Yesterday (May 5), editorial cartoonist and former School of Film/Video faculty Ann Telnaes (Film/Video BFA 85) was awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary.
Telnaes’ award arrives on the heels of headlines about her work with her previous employer earlier this year. In January, The Washington Post nixed Telnaes’ cartoon depicting various tech chiefs—including Jeff Bezos, who purchased the Post in 2013—rubbing shoulders with Trump.
Telnaes then quit working for the paper in protest, stating on her Substack that she’d “never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at,” and described the refusal to publish as “dangerous” for the free press. The Pulitzer was awarded to her for “delivering piercing commentary on powerful people and institutions with deftness, creativity – and a fearlessness that led to her departure from the news organization after 17 years.”
The Pulitzer Prize in Illustrated Reporting and Commentary is among the 15 prizes awarded for journalism in the US, with recipients selected for a “distinguished portfolio of editorial cartoons or other illustrated work (still, animated, or both) characterized by political insight, editorial effectiveness, or public service value.” Telnaes previously won the honor in 2001 for her work with the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.
See the full list of 2025 winners at the Pulitzer Prizes’ official site.
Related: Telnaes was the cover story of the first issue of CalArts’ alumni magazine The Pool in 2017. Check out the edition on Issuu.
