Competition Categories
About the 2024-25 Third Coast Competition Categories
At Third Coast, we’re committed to maintaining the excellence of our annual independent awards program, unique to the industry in its breadth, history and judging process, where we bring together talented makers in the field to select the Third Coast Winners in each category and to inform our Third Coast Finalists (who are ultimately selected by the in-house Third Coast Listening Team)!
For the 2024-25 Third Coast Competition, our first independent Competition Cycle, we’re dedicated to maintaining the integrity of our traditional Competition, while we rebuild. Here’s what we’re offering.
Individual Categories
- Best Documentary (Three Awards: Gold, Silver, Bronze)
- Best Documentary: Non-English Language (One Award)
- Best Documentary: Short (One Award)
- Audio Unbound (One Award)
- Best New Artist (One Award)
- Best News Feature (One Award)
- Impact (One Award)
- Best Serialized Story (One Award)
- Directors’ Choice (One Award)
Note: All entries are automatically entered into consideration for our Directors’ Choice Award. Please also keep in mind that Third Coast’s role in this process is both to verify eligibility in each category, and to consider and advocate for each piece entered into our Competition. For that reason, we may move or add your entry to another eligible category without notifying you in order to give your entry the best opportunity to compete.
How to Enter
We recommend you prepare your materials in advance by reading through each individual category page for detailed eligibility criteria, entry checklists, and category-specific FAQs.
For an overview of the entry process, see our Entry Guide.