Elon University students captured 11 awards in the 2025 BEA Festival of Media Arts, an international competition recognizing excellence in digital media and broadcasting. Most notably, Brandon Cericola ’26 and Kate Rivera ’25 turned their Audio for Sound and Digital Media class assignment into a Best of Festival award.
Powered by Bryan Baker’s Audio for Sound and Digital Media class, Elon University students and faculty collected 11 awards in the 2025 Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts, an internationally known competition showcasing digital media and broadcast work. In total, the competition received more than 2,285 entries from more than 300 schools.
Collectively, students in Baker’s cinema and television arts course garnered seven awards, including the university’s lone Best of Festival honors. Brandon Cericola ’26 and Kate Rivera ’25, both music production and recording arts majors, captured the festival’s top prize for their entry, “Animated Soundscape Recreation for ‘Rango.’” As part of the class assignment, the two students reimagined the complete sound design for an animated clip from the 2011 comedy about a chameleon with an identity crisis.
Cericola and Rivera will join other Best of Festival recipients at the BEA Festival of Media Arts awards show in Las Vegas on Monday, April 7, where they will receive $1,000 and a trophy, courtesy of the Diana King Memorial Endowment. In addition to their Best of Festival honors, Cericola and Kate Rivera earned first place in the festival’s Audio – Multimedia Sound Design category. A complete list of Elon’s award recipient is below – please scroll down.
Baker congratulated Cericola and Rivera for their work, calling it an “exceptional project.” The instructor noted how their award-winning entry used ambient sound and music to help establish the scene’s atmosphere, utilizing the stereo spectrum with a beautifully balanced mix.
“They tackled a scene with significant emotional range, allowing for powerful sound design moments,” said Baker, who serves as the director of technology, operations and multimedia projects in the School of Communications. “The way they layered sound effects to enhance the emotional depth really draws the viewer in.”
Baker commended his students, many of whom participated in his FreshTV cohort, for both their enthusiasm and their skill.
“The first day of class we talked about doing something special with our time,” he said. “The class is very much project based, and we decided to treat each assignment like a professional project. They pushed each other to do good work and often partnered with great teamwork. Now that the class is complete, I feel like they each have strong portfolio pieces as they move toward graduation.”
Among those strong portfolio pieces is Colin Dorroh’s 30-second promo for Cinelon, which captured the top spot in the Audio – PSA, Promo, or Commercial category. Baker credited the cinema and television arts major for his entry’s persuasive script, clear voiceover, concise editing and choice of music.
“We can be proud of our continued success in this annual competition as each year the entries increase, and the competition stiffens between a truly impressive list of universities and academic programs,” Baker said.
In addition to student awards, Assistant Professor of Communication Design Ahmed Fadaam earned an Award of Excellence for his short documentary, “Baghdad Graphic.” The short film, directed by Associate Professor of Cinema and Television Arts Doug Kass, is based on Fadaam’s graphic novel recounting his personal experiences in Iraq, focusing on the United States’ 2001 invasion of the Middle East.
Fadaam and Kass worked together on a script, incorporating illustrations Fadaam had completed previously. Kass then teamed with Assistant Professor of Cinema and Television Arts Max Negin to build out the film’s timeline. With support from Fadaam’s former animation students, they animated several illustrations.
Among the Elon alumni who contributed to the animations were Maddie Stokowski ’15, Chelsea Lindsay ’15, Jessica Grembowski ’16 and Evan Burdett ’17. The alumni support didn’t stop there, with Philip G Anderson ’13 handling the film’s musical score and Sam Costello ’14 overseeing sound design.
The deeply personal project has collected several awards across the globe, most notably earning Best Documentary at the Nefiltravanae Kino International Film Festival in Minsk, Belarus. Additionally, the film has been recognized at festivals in war-torn areas around the world, including Estonia, Nigeria, India and the Ukraine.
“Being recognized by the BEA Festival of Media Arts means a tremendous amount to Doug, Max and myself,” Fadaam said. “Hopefully, the documentary will help inform people about the horrors of war and how the 2003 invasion of Iraq simply ruined the lives of thousands of Iraqis and Americans alike.”
Elon award recipients
Audio – PSA, Promo, or Commercial:
1st Place: Cinelon Promo; Colin Dorroh
2nd Place: Elon Sport Vision Promo; Christian Kelly
Award of Excellence: Limelight Records Promo; Kate Rivera
Audio – Narrative Audio:
2nd Place (tie): Lucky Day Podcast; Will Calkins
Audio – Non-Narrative Audio:
3rd Place (tie): Indie Archive – Podcast; Adam Alkins
Award of Excellence: Sound Check Podcast; Kate Rivera
Audio – Multimedia Sound Design
1st Place and Best of Festival: Animated Soundscape Recreation for “Rango”; Brandon Cericola & Kate Rivera
Documentary – Short-Form Documentary
Award of Excellence: The Desert Gardener; Aaron Chan & Evan Purnell
Film and Video – Narrative
Award of Excellence: I Killed My Boyfriend; Alex Chadwick
Sports – Audio/Video Sports Event: Play by play talent
3rd Place (tie): Audio/Video Sports Event: Play by Play – Max Wallace; Max Wallace
Faculty Documentary – Short-Form Documentary
Award of Excellence: Baghdad Graphic; Ahmed Fadaam & D.K. Odessa