Welcome to the 2024-25 Third Coast Call for Entries
The Third Coast Competition is back as an independent program, and we’re now open for entries! We continue our groundbreaking vision for a Third Coast Competition that uniquely honors the best audio stories in the world while also catalyzing future careers, disrupting hierarchies in the field, and showcasing emerging and underrepresented voices. To explore all the relevant Call for Entries pages, check out the shortcuts on the right-hand sidebar of this page. Please note that this year, you can only submit one entry per completed entry form, but you can submit again as many times as you’d like! There is no limit the number of total entries that you can send us.
For 2024-25, we’re sticking to the heart, soul, and backbone of this program — honoring Third Coast Winners & Finalists through our unique Judging Process — while we continue to rebuild. If you’d like to partner with us to make this possible, please reach out: info@thirdcoastfestival.org
This page is your home for all things related to this year’s Call for Entries. From here, you’ll have all the resources you need to enter your work through our 2024-25 Entry Form. Check out our Entry Guide, information about all 2024-25 Categories, updated Entry Rates, an FAQ, and more. (Check out the menu on the right-hand side of this page to quickly jump to another page.) If you have any questions, you can reach out to us.
"We Need Third Coast" Flash Sale: Thru December 17
For the lowest rates of the year, take advantage of our “We Need Third Coast” Flash Sale, from now until December 17. Your final chance to enter work for this year’s Call for Entries will be our Late Deadline: March 20, 2025.
Read through the full breakdown of entry rates here. For a full list of deadlines to enter, refer to the list below.
Deadlines & eligibility
Mark your calendars:
- Call for Entries Opens: Now through March 20, 2025
- Flash Sale Deadline: December 17, 2024
- Early Deadline: January 14, 2025
- Regular Deadline: February 20, 2025
- Late Deadline: March 20, 2025
- Third Coast Review & Final Round Judging: Summer 2025
- Winners & Finalists Announced: Fall 2025
Window of eligibility:
April 2, 2021 - March 20, 2025: Audio Unbound entries
April 2, 2022 - March 20, 2025: All other categories (Best Documentary, Best Doc: Non-English Language, Best Doc: Short, Best New Artist, Best News Feature, Impact, Impact, Best Serialized Story):
All entries that are eligible for at least one category in the Call for Entries will be automatically entered into contention for Directors’ Choice.
Who should enter?
Our goal is to welcome in the widest breadth of narrative audio stories possible — and our hope is that any person or institution interested can enter, whether you come from public radio, podcasting, independent media, or another artistic discipline.
In the future, we hope to add more categories that reflect this intention (for example, we’d love to introduce an award honoring scripted audio work). For now, know that we do want to hear your work, including work that challenges or does not quite fit into our traditional categories, which we’ve kept this year. That means… Got a fiction audio series? Enter it into Best Serialized Story. Made your first audio piece, but it doesn’t quite fit anywhere? Enter it into Best New Artist. Have an audio walk, or live-in-person show, or additional written components? Enter it into Audio Unbound.