Five-time StudentCam prize-winner, 10th grader Dermott Foley from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, MD won Grand Prize for his documentary, ...
THEME: Your Message to the President
What issue is most important to you or your community? Examine your selected topic from multiple perspectives and assess what action(s) the president should take after Inauguration Day.
StudentCam 2025 Featured Documentary
C-SPAN is proud to recognize one of the top prize-winning student documentaries in our 2025 StudentCam competition each day through the end of the school year.
Congratulations to 11th & 12th grade students Smita Badrinath & Enaya Habib from Adrian Wilcox High School in Santa Clara, California on winning 3rd Prize in the High School Western division for their documentary about gender equality and domestic violence, “A World Not Made For Women.”
Click the link above to view their video, as well a press release and congratulatory messages from Governor Gavin Newsom, Congressman Ro Khanna, Senator Alex Padilla, and Santa Clara Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Gary Waddell.
Outstanding work, Smita and Enaya!
View all of the StudentCam 2025 Prize-Winners
C-SPAN is pleased to share the 150 prize-winning documentaries in our StudentCam 2025 competition. This year we received entries from nearly 3,500 students from around the country.
The competition, now in its 21st year, asked students to explore and analyze matters of personal, local or national importance by addressing this year’s theme — “Your Message to the President: What issue is most important to you or your community?”
View the complete list of 150 prize-winning documentaries, as well as the winners of the 2025 “Fan Favorite” award and our “Behind the Scenes” photo competition here:
Thank you once again to all who participated this year and made it our best competition yet. We hope those of you with remaining eligibility will consider participating in StudentCam 2026! Our new theme will be announced this summer and the official competition launch will coincide with the beginning of the new school year.
About StudentCam
StudentCam is C-SPAN’s annual national video documentary competition that encourages students to think critically about issues that affect our communities and our nation.
In this presidential inaugural year, we asked students in grades 6-12 to create a short (5:00-6:00 minute) video documentary on a topic that related to the competition theme, “Your Message to the President.”
The submission deadline for all entries in StudentCam 2025 was Inauguration Day on Monday, January 20, 2025.
11th grade student Daniel Aasa from Winslow Township High School in Atco, New Jersey won 1st Prize in the High School Eastern ...
9th grade student Ben Kurian from Olentangy Liberty High School in Powell, OH won 1st Prize in the High School Central division ...
All Grades from 6-12
This annual competition is open to all students in grades 6-12. Grades 6-8 compete in the Middle School category, and grades 9-12 compete in the High School category.
For more information about the prize divisions, visit our Prizes page.
compete individually/teams
Students may compete individually, or in teams of either 2 or 3 members.
Should your documentary win a prize, the awarded dollar amount will be split evenly among the students responsible for the production of the documentary.
CLIPS oF C-SPAN FOOTAGE
Documentaries must include clips of C-SPAN video that relate to the chosen topic.
Consider using short clips that provide historical background, additional context, or supporting and opposing ideas about how to address your topic.
viewpoints
Winning StudentCam documentaries will thoroughly explore a variety of viewpoints related to the chosen topic, including those that may oppose the filmmakers points of view.
You are welcome to share your personal point of view but you should also spend time during your documentary exploring opposing points of view. We also highly recommend that you interview experts about their thoughts on your chosen subject.
DOCUMENTARY Length
Your documentary must be between 5:00-6:00 minutes in length.
Documentaries shorter than 5:00 minutes, or longer than 6:00 minutes, will be disqualified.
*End credits (if applicable) must begin after the 5:00 minute mark and are permitted to run longer than the allotted 6:00 minute maximum time frame of your actual documentary.
CITATIONS
Entries must include either end credits or a works cited list.
You may use whichever format you currently use at your school to cite sources, but information used in your research, along with any background music or video (other than C-SPAN footage), must be cited appropriately and clearly, with links to that referenced work.
