exec VP of production Janet Graham Borba; WNBA chief marketing officer Phil Cook; and Netflix post production senior manager Andrea Wertheim.
Here is a list of some of this year’s key Telly Award winners:
Animation
Editing, Gold: Bodega Virtual, “Pac-Man 45th Anniversary”
3D/CG Animation, Gold: Buck, “Airbnb Experiences – ‘The Grand Adventure’”
3D/CG Animation, Gold: TransPerfect, “2024 Paris Olympic Games”
Comedy, Gold: Paramount TV Media, “South Park”
Directing, Gold: Fresh TV, “Total Drama Island”
Film & Shorts
Music Video, Gold: Slick Rick Music Corp, “Badman Generation”
Kids & Family, Gold: MoMA, “Once Upon an Artwork”
Use of Motion Capture, Gold: Digital Domain, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps – Facial Motion Capture & The Thing”
Documentary, Gold: Boatman Media, “Yves Saint Laurent: The Hamish Bowles Collection”
Social
Sports, Food & Beverage, Golds: Moroch, “McDonald’s Sports Stop Motion Series”
Media & Entertainment, Gold: Variety, “Variety‘s Behind the Show with Emily Longeretta”
Tutorial & How To, Gold: GYK, “A ‘Traintorial’ with Pari from ‘Love on the Spectrum’”
Health & Safety, Gold: Ruder Finn, “Chrissy Teigen on Her Son’s T1D Diagnosis”
Comedy, Vertical Video Series, Golds: Mad Realities, “Shop Cats a Mad Realities Show”
Sports, Gold: Portland Trail Blazers, “‘The Box’ Toumani Camara for 2024-25 Defensive Player of the Year”
Vertical Video Series, Gold: Dan Rodo Productions, “The Tony Hawk Mystery Skater Series”
Sports, Gold: Dude Perfect, “Dude Perfect: Impossible Wall Series”
Not-for-profit, Social Impact, Golds: PETA, “Inhuman”
Creator & Host, Brand Collaboration, Golds: United Talent Agency, “Girl Room”
History, Gold: Christie’s, “The Fabergé Winter Egg adorned with more than 4000 diamonds”
Television
Science & Technology, Limited Series, Outdoor & Adventure, Editing, Golds: Nutopia Ltd, “Pole to Pole with Will Smith”
Documentary: Long Form, Gold: Warner Bros. Discovery, “A Mona Lisa Obsession”
DEI, Gold: On Behalf of American Cinematheque, “Critics Choice Celebration of Black Cinema & Television 2025”
Videography & Cinematography, Gold: AW Motion Imaging, “Detroit Pistons : All the Time”
Commercials & Marketing
Editing, Gold: MakerVille Company Limited, “Mickey 17 Movie Promo”
Use of Color, Gold: Alter Ego, “KFC – Sorry Manners”
Promotional, Gold: The Loomis Agency, “Texas Dairy Queen Your Blizzard Song”
Directing, Sound & Sound Design, Golds: Amazon Leo, “Countdown”
Online Shows & Series
Comedy, Gold: The WNET Group, “Comedians Vs. Animals”
Government Relations, Gold: Newsweek, “I Spend 68 Hours Aboard a Nuclear Ballistic Missile Submarine”
Social Impact, Gold: Al Jazeera English, “36 Days in July: Sheikh Hasina’s secret orders revealed”
Non-Scripted, Gold: Michelle Khare Inc, “Challenge Accepted”
Reality, Gold: Bully Media Inc, “YouTuber VS Real Carpenter”
Comedy, Entertainment, Golds: 42West, “The Rabbit Hole with Jimmy Kimmel”
Interview & Talk Show, Gold: Life is Love, LLC, “Michelle Obama Reveals All: Life-Changing Lessons on Intuition, Fear & Faith”
Interview & Talk Show, Gold: Sacramento Kings, “Conversations with Deuce & Mo”
Scripted, Gold: American Picture Company, “The Ick”
Social Impact, Gold: TED Conferences, “Season 2 of the TED Fellows Films Series”
Travel & Tourism, Gold: Casual Films, “Waldorf Astoria New York – The Greatest of Them All”
Immersive
Sound & Sound Design, Use of 360 Audio, Golds: Justin Gray Sound, “Justin Gray – Immersed”
Use of Real-Time Rendering, Gold: Asharq Network, “Asharq News Show the 4th Dimension”
Use of 360 Video, Gold: MAD Artes Digitales, “Cleopatra, The Immersive Exhibition – 360 Immersive Film”
Non-Broadcast
Educational Institution, Gold: Princeton University Advancement, “Princeton University: Making Audacious Bets”
Sustainability, Gold: Oliver Wyman, “Billion Oyster Project x Oliver Wyman for Society: Where The Water Meets Us”
See the full list of winners — gold, silver and bronze — at https://www.tellyawards.com/winners/. And watch the winners’ reveal video below.
