2022-23 Third Coast/Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition
Check out the 2022-23 Third Coast Competition Showcase.
Updates from the 2022-23 Competition Cycle:
First and foremost, dive into the2022-23 Third Coast/RHDF Winners & Finalists on the Competition Showcase. You can also stream the Worldwide Awards Presentation, featuring all 11 Winners from last year.
If you have not yet received a notification about the status of your entry, please contact us: competition@thirdcoastfestival.org.
Timeline & Eligibility
- Thursday, October 27, 2022: Call for Entries Launch
- Friday, January 13, 2023: Early Deadline
- Friday, March 10, 2023: Final Deadline
- Week of July 24, 2023: 2022-23 Showcase Launches
- August 6, 2023: Awards Celebration
To accommodate this new timeline, we’ve expanded our window of eligibility:
- Audio Unbound entries: September 1, 2019 - March 10, 2023
- All other categories: September 1, 2020 - March 10, 2023
We are always seeking to expand eligibility for the nine historic categories in order to better serve the breadth of work made in this field, including genre-bending work, fictional or partially fictional works, and work from all disciplines and industries. Follow the Entry Guide for more support determining the best route for your entries.
Our Vision & Values
At Third Coast, we lead through our values: prioritizing people and craft over profit, radically expanding access and increasing equity in the field, and pushing the boundaries of audio storytelling through experimentation and community.
These are also the values that shape our vision for the future of the Competition, why we continue to update our Collective Pricing philosophy annually, and why our staff is committed to listening to every single entry through our comprehensive review and judging process.
If you’d like to support this future, there are so many ways you can help:
- Enter the 2022-23 Call for Entries
- Consider selecting the "Pay It Forward" rate when entering
- Participate in the Pilot Offerings: Community Input Survey
- Donate to Third Coast
- If you think your organization could make a strong partner, please reach out: competition@thirdcoastfestival.org!
What did the 2022-23 Competition Cycle offer?
Nine genre-expansive categories. Collectively priced rates for all entrants. The chance to be named one of eleven new Third Coast/RHDF Winners, a small cohort of the most extraordinary audio stories of our current moment, or to be named as a Third Coast Finalist.
... And more.
We’re actively in the process of expanding and re-imagining all that is offered by our Call for Entries. Over the past 22 years, the Competition has enabled Third Coast to honor the most extraordinary audio works of the time. Now, we see the potential for a Call for Entries to also open a kind of worldwide dialogue: a maker-centered Competition unlike any other, offering not only a slate of unique awards and honors, but dozens of potential pathways through collectively-powered resources, workshops, mentorship opportunities, residencies, live programs… we could go on! The point is: what if, instead of using traditional competition models to maintain hierarchy, the annual Competition Cycle could power new kinds of lateral support throughout the industry, and create new pathways for connection and creation?
That’s why we’ve created a new framework for our Competition Offerings — and why we’re trying out some experimental Pilot Offerings this year, beginning with our Best New Artist feedback initiative & honoring lower rates for non-English language entries. Now, we need your feedback to continue building out these offerings: we invite you to share your input with us here.
FINALISTS
Best Documentary
- A Hole in the Silence / De Eso No Se Habla Podcast / Spain
- Accounts and Accountability / Lights Out (Falling Tree Productions, BBC Radio 4) / United Kingdom
- Halfie: A Memoir / Artist Propulsion Lab (WQXR) / United States
- How Do I Love Someone? Starring Megan Tan / WILD (LAist Studios) / United States
- Last Day: A Love Story / Last Day (Lemonada Media) / United States
- Live In Kyiv: Comedy From A War Zone / BBC Radio 4 (Lead Mojo) / United Kingdom
- Love, Death and Benzodope / Crackdown / Canada
- Whip Law / The Wind / United States & United Kingdom
Best Documentary: Short
- A New Tense / Short Cuts (Falling Tree Productions, BBC Radio 4) / Czech Republic
- Cold t-ts, warm hearts: the cold water dippers of Maine / Outside/In (New Hampshire Public Radio) / United States
- My Iron Lung / Radio Diaries / United States
- Nancy Masters searches for answers / Georgia Public Broadcasting / United States
Audio Unbound
- JOURNEY(S) / HumanitiesDC, KPFA / United States & Ethiopia
- The McSweeney's Audio Issue / McSweeney's Publishing & Radiotopia from PRX / United States
- Weird Noise / Weird Noise / United Kingdom
- Welcome to Vanguard Estates / Flash Forward / United States
Best Documentary: Non-English Language
- El sueño de La Bestia (The Beast's Dream) / Crónicas al borde Podcast / Ecuador
