2026 Winner Data
BEA this year congratulates our 426 students and 48 Faculty Winners from over 2,350 combined entries.
The 2026 faculty competitions had an overall acceptance rate of 21.81% and student competitions had an overall acceptance rate of 20%.
The Broadcast Education Association affirms that creative work that meets established criteria, is reviewed by recognized peers, and is disseminated to others both within and outside the academy is important to the development of the field of electronic media and should be recognized as equal to scholarly publication in promotion and tenure review for faculty in the creative areas of the discipline.
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BEA2026
All of our faculty and student Festival winners will be celebrated in-person at BEA2026. BEA’s annual convention traditionally produces over 250 sessions on media pedagogy, collaborative networking events, hands-on technology workshops, research and creative scholarship and the Festival of Media Arts. It is co-located with NAB Show, each April in Las Vegas.
The BEA Best of Festival Awards takes place on Sunday evening. During the ceremony, recipients will be recognized with a specialized screening of their winning project and a cash award of $1,000 from the Diana King Memorial Endowment.
A celebration for all the student winners will be held during the day on Monday.
Faculty Festival sessions will be held on Sunday and Monday. All the faculty Best of Competition and Awards of Excellence will be recognized and given awards, and the sessions will feature Best of Competition showcase panels.
All winners will be recognized in the online and printed program.
2026 COMPETITIONS
AUDIO
Audio competitions of the Festival of Media Arts provide an opportunity to showcase audio production skills for radio and/or websites.
ENTER FACULTY ENTER STUDENTSDOCUMENTARY
The documentary competition showcases both long-form and short-form documentaries.
FILM & VIDEO
The film and video competition provides an opportunity to showcase video production work in a wide range of categories.
ENTER FACULTY ENTER STUDENTSINTERACTIVE MEDIA & EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
The interactive multimedia and emerging technologies competition recognizes excellence in content creation and visual storytelling that demonstrates creativity and innovation.
ENTER FACULTY ENTER STUDENTSNEWS
The news competition awards faculty and students for outstanding work as news anchors, reporters and weathercasters.
SCRIPTWRITING
The scriptwriting competition showcases narrative fictional work of multiple lengths and genres.
ENTER FACULTY ENTER STUDENTSSPORTS
Radio and television anchors, reporters and producers showcase their creativity in this highly competitive competition.
ENTER FACULTY ENTER STUDENTSTWO-YEAR COLLEGES
BEA’s Festival of Media Arts accepts entries from students attending community or two-year colleges.
Look Back at 2025’s Winning Works
2025 School Rankings Based on Student Creative Achievements
The 2025 rankings of schools are based on the creative achievement of their students. The rankings, which began in 2022, are founded on the results from the BEA Festival of Media Arts. The BEA Festival is the preeminent international media competition focused on student and faculty creative endeavors. In the last five years alone, over 8,000 student creative works were submitted from BEA’s more than 300 member institutions around the globe. Entries go through a blind-juried review in the following competitions: Audio, Documentary, Film & Video, Interactive Multimedia & Emerging Technologies, News, Scriptwriting, and Sports.
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