Variety dominated the 2025 Southern California Journalism Awards, taking home 16 first-place trophies—more than any other outlet and the most in its history—at the Los Angeles Press Club’s gala on Sunday night. The haul, which doubled the publication’s eight wins last year and surpassed its previous record of 14 set in 2023, included Best Website for Variety.com and Entertainment Journalist of the Year for senior music writer Chris Willman. The Hollywood trade also collected top honors across film, television, music and photography categories, contributing to a night that drew more than 550 journalists to the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Other newsrooms shared the spotlight. TheWrap secured two first-place awards—one for Jeremy Fuster’s feature on indie film distribution and another for Steve Pond’s profile of Martin Scorsese—while finishing third in the Best Website category. IndieWire picked up four prizes, including Best Website for an Internet-only news organization and individual wins for television criticism, film-industry reporting and podcast production. HuffPost earned three awards, highlighted by Jessica Schulberg’s investigative piece on a contested murder conviction.