- Episódio 2: O breu da floresta (Episode 2: The Forest's Dusk) / Habitat Podcast (Folha de S.Paulo) / Brazil
- Leti ili umri (Fly or Die) / Radio Atlas & Croatian Radio HRT-HR3 Dokumentarna radiodrama / Croatia
- El baño (Instructions for going to the bathroom) / CUIR: Historias disidentes / Mexico
Best New Artist
- Am I Able? / FreshEd Podcast / United States
- Lost In Translation / The California Report Magazine (KQED) & Code Switch (NPR) / United States
- Old Tapes / Funny Stories to Tell in the Dark Podcast / United States
- The Sound Collector / Soundscape Productions / United Kingdom
Impact
- Farm Succession in Northeast Montana / Reframing Rural / United States
- My Neighbor the Suspected War Criminal / Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting & PRX / United States
- Roe Was Never Enough / VICE News Reports (VICE) in partnership with Type Investigations / United States
- The Last Year at Forest Cove / WABE / United States
Best Serialized Story
- After Ayotzinapa/Después de Ayotzinapa / Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, the National Security Archive, PRX/Adonde Media / United States & Mexico
- I Will Not Grow Old Here / Radio Workshop / South Africa
- In Deep: One City's Year of Climate Chaos / American Public Media / United States
- Mother Country Radicals / Crooked Media / United States
- On Our Watch / KQED & NPR / United States
- Pillow Talk / Audible & Easy Tiger & Audiocraft / Australia
- Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s / Spotify Studios / United States
- Third Squad: After Afghanistan / Airloom Media / United States
Best News Feature
- A Thursday night — the last Thursday night — at Northfield's Rustic Restaurant / Vermont Public / United States
- City targeted same homeless New Yorkers over and over in encampment sweeps, data shows / Morning Edition (WNYC) / United States
- Escape From Tarkov / On the Media (WNYC) / United States
- Jamie's Spot / Island Morning (CBC Radio) / Canada
Directors' Choice
- Black Radio Rochester / WXIR Community Radio / United States
- feeling body / Between the Ears (Falling Tree Productions, BBC Radio 3) / United Kingdom, Kenya
- Stas THEE Boss Pays the Cost in Change / Fresh off the Spaceship (KEXP) / United States
- Variations on M. / Lucia Festival / Italy
Promise Burden Prompt Origin Defense Palette Call
Winner of the 2022-23 Third Coast/RHDF Competition Audio Unbound Award, selected by Final Round Judges Stacia Brown, Sharon Mashihi, and Justine Tobiasz.
- 2023
- 0
- Damon Phạm
Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong
Winner of the 2022-23 Third Coast/RHDF Competition Impact Award, selected by Final Round Judges Katherine Nagasawa, Habiba Nosheen, and Richard Yeh.
- 2023
- 32:47
- Emily Hanford
- Catherine Winter
- Christopher Peak
- Chris Julin
Finn and the Bell
Winner of the 2022-23 Third Coast/RHDF Competition Best Documentary: Silver Award, selected by Final Round Judges Jimmy Gutierrez, Rachel Matlow, Melissa Mbugua, Priska Neely, and Mike Williams.
- 2023
- 33:52
- Erica Heilman
A Fantasy, A Lie
Winner of the 2022-23 Third Coast/RHDF Competition Best Documentary: Non-English Language Award, selected by Final Round Judges Wederik de Backer, Julia Furlan, and Juan Serrano.
- 2023
- 0
- Pauline Augustyn
- Katharina Smets
Checking One's Levels
Winner of the 2022-23 Third Coast/RHDF Competition Best Documentary: Short Award, selected by Final Round Judges Stacia Brown, Sharon Mashihi, and Justine Tobiasz.
- 2023
- 04:34
- Talia Augustidis
- Eleanor McDowall
You Didn't See Nothin
Winner of the 2022-23 Third Coast/RHDF Competition Best Serialized Story Award, selected by Final Round Judges Arlie Adlington, Alana Casanova-Burgess, Lisa Pollak, and Elena Rivera.
Atsimenu jo žvilgsnį. Istorija apie karį ir migrantą (I Remember His Look. The Story of a Soldier and a Migrant)
Winner of the 2022-23 Third Coast/RHDF Competition Best Documentary: Gold Award, selected by Final Round Judges Jimmy Gutierrez, Rachel Matlow, Melissa Mbugua, Priska Neely, and Mike Williams.
- 2023
- 42:27
- Sigita Vegytė
- Vaida Pilibaitytė
- Adomas Zubė
The 11th: His Saturn Return
Winner of the 2022-23 Third Coast/RHDF Competition Directors' Choice Award, selected by the Co-Directors of Third coast International Audio Festival, Maya Goldberg-Safir and Emily Kennedy.
Freedom Diving
Winner of the 2022-23 Third Coast/RHDF Competition Best Documentary: Bronze Award, selected by Final Round Judges Jimmy Gutierrez, Rachel Matlow, Melissa Mbugua, Priska Neely, and Mike Williams.
- 2023
- 32:43
- Kia Miakka Natisse
- Phoebe Wang
- Neena Pathak
'It started in the fourth grade building'
Winner of the 2022-23 Third Coast/RHDF Competition Best News Feature Award, selected by Final Round Judges Katherine Nagasawa, Habiba Nosheen, and Richard Yeh.
Life Partners
Winner of the 2022-23 Third Coast/RHDF Competition Best New Artist Award, selected by Final Round Judges Erisa Apantaku, Axel Kacoutié, and Alice Wilder.
- 2023
- 10:00
- Christina Hardinge
- Eleanor McDowall