Masters – Åke Blomström Award on Audio Storytelling

Inga Janiulytė-Temporin

Lithuania

Inga Janiulytė-Temporin holds degrees in journalism and literatature. She has has been working for 11 years in Lithuanian National Radio and Television. Most of this time, producing environmental programs and radio documentaries.

A significant part of Inga's work involves uncovering stories of public value. Together with Rūta Dambravaitė, she co-authored Coming Out, a radio documentary about a homosexual couple who spent together 52 years publicly identifying as father and son. Coming Out was awarded the Prix Europa in 2024.

The Making of a Documentary That Changed Lives and Renewed the Debate on Same-Sex Partnerships in Lithuania

Initially, Vitalius wanted to share a story about his father. However, we soon discovered that the man he referred to was his partner of 52 years. Someone few people knew about. Despite the hesitation of coming out publicly, Vitalius felt it‘s time to show the public his true self.

It was clear immediately that we‘ve stumbled upon a story of immense public importance. Same-sex partnerships are still illegal in Lithuania, and homophobia remains widespread in society.

As we dug deeper, it became evident making this radio documentary would be anything but easy. We feared that Vitalius' bravery might ultimately work against him and his partner Albinas. How could we navigate the fear of the unknown, balance the responsibility of telling such a personal story, and approach it with both creativity and sensitivity.

Nanna Hauge Kristensen

Denmark

Nanna Hauge Kristensen is an anthropologist and audio maker based in Copenhagen. Her work moves in the intersection of art, anthropology, and audio documentary. At its core is a deep interest in listening. She is captivated by the lived experiences of people, and endeavor to make them sounding through relational and co-creative processes. What attracts her, both as a maker and as a listener, are intimate, sensory and open-ended explorations.

Her work has been featured on BBC3, BBC4, Danish Radio, The Royal Danish Theater, among others. It has been honored with numerous International Awards.

The Heart-Shaped

explores the lives of four elderly people in the small town of Uummannaq in north-western Greenland. They are confronted with the departure of loved ones and the physical decline of their bodies. Yet, nature permeates every aspect of their lives. An audio ethnographic montage about silence, loss, and belonging. In her presentation, Nanna will discuss the creative process behind The Heart-Shaped. She will reflect on audio making as an explorative and relational practice, as well as the intimacy of sound and listening.

Liam O'Brien

Ireland

Working in audio is the only real job Liam O'Brien has ever had. He's been telling stories in audio documentaries, and series, for more than 25 years now – and still believes the best story he's ever going to tell is somewhere out there, waiting to be found. He has led the audio documentary unit in RTÉ since 2008 and over the last five years has moved into multi episodic storytelling. He has won over 150 national and international awards, including being recognised at the Prix Europa awards for his work on eight different productions.

Where is Jón?

is a six part podcast series that tells the story of Icelandic man Jón Jónsson who went missing in Dublin in 2019. A co-production between RÚV (Iceland) and RTÉ (Ireland), this series resulted in new information and witnesses coming forward which in turn prompted renewed police involvement in both countries, a Europol investigation and a number of searches and digs for the remains of Jón. How can audio storytelling make such an impact in a missing persons case?

Patrizia Schlosser

Germany

Patrizia Schlosser is an investigative journalist. 38 years old, based in Munich. She does film documentaries and podcasts, mostly for German Public Television ARD.Some of her works: Together with her colleagues from STRG_F (NDR/funk) she exposed perpetrators who sold videos of naked women on porn sites. She also has investigated in the German terror organization The Red Army Fraction RAF as well as Neo-Nazi-structures in Germany. Her latest research is about non-consensual porn deepfakes:

Léa Chatauret

After studying sociology and political science, Léa Chatauret entered INSAS, a film school in Belgium. Since then, she has worked on documentary films and auteur fiction. Most of these films have been shown at major festivals (Cinéma du réel, IDFA, Nyon, Venice).

At the same time, she is developing her podcast work, with Arte Radio, Louie media. "Open Hearts", her latest podcast on Arte Radio, won the Prix Europa 2023 and a special mention at the "Longueur d'ondes" festival.

Andrew Harding

Andrew Harding is an author and foreign correspondent who has spent the past three decades living and working in Africa, Asia, and the former Soviet Union. His books and his reporting for BBC News – often focused on conflict zones, including Ukraine - have won him international recognition including a US Emmy, a share of a Peabody award, and South Africa’s top literary prize.

Andrew travelled to the collapsing Soviet Union in 1991 to seek work as a freelance journalist. He reported on the chaos of Yeltsin’s Russia and both Chechen wars. He lived for a time in Tbilisi, Georgia, before moving back to Moscow as a BBC correspondent. He then moved to Nairobi in 2000 as the BBC’s East Africa correspondent, and four years later to Singapore as the BBC’s Asia correspondent, where he covered the tsunami and reported undercover from Burma. In 2009 he moved to Johannesburg as the BBC’s Africa correspondent, from where he covered many of the biggest stories and the changes sweeping the world’s most youthful continent.

Andrew has written three acclaimed non-fiction novels. The Mayor of Mogadishu (2016) told the story of a charismatic brawler who fled Somalia’s civil war for the UK, only to return years later to try to build peace in the ruins of Somalia’s capital. His next book, These Are Not Gentle People, tracked an explosive double murder case in a South African farming community wracked by poverty and racial tensions. His series on the case won a Prix Europa in 2021. His latest book, A Small, Stubborn Town, focuses on a little-known battle that helped change the course of the war in Ukraine, capturing the drama through the lives of a handful of local volunteers.

After fifteen years living in South Africa, Andrew recently moved to France as the BBC’s Paris correspondent. He is married and has three grown-up sons.

Ole Martin Hafsmo

"Shit Town, Trondheim"

Ole Martin Hafsmo graduated from the Norwegian Film school in 2002 as a film director. He has specialised in comedy and directed a wide variety of genres and formats, such as tv-dramas, tv-series, feature film and commercials. He has also directed a lot of musical comedy, most notable with Norwegian comedy duo Ylvis.

«Shit Town, Trondheim» is his first radio documentary. It tells the story of his mother, Berit Hafsmo who lives arround the poverty line in Trondheim, Norway’s third largest city. She lives in a council flat in a district called «Skitbyen» (literally «Shit Town»), life is tough but she is an irrepressible optimist. The series received the award for best European audio documentary series in Prix Europa 2023.

Inga Lizengevic

Inga Lizengevic has Belarusian-Ukrainian roots and lives as a radio author in Berlin. Her feature film "Three Countries - My Threefold Split Personality" (SWR 2016) was shortlisted for the n-ost Reportagepreis 2017, for her feature "Babies For the World. The Business with Ukrainian Surrogate Mothers" (Deutschlandfunk/SWR/ORF 2021) she was awarded the Prix Italia 2022 and nominated for the Prix Europa 2022. Thought Crime in Belarus. When Dystopias Come to Life" (Deutschlandfunk Kultur 2022) was nominated for Prix Marulic 2024. Most recently: "And on Thursday There Was War. Russia's Attack on Ukraine" (Deutschlandfunk/ORF 2023)

Tag: Masters

Masters of 2025