IndieWire Wins Best Website at 2026 Southern California Journalism Awards for Second Year in a Row

It’s always awards season around these parts, but today, IndieWire celebrates its own big win. At its Sunday evening gala, the SoCal Journalism Awards announced that IndieWire and its entire staff were crowned the Best Website, News Organization Exclusive to the Internet. (You can see the full list of winners right here.) It is the second year in a row that the site has earned the honor.

The annual awards honor the best in entertainment journalism during the 2025 calendar year, and were announced by the LA Press Club, which also organizes the National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards.

At this year’s awards, IndieWire was nominated for six awards, including IndieWire TV critic Ben Travers, who was nominated for Best Criticism of TV, for his work covering new releases throughout 2025. Travers ultimately placed second.

Ryan Lattanzio and Anne Thompson were nominated in the Entertainment Reporting Category for their story “Neon’s Tom Quinn Reveals His Oscar-Whisperer Secrets Ahead of the Cannes Awards,” an episode of the IndieWire podcast “Screen Talk.”

Alison Foreman was nominated in the Entertainment News: Film/Broadcast category for her story “I Survived ‘The Long Walk’ Treadmill Challenge — What 5 Miles with the New Stephen King Classic Felt Like.” She placed third in the category.

Former IndieWire weekend editor Rance Collins was nominated in the News Feature: Film/Broadcast Related category for his story “When Hollywood ‘Went Gay All of a Sudden’: TCM Highlights Films That Track Queer Evolution.” Collins was additionally nominated in the Lifestyle Feature category for his feature “How Cinespia Turned a Cemetery Into L.A.’s Weekend Hot Spot.” He placed second and third, respectively.

Collins was also nominated for Online Journalist, Independent/Freelance, for his work at IndieWire as well as the Beverly Press, Los Angeles Magazine, and Variety. Contributor Beandrea July was additionally nominated in the Criticism of Film (over 1,000 words) category, for her work at IndieWire as well as SEEN Journal. She placed second in the category.

Last year, IndieWire won four awards at the 67th ceremony, including Best Website, News Organization Exclusive to the Internet, honoring the entire staff. Additional awards the organization picked up included a Criticism of TV award for Travers; News Feature, Film/Broadcast Related for Brian Welk, honoring his reporting of states using tax credits and other methods to attract film and TV productions; and Regular Podcast for Sarah Shachat and Trevor Wallace for an episode of the “Filmmaker Toolkit” Podcast.

The 68th SoCal Journalism Awards were held June 28 at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.