LX News’ ‘Powered By Likes: The Social Media Documentary’ Wins Best Short Documentary At Cannes Shorts Film Festival

LX News’ Powered by Likes: The Social Media Documentary won “Best Short Documentary” at the 2023 Cannes Shorts Film Festival, it was announced Monday. The 14-minute film by LX News’ storyteller Cody Broadway follows five established content creators and details their experiences managing the risks and rewards — including the potential emotional impact — of earning validation through likes, notifications and comments. LX News is NBCUniversal Local’s TV and streaming network.

Released across LX News and NBC/Telemundo owned station platforms in October 2022, Powered by Likes also features psychiatrist Dr. Nina Vasan, the chief medical officer of Real and founder and executive director of Brainstorm: The Stanford Lab for Mental Health Innovation.

Broadway said: “At LX News, we bring stories to life, and I am grateful to be a part of the team, alongside some of the most talented individuals in the industry, to create this short film. I extend my heartfelt thanks to Shani Tran, B Watts, Adrian Davis, Arius George and Leo Gonzalez for their courage to share their personal journeys with our audience.”

LX News, NBCUniversal Local’s TV and streaming network, has earned numerous industry awards and accolades for its video and audio content, including a 2022 Edward R. Murrow Award for Dying to be Wrong: The Price of Covid Misinformation, also produced by Broadway. Earlier this year, LX News won Signal Awards for its podcast My New Favorite Olympian covering the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, including top honors for “Sports Limited Series” and “LGBTQ+ Episode.”

Cannes Shorts, which accepts films of all genres under 40 minutes in length, was founded in 2014 by international artists and filmmakers to showcase young emerging talent. The annual event dedicated to short filmmaking will be held in the South of France Feb. 20-25.