For more than 20 years, Third Coast International Audio Festival has brought exceptional audio documentaries of all styles to audiences worldwide, serving as a champion of audio creativity and inspiring the next generation of listeners and makers.
This year's annual Third Coast/Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition received its largest pool of submissions ever. The eleven winning stories represent some of the most compelling and exceptional pieces of audio made this year—across the globe.
The Driehaus Foundation congratulates this year's recognees.
Best Documentary: Gold
Time Bandit by Sean Cole, with Ben Calhoun, Aviva DeKornfeld, and Ira Glass for This American Life (United States)
Best Documentary: Silver
Monaea, a 2020 Diary by Jen Kinney, Monaea Upton,
Ashley Cleek, Adizah Eghan, Kyle Murdock, Kate Osborn, and Adreanna Rodriguez for Vice News Reports (United States)
Best Documentary: Bronze
Inventions in Sound by Raymond Antrobus & Eleanor McDowall, A Falling Tree Production for BBC Radio 4 (United Kingdom)
Best Documentary: Short
PMHx by James T. Green for Short Cuts, a Falling Tree Production for BBC Radio 4 (United Kingdom & United States)
Audio Unbound
Simultaneous by Pamela Z for DeutschlandRadio (Deutschlandfunk Kultur) (Germany, Italy & United States)
Best Documentary: Non-English Language
Entre Quatro Paredes (Between Four Walls) by Heloiza Barbosa, with Paulo Pinheiro, Diogo Saraiva, Valquiria Gouvea, and Adam Gamwell for Faxina Podcast (Brazil & United States)
Best New Artist
Ep 1. Once Upon a Time, a Girl Needs a Distraction in Quarantine by Heather Li for It’s Nice to Hear You (United States)
Best Serialized Story
The Wait by Mozhgan Moarefizadeh, Nicole Curby, and Michael Green for The Guardian (Australia & Indonesia)
Best News Feature
Pandemic Diaries: One Couple's Story of Isolation and Love in a Nursing Home by Lauren Chooljian, Jason Moon, and Dan Barrick for New Hampshire Public Radio (United States)
Impact
Intersection by Sam Riddell, Jordan Gass-Poore', Briana Stodden, Anna Williams, Meral Agish, Natalie Milbrodt, Jo Ann Wong, Theresa Gaffney, Syreeta Gates, Guilia Hjort, and Elias Ravin for Queens Memory Project & Queens Public Library (United States)
Directors' Choice
Lost Notes: 1980 by Hanif Abdurraqib, Myke Dodge Weiskopf, Victoria Alejandro, and Nick White for Lost Notes from KCRW (United States)
