The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald have been recognised with 21 finalist nominations in this year’s Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism.

Named in honour of the late Herald crime reporter Les Kennedy, Kennedy Foundation chairperson Carl Dumbrell said the high calibre of the work made selecting finalists from the 900 entries a challenge for the judges.

Reflecting the breadth of talent at The Age, nominations were spread across multiple categories.

Investigative reporter Aisha Dow was twice named a finalist in the outstanding consumer affairs category.

Her reporting on the medical misogyny series, undertaken with colleagues Kate Aubusson, Charlotte Grieve and Emily Kaine, explored the systemic gender bias in Australia’s healthcare system highlighting how women’s pain and suffering is frequently dismissed or misdiagnosed.

She was also named a finalist for her work on the Bidding Blind series alongside colleagues Nigel Gladstone, Lucy Macken and the visual stories team at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

The 18-month investigation, which looked at property underquoting and deception within the real estate industry, was also named a finalist in the outstanding digital innovation category.

Crime reporter Sherryn Groch was recognised for outstanding investigative reporting for her series exposing the secret wealth and compounds of Australia’s neo-Nazis and their ties to international influencers and overseas extremist groups.

Senior writer Michael Bachelard and Ruby Schwartz, were recognised for outstanding feature writing for Diagnosing Murder.

The series, which was also a four-part podcast series, explored whether the science behind shaken baby syndrome could still be trusted and whether innocent people were being locked up for a crime they didn’t commit.

Also, a finalist in the category was Jane Cadzow for her feature, In the Box Seat, published in Good Weekend.

John Silvester was nominated in the outstanding columnist category for his popular Naked City column.

Former Age investigative reporter Charlotte Grieve’s work in this masthead looking into the high-profile surgeon Munjed Al Muderis saw her named a finalist in the outstanding court and legal reporting category.

Cartoons in The Age dominated, with cartoonists Matt Golding (Playing Trump), Megan Herbert (Limited Campaign) and Cathy Wilcox (Middle East Mess) all named finalists in the outstanding cartoonist category.

The Herald’s newsroom reporting of the Bondi shooting, led by Herald deputy editors Liam Phelan and Nick Ralston, was named a finalist in the outstanding digital news breaking category.

Other Sydney Morning Herald staff to receive nominations were photographers Sam Mooy for his series capturing the Ben Roberts Smith, which also appeared in The Age, and Edwina Pickles for her series documenting the Bondi Beach terror attack.

A portrait of pioneering Australian doctor Richard Scolyer saw Steven Siewert nominated for outstanding portrait photography and Michael Ruffles was named a finalist in the outstanding three headlines category.

The Herald’s Chris Barrett was twice named a finalist for his NRL’s top ref had $400k gambling problem story (outstanding sport reporting and outstanding crime reporting).

Barrett’s Turf Wars was named a finalist in outstanding racing coverage.

Emily Kowal was nominated for young journalist of the year, while scoop of the year went to Amber Schultz for On Fight MH140.

Winners of the awards, which recognise journalistic excellence in 35 categories, will be announced in Sydney on Friday, August 21.