The Irish Podcast Awards, which celebrates podcasting excellence across the region, has announced the final contenders for the Spotlight and Specialist award categories.
This year’s ceremony, hosted by PodPod and sponsored by headline partner GoLoud, is taking place on 21 November at The Morrison Hotel in London and will be presented by Virgin Media News correspondents and co-hosts of The Group Chat podcast, Zara King and Richard Chambers. Other sponsors for the event include podcast platforms Global and Acast.
Special recognition awards are free to enter as part of the applications for other categories and are selected by this year’s esteemed panel of judges which include The Irish Times podcast producer Aideen Finnegan, independent podcaster Bobby Temps, Headstuff & The Podcast Studios head of podcasts Conor Reid, and more.
The Spotlight Award honours podcasts with sizeable audiences which are bringing the medium into the mainstream. Podcasts that have been shortlisted for this category include Documentary on One: Blackrock Boys, comedy podcasts My Therapist Ghosted Me and The 2 Johnnies Podcast, thriller series Storytellers: Dead Hand, and true crime podcast The Kinahans.
Shortlisted nominees for the Specialist Award, which honours podcasts that are producing exceptional listening for niche audiences, include education podcast Book of Leaves, comedy podcasts Fad Camp and Promenade, film podcast The Cinemile, and arts podcasts The History of The Future and Wine: The Long and the Short of It.
Entries for the Irish Podcast Awards’ Listener Choice category closed on 19 October with more than 24,000 votes submitted from fans. The top five podcasts that made it onto the final shortlist include sports podcast Ah Ref, comedy podcasts Big News Coming Soon, Left on Read, and Talking Bollox - which won the award at last year’s inaugural event - and paranormal podcast Real Life Ghost Stories.
The complete shortlist for the rest of the awards which include genre-based, specialist, and individual categories can be found on the Irish Podcast Awards website. Tickets are still available to purchase and range in price depending on the company or individual’s turnover, from €125 plus VAT for turnovers under €100,000, to €255 plus VAT for over €250,000.
This is the second year that the Irish Podcast Awards are taking place following the success of last year’s event which was held at Dublin’s Liberty Hall and was attended by over 350 members of the Irish podcasting industry. The Irish Podcast Awards is a sister event to the British Podcast Awards, which took place in September and the Australian Podcast Awards which is also taking place on 21 November this year.
For more information, visit the Irish Podcast Awards website.
