From students to communications professionals. The eleventh IMMA Awards ceremony set the stage for the final phase of the metamorphosis of all those young students who entered the UIC Barcelona Faculty of Communication Sciences thirsty for knowledge almost four years ago. They have steadily transformed into professionals ready to spread their wings and fly into the working world. The final chapter in this great transformation called for a celebration worthy of the circumstances and the IMMA Awards, organised each year by fourth-year students on the Bachelor’s Degree in Advertising and Public Relations, to celebrate the best Final Degree Projects by students from the Faculty, and it lived up to expectations.

The event gathered together more than fifty students and professionals from the world of communications in the Aula Magna lecture hall at UIC Barcelona, although it could also be streamed online in order to comply with public health restrictions. The rector of UIC Barcelona, Xavier Gil, and the dean of the Faculty of Communication Sciences, Alfonso Méndiz, led the institution's representatives present at the Ceremony in celebrating the best Final Degree Projects (TFGs) in Journalism, Audiovisual Communication and Advertising and Public Relations.

Xavier Gil praised the staging of the Ceremony and highlighted the “incredible values underlying” each of the projects that were submitted. He also stressed that communication is fundamental under the current circumstances and that future generations face the challenge of “handling information honestly”. Alfonso Méndiz, who presented the Valors Award, reminded the students of their task to “improve society using communication”, and concluded that every single project demonstrated how “it is possible to communicate in a way that integrates and offers a much more human ideology”.

The IMMA winners

The winners of  this year's Ceremony were: Rubén del Nogal (Award for the best TFG in Journalism); Guillem Carreras, Sergio González, Yoel González, Nicolás Kerner, Max Schmid and Celia Soto (Awards for the best TFGs in Audiovisual Communication); Amanda Cazorla, Monica Conillera, Sara Lozano and Ana Vila (Awards for the best TFGs in Advertising and Public Relations); Xavier Blavia (Award for the best Academic TFG); Laura Porta (Miscellaneous Award for Journalism), Laura Castro, Itziar Fernández, Adrián Karpoukhine and Víctor Montilva (Miscellaneous Award for Audiovisual Communication); Pablo Perdigo and Edu Prats de Arquer (Miscellaneous Award for Advertising and Public Relations) and Carlota Busquets, Gisela Estrenjer and Anna Escribano (Valors Award).

All projects were assessed by a jury of industry professionals. Judging the winners of the Journalism Awards were the director of RTVE Catalunya and lecturer from the Faculty, Pere Bufigas; journalist and current director of the programme Després del col·lapse on Radio 4, Samanta Villar, and RTVE Cataluña news reporter, Macarena León. Judging the projects from the field of Audiovisual Communication were the producer of Dos Suelas Media, Àngels Masclans; project manager, partner and co-founder of Btcom, Carme Raventós and founding partner and director of Malmo Pictures, Clàudia Maluenda. As regards Advertising and Public Relations, the jury included partner and creative executive director of Full Circle Karma and member of the Board of the Society of Marketing and Communication of Catalonia, Enric Nel·lo; digital and operations director at La Machi - Comunicación para Buenas Causas, Llanos Meseguer and managing partner of 17 Communicación, Marta Salvat. Finally, the jury tasked with judging the Academic TFG was composed of the Faculty’s lecturers Rebeca Pardo, José María Roura and Felipe Alonso.

Once again, students from the Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture helped design the award given to the authors of the winning projects at the Ceremony, which was presented by students Ángela Descalzo and Pablo Pérdigo, sponsored by Neobioclean and held in collaboration with Artós Sports Club.

The IMMA Awards were set up in 2009 with a view to celebrating, recognising and awarding the best Final Degree Projects in Audiovisual Communication. Since 2018 the awards have been presented to the authors of TFGs across the whole faculty (Journalism, Audiovisual Communication and Advertising and Public Relations), as well as to other projects carried out by students throughout the year.