AudioUK has announced that this year’s Audio Production Awards (APAs), sponsored by Audible, will once again be an in-person event to be held on Wednesday 24th November.

The awards will be held at the BFI on London’s South Bank, as in the preceding 2020, when the awards were held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The APAs, organized by Audio UK, and sponsored by Audible, celebrate the craft skills behind all forms of Audio production – podcasts, radio, audiobooks, and more.

The Awards are open to all Audio producers, from podcasters, to audiobooks, to BBC and commercial radio and community stations, to sound designers, as well as production companies working across all forms of Audio.

There will be awards for the best Audio producer in comedy, arts, factual entertainment, sports, news and more, as well as a range of best presenter and narrator awards, plus the Production Company of the Year award. Once again, the Grassroots Production award will celebrate producers, teams and organizations working close to their communities, and this category will be free to enter, recognizing the particular challenges faced in that part of the sector.

In addition, there will be a new award for Best Gaming Sound Producer, recognizing the importance of audio in computer games and gaming apps. There will also be the new AudioUK Award given to a truly outstanding individual, collective or moment.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, every category is open to all forms of Audio, which includes podcasts, radio (on-air or online), audiobooks and all other non-broadcast audio. Productions of any budget range are eligible, and AudioUK’s panel of experienced judges will take into account the differing circumstances of production across the qualifying period.

Entry fees have been capped for the fourth year in a row, reflecting the challenging circumstances many still find themselves in. We have also introduced a number of pay what you can entry places for freelances, who would otherwise find the entry fee prohibitive.

The APAs, which will accept entries from noon on the 18th of August, until noon on Friday 24th September, are open to production talent from across the whole of the UK, with the entry fee frozen at £35+VAT for AudioUK members and £45+VAT for non-members. AudioUK will also be providing a limited number of ‘pay what you can’ entries for freelancers, for how the entry fee would mean they could not enter otherwise.