2025
Our alumni, students, and faculty are making a profound impact in the entertainment and media industries and beyond. See the highlights from 2025!
While it is impossible to track all of our community's incredible accomplishments, we are always looking for opportunities to celebrate your successes. If you are a TexasEx, we invite you to share details with us about your new projects, awards & recognition, publications, and professional triumphs—so we can share them with the world!
2025 Affiliate Accomplishment Highlights
Awards, nominations and achievements
A music video produced and created through Bita Ghassemi’s (B.S.) production company, PILLARBOXED, won Music Video of the Year at the 2025 Austin Music Awards.
Tania Cattebeke Laconich (MFA Production), Drew Saplin (B.S. and staff), Iliana Sosa (faculty) and PJ Raval (faculty) were all selected to receive 2025 Austin Film Society Grants for Feature Films.
Yeajoon Cho (Michener Center Fellow) received the 2025 Humanitas Carol Mendelsohn College Drama Award.
Alfred Gomez (B.S.) is director of programming and development at Magnolia Network/Blind-Nil, which was nominated for Outstanding Instructional/How-To Program, Outstanding Culinary Cultural Series and Outstanding Lifestyle Program. Magnolia Network took home the Emmy for the Outstanding Instructional/How-To Program for the show "Fixer Upper: The Lakehouse."
Pastor Alvarado III (B.A.) is a partner and executive producer at Riverside Entertainment, where their “Abbott Elementary” x Lysol campaign was honored with two Clio advertising awards – Branded Entertainment & Content and Partnerships & Collaborations.
Sergio Eduardo Muñoz (MFA Production)'s thesis film, “Balada de un Inmigrante con Memoria (Ballad of an Immigrant with Memory),” was a winner of The Gotham Film & Media Institute and Focus Features’ Student Short Film Showcase.
Caroline Frick (Ph.D., former faculty, founder of Texas Archive of the Moving Image) was presented with the Silver Light Award (Lifetime Achievement) by the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA).
Sean Malin (M.A.) received a rare Starred review from Publishers Weekly for his debut book, “The Podcast Pantheon: 101 Podcasts That Changed How We Listen ― From WTF to Serial.”
Cody Rea (MFA Screenwriting student), Aaron Lopez (MFA Screenwriting student) and Yeajoon Cho (Michener Center Fellow) were three of the 10 selected semifinalists for the 2025 Humanitas Carol Mendelsohn College Drama Award.
"Jimmy Kimmel Live!," directed by Andy Fisher (B.S.), received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series.
"Making of the Last of Us,” executive produced by Badger Denehy (B.S.), received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Short Form Nonfiction or Reality Series.
“Abbott Elementary,” executive produced by Patrick Schumacker (B.S.; co-showrunner), received 6 Primetime Emmy nominations, including for Outstanding Comedy Series and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy.
“Hacks,” produced by Ashley Glazier (B.S.), was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series and a Golden Globe for Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy.
Ben Philippe (Michener Center for Writing MFA and RTF B.S.) was a writer on “Only Murders in the Building,” which received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series.
Breannah Gibson (B.S.) was a writer on “The Penguin,” which received 24 Primetime Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series.
Andrew Dismukes (B.S.) was a writer on both "Saturday Night Live," which was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Scripted Variety Series, and "SNL50: The Anniversary Special," which received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Variety Special (Live).
Glen Powell was nominated for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy Golden Globe for “Chad Powers.”
Marvel's "Spidey & His Amazing Friends," edited by Sophia Loffreda (MFA Production), was nominated for a Children’s & Family Emmy for Outstanding Editing for a Preschool Animated Program.
“The Baltimorons,” on which Jay Duplass (B.A.), was a director, writer and executive producer, received a Film Independent Spirit Awards nomination for the John Cassavetes Award.
Other accolades
Korey Pereira (faculty) was chosen to become the interim vice president of the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE). His term begins at the Golden Reel Awards in March 2026.
Ya’ke Smith (faculty) has been widely successful in the festival circuit with his film “The Ohio, Texas Remix.”
India Opzoomer (MFA Production) was selected for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Directors' Lab, a five-day competitive talent development program.
Miguel Alvarez (faculty) was one of three Texas filmmakers chosen for the Austin Film Society’s 2025 Artist Intensive retreat.
Sachin Dheeraj Mudigonda (MFA Production) was chosen as one of 13 producers invited to join the 2025 PGA Create lab for emerging and mid-career creative producers for his film “Mouna Tharangam (A Silent Wave).”
Katherine Craft’s (faculty, MFA Screenwriting) script “The Hog Queen,” which she is slated to direct, was selected for the Inevitable Foundation's Visionary Fellowship, backed by Netflix. Shelby Hadden (MFA Production) is the creative producer, and Sebastián Valdivieso (MFA Production) is the cinematographer.
Anne Lewis’s (faculty) short documentary, “On Dying of Dementia in a Capitalist System,” has been very successful in the festival circuit.
Patrick Shumacker (B.S.), executive producer & showrunner of ABC's "Abbott Elementary, was named one of Variety's “Top 50 Producers of the Year.”
Ashley Poprick (B.S.) was selected as one of Forbes’ “30 Under 30 – Games” honorees.
Kevin Shivers (B.S.), managing executive and EVP for Wasserman Music, was selected for Billboard’s 2025 list of “R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players.”
Deborah McIntosh (B.S.), senior partner at WME, was listed in The Hollywood Reporter’s “100 Most Powerful Women in Entertainment 2025.”
Books Published
- Sean Malin (M.A.), “The Podcast Pantheon: 101 Podcasts That Changed How We Listen ― From WTF to Serial”
- Lalitha Gopalan (faculty), “Kaagaz Ke Phool/Paper Flowers"
UT Awards
Ashley Glazier (B.S.) received the Outstanding Young Texas Ex Award at the 2025 Texas Exes Awards.
Deborah Valcin (MFA Screenwriting student) and Mason Scivally (B.S. student) on the Robert Foshko Memorial Scholarship & Screenplay Competition.