USF Innovative Education Studios was recently honored in the 2024 Davey Awards, marking their third consecutive year of recognition for excellence in visual storytelling. This year, the team won their first-ever Best in Show honor for the powerful documentary short, “Portraits in Patriotism: Ildiko Trien.”
The Davey Awards is an annual international competition that celebrates the achievements of creatives making waves in visual arts and media, emphasizing grand ideas over expansive budgets. Since 2006, InEd Studios has tallied eight Davey Awards honors.
This year’s accolades recognize their work on two videos from the Portraits in Patriotism series, which was produced as part of a Florida civics literacy excellence initiative. Videos in the series are made available to students in public schools statewide.
The first video, a 15-minute documentary profiling Ildiko Trien, a Soviet-era Romanian dissident, earned the Best in Show award for the Film/Video-Documentary category. This documentary delves into Trien’s life, whose childhood was uprooted by her father’s imprisonment in the Soviet gulag system – a network of labor camps that imprisoned millions of people.
Another gold-winning Portraits in Patriotism feature showcases the story of Marina Davidovich, a Soviet Union refugee who immigrated to the U.S. with her husband and their young daughter. After moving to the States, Davidovich became a renowned gymnastics coach and opened her own gymnastics school with her husband in the Jacksonville, FL, area, embodying the resilience and success many immigrants seek.
The InEd team also earned a silver award in the Schools and Universities category for its feature, “It All Starts Here,” a commercial created for USF’s Master of Business Administration program. This piece follows four MBA alumni from USF’s Muma College of Business and illustrates how they used their degrees to reach career success, from working with the Tampa Bay Lightning NHL franchise to advancing from a GED to an MBA, mentoring young professionals, and building a prosperous business.
“It’s always an honor to be recognized by industry professionals and peers,” said Director of InEd Studios Jared Brown. “What matters most, though, is the opportunity to showcase our team’s incredible work to a global audience. We may be a small team, but we have big aspirations, and receiving recognition like this affirms our hard work and creativity.”
FUTURE HONORS AND NOMINATIONS
InEd Studios has also been nominated for three NATAS Suncoast Emmy Awards for the organization’s showcase in December. These nominations include the team’s Portraits in Patriotism series, the Muma College of Business MBA video, and recognition for David Panton as director of photography for the Muma College of Business piece.
Since 2019, InEd Studios has been nominated for over a dozen Emmy Awards, winning six so far.
The Portraits in Patriotism series has also been selected as a contender for the SunScreen Film Festival, further underscoring its significance and impact on viewers.
“We are honored to receive these nominations from the NATAS Suncoast Emmy Awards, which reflect the dedication and passion of our entire team, who have worked tirelessly to create meaningful, impactful content, and we’re thrilled to see these efforts celebrated,” said Gary Granger, an InEd Studios producer. “This recognition underscores our mission to elevate voices and stories that resonate with audiences and leave a lasting impact.”