The Podcast Pitch Winners

The Podcast Pitch is a joint initiative with Sheffield DocFest Festival .  The Whickers award the winning project a £15,000 production award and a £5,000 Development Award to a runner up.

See the winners of this award below.

The Many Gendered Mothers of My Heart | Shirley Abraham, Tihany Sengupta (Winner 2026)

The Many Gendered Mothers of My Heart

The Riverbank | Chirae Cannon (Runner Up 2026)

The Riverbank

Redemption Man | Christopher Mitchell (Winner 2025)

The Great Gay Penguin Coverup | Jesse Lou Lawson (Runner Up 2025)

Rewriting the Narrative | Christina Hardinge (Winner 2024)

Rewriting the Narrative

Degenerate : Mathew Durai (Runner-up 2024)

Degenerate

2023 Winner

2023 Runner-up

Breathing Lyrical | Taqwa Sadiq

How strange that something we do constantly is the last thing we think about, until it threatens to stop. Breathing Lyrical is a six-part exploration of ‘breath’ and ‘breathing’ – what does this unifying constant of the human condition tell us about ourselves and the poetry of being alive? This series’ multi-disciplinary approach brings together art, science, culture and society, health and wellness, through powerful, compelling personal stories for broad, diverse audiences. The rhythmic nature of breathing is echoed in this podcast’s poetic tone, immersive aural landscape, and the intertwining of each episode’s story with a relevant poem. By foregrounding non-European poems, and augmenting them through enthralling, rich sound design, this series amplifies marginalised perspectives on timely, poignant stories relevant to all of us who breathe.

Taqwa Sadiq is a storyteller working across audio, film and art. Inspired by her BA Middle Eastern Studies, her practice aims to bridge people, languages, and cultures. Taqwa was selected for BBC AudioLab 2023, was awarded the Charles Parker Prize 2022 (Best Student Audio Feature), and previously hosted the Made at UCL podcast.

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Time, Paper, Bone | Catherine Boulle & Bongani Kona

Time, Paper, Bone is a seven-part investigative podcast about the closure of a cold case – one of the thousands of state-inflicted deaths by South Africa’s apartheid government. The story is told through the eyes of two women, Nombulelo Booi and Madeleine Fullard, one black, one white, who are brought together in a common quest – to find the remains of Nombulelo’s father. Nombulelo was 16 when she saw her father, anti apartheid activist James Booi, being dragged into an armoured police vehicle, half-naked, in the early hours of the morning. More than half a century later, Madeleine, the head of an investigative unit that locates the remains of apartheid’s disappeared, teams up with Nombulelo to finally bring her father home to the burial he deserves.

Catherine Boulle and Bongani Kona are award-winning South African audio makers and researchers with a combined 14 years of experience telling stories in audio and on the page, including several pieces produced for Falling Tree that have aired on the BBC. In addition, Bongani – a widely published writer of fiction and non-fiction – is a lecturer and PhD candidate in the Department of History at the University of the Western Cape, and the editor of Our Ghosts Were Once People: Stories on Death and Dying. Catherine is the creator of The ICA Podcast, featuring interviews with South African artists, and she was a finalist for Best New Artist at the 2021 Third Coast Awards for her story We dressed him all in white.

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Degenerate | Matthew Durai

What happens when one has a genetic predisposition to forget? This series tells the multifaceted story of Alzheimer’s disease told through the lens of someone running towards a solution- because he has to.

Matt Durai is an award-winning producer based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

When Matt heard he was a finalist he said “I’m thrilled, I can’t wait to tell my team”.

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Rewriting the Narrative | Christina Hardinge

What if you could rewrite the story of your own life? And get to know yourself in an entirely new way? Rewriting the narrative is a podcast that does exactly that.

Christina Hardinge is a Bristol based audio producer and multi-disciplinary artist working creatively in the field of documentary. She won the Third Coast award for Best New Artist 2023 and has produced audio features for BBC Radio 4, 3 and World Service.

Christina  said on hearing the news, “I’m thrilled to be selected and excited to pitch this podcast which is the culmination of many years of research and development!”

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Redemption Man | Christopher Mitchell

Redemption Man is the true, incredible story of the mysterious man who was seen carrying a large white cross throughout West London for almost 35 years and then suddenly disappeared. The series uncovers the life and legacy of the ‘Cross Man’, his real identity, and his tragic family life.

Chris Mitchell is an award-winning Executive Producer, Writer and Musician from London who loves sound and storytelling. His work has been featured on BBC Sounds, Radio 2, Spotify, The Independent, The Guardian, Pitchfork, Complex, Music Week and Forbes.

Chris said “I’m so excited for this pitching opportunity! I’ve been wanting to share this story for over 25 years”

 

 

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The Great Gay Penguin Cover Up | Jesse Lou Lawson

Artist and broadcaster Scottee traces the remarkable story of the Great Gay Penguin Cover Up.  Scottee asks, how much have we historically learnt from nature, and how much have we projected onto it?

Jesse Lawson is a multi award-winning audio producer, sound designer and community facilitator – his work explores how storytelling shapes our perceptions of truth. 

Jesse said “I’m absolutely thrilled to hear this! Huge congrats to everyone else who was shortlisted.’

 

 

 

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The Many Gendered Mothers of My Heart | Shirley Abraham, Tihany Sengupta

Two young Indian women meet by chance and begin to question the invisible codes that shaped their lives. Following whispers of the past, they embark on an audacious search to uncover hidden histories and the covert lives of women before the dawn of the internet.

Shirley Abraham is a Cannes prize-winning Indian documentary filmmaker. As a child, she came to the movies by rebellion. She watched them in secret, covering the television screen with a cloth, making her own magical cave. Her work is supported by Sundance Institute, MacArthur Foundation, The New York Times, The Guardian, Lannan Foundation, Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, Field of Vision, IDFA Bertha Fund, Catapult Film Fund and the BBC. 

Tihany Sengupta is a filmmaker, producer and ceramicist. She has created work for Prime Video, Netflix, Disney Hotstar+ and television in India for OML Studios where she was the Vice President. She is interested in the dialogue between personal conditioning and sociocultural structures. 

The duo told us that they are “Honoured and thrilled to join the Whickers family. Allowing ourselves a main character dance for a quick minute!” 

 

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The Riverbank | Chirae Cannon

The Riverbank is a first-person narrative documentary series in which I follow the sound of my name, “Shy,” spoken after a death or a killing.  Using family tapes, interviews, and court records to map how my family grew up with guns as both protection and threat. In a family where silence was survival, I’m choosing to tell our story with precision because it’s already being told without us, as proof in someone else’s argument instead of a record of what it means to live at the center of violence and still love.

Chirae Cannon is an audio storyteller, filmmaker, and Uncuffed (KALW Public Media) instructor whose work explores family, incarceration, and violence through intimate, tape-led narratives.

Chirae told us “I’m really excited for this opportunity and grateful to be part of the Whickers family. Looking forward to what’s ahead.”

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