The 2025 duPont-Columbia Awards Finalists
Columbia Journalism School announced the 30 Finalists of the 2025 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards today, honoring outstanding public service in audio and video reporting.
PBS leads the group of Finalists with honors for four documentary programs; two from FRONTLINE, one American Experience and one American Masters.
HBO is a Finalist for two programs, including a documentary series about a racial reckoning in Boston. Netflix is a finalist for two documentaries about gender based violence. Reveal is also a Finalist for two podcasts, one about police misconduct.
Coverage of the war in Gaza from NPR, This American Life and The New York Times are Finalists.
First-time Finalists for the duPont Award include Telemundo for a climate change project carried across its local stations; Scripps News for two investigative stories, one about Flint, MI water and a second on Maine gun laws; The Boston Globe for a podcast series about a racially charged murder case that gained national attention, and The Outlaw Ocean Project for an investigation into China’s illegal fishing practices.
Nine of the Finalists honored local newsrooms, a critical part of the awards’ mission, on topics that range from domestic violence, to official corruption and the rise of extremism in the U.S.
The 2025 duPont-Columbia Winners will be announced at a ceremony on Wednesday, January 22, 2025 at Columbia’s Low Library.
Democracy on Trial
FRONTLINE (PBS)
Interweaving testimony and video from the January 6 committee hearing with chilling archive and insightful interviews, FRONTLINE delivers a searing and comprehensive report on the roots of the criminal cases against Donald Trump stemming from his 2020 election loss.
A Failure to Protect: A Domestic Violence Investigation
WBBM-TV, Chicago
An ongoing local investigative series took a heart-wrenching look at the scourge of domestic violence, exposing how despite victims’ best efforts to report their assailants, the system still fails and ultimately relies on women to defend themselves.
Flint: City in Contempt
Scripps News
Ten years after the toxic water contamination scandal, reporters found hundreds of Flint homes still connected to dangerous lead pipes, despite $100 million in cleanup costs, and the city still can't finish the job.
Nazi Town, USA
GBH American Experience | PBS & Pangloss Films
This deeply researched documentary offered a new and frightening view inside America's home-grown fascist movement in the 1930s, and especially the nationwide network of youth summer camps that were intended to plant Nazi ideology firmly in the American mainstream.
Our Planet: Latinos and Climate Change
Telemundo Station Group
Telemundo’s reporters and meteorologists traveled across Puerto Rico. Mexico, the US mainland and Alaska to find out from Latinos on the frontlines of climate change how it directly impacts the Latino community, and highlight the actions audiences should take now.
‘Our Refinery Is On Fire’: Two Brothers and a Deadly Explosion
The Wall Street Journal & Spotify
This gripping audio investigation scrutinized an explosion at a refinery, the warnings that were ignored, woven through the lives and last minutes of two brothers who were killed.
The Incomparable Mr. Buckley
THIRTEEN American Masters | PBS & ARK Media
A riveting portrait of William F. Buckley, this documentary followed the personal and political journey of the man who created, then led the modern conservative movement as it grew into a powerful force that has transformed American politics.
Putin vs. the Press
FRONTLINE (PBS) & Channel 4
With unprecedented access, FRONTLINE producers followed an embattled Russian editor who opted to stay in Moscow and fight to preserve his newspaper as his reporters were murdered, exiled, and targeted by the state.
Supplying a High
WVUE FOX 8 New Orleans & Rob Krieger
When a Louisiana resident was paralyzed after incessant nitrous oxide use, WVUE-TV investigated and found the drug, intended for food preparation, was being widely marketed as a drug high.
Una Vida Nueva
KUSA-TV, Denver & Angeline McCall
As Denver struggled to respond to the sudden and massive influx of Venezuelan immigrants, in this documentary KUSA’s team followed families as they navigated an ever changing bureaucracy in search of stability, safety and opportunity for their children.
Visual Evidence Shows Israel Dropped 2,000-Pound Bombs Where It Ordered Gaza’s Civilians to Move for Safety
The New York Times
This painstaking New York Times forensic investigation confirmed Israel's use of 2000-pound bombs in areas of South Gaza where civilians were told to seek shelter, cutting to the core of an ongoing human tragedy.
To Kill a Tiger
Netflix & Notice Pictures Inc.
This compelling documentary tells the story of a humble farmer in India who embarked on a remarkable pursuit of justice after his teen daughter was gang raped, defying deep intolerance in their village.
A Revolution on Canvas
HBO | Max & Partner Pictures
Artist Nicky Nodjoumi’s daughter tells his larger-than-life story in a documentary that takes viewers from the drama of the Iranian revolution to the trauma it inflicted on a family of artists, all illustrated by Nodjoumi's gorgeous and provocative work.