Every year since 2005 when the first edition of the Africa Movie Academy Awards, AMAA, held, there has been a dominant country which often forfeits its lead to another filmmaking country in the next edition.
This was made known by Mr. Shuaib Hussein, a member of the awards jury and chairman of the College of Screeners who released the entries statistics on February 25.
“This year is a milestone for AMAA as the award will hold its ninth edition and surprisingly, the French-speaking African countries have finally embraced the award as the best and biggest in Africa”, he said. He further explained that before now, no more than two or three films came from the francophone countries.
“We have entries from Togo, Congo, Cote D’voire , Mali, Niger Republic, Benin Republic, Guinea, Senegal and Cameroun. We are happy about this development. The promoters of AMAA have ensured that the integrity of the award remains unassailable and this accounts for the level of huge participation across Africa and the Diaspora”, he stated.
Hussein also revealed that filmmakers from South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Gambia, Zimbabwe and Sudan entered their films for the most prestigious reward system for the motion picture industry in Africa.
“From Diaspora filmmakers we received entries from the United States, Brazil, Singapore, United Kingdom, Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica. This is a fitting way to celebrate the ninth edition of AMAA”, he said.
Giving the breakdown of the entries, the chairman of the College of Screeners said 184 short films, 108 Diaspora features -documentaries and shorts films, 60 documentaries from Africa and 319 feature films from within and outside Africa including films made by Africans living abroad were received.
On how far the screeners have gone with their work, Hussein explained that the College of Screeners started full camp on February 25 in Banjul capital of Gambia while the 15-member screening body has members from Nigeria from Ghana, South African, Nigeria, Senegal, Cameroun, Benin Republic, Mali, Burkina Faso and Togo.
“Before the camping stage which has started in Gambia, all the films have been pre-selected by members of the academy’s pre-selectors scattered all around Africa.
At the pre-camp stage films are pruned down and films weeded out were those that do not meet entry rules, like films that are more than two hours long; films that are inconclusive, language films or films in vernacular that are not subtitled and films that are generally of poor quality”, explained the College of Screeners boss.
The first edition in 2005 was a Nigerian affair with Dickson Iruegbu’s The Mayors clinching the award for Best Picture and four other awards. The 2004 film also won Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actor in a Leading Role and Best Supporting Actor.
It starred Richard Mofe-Damijo, Sam Dede, Segun Arinze and Mike Ezuruonye. Most, if not all of the films in that maiden edition of the awards were made in Nigeria or by a Nigerian cast and crew.
Such films as Yesterday, Mastermind and Osuofia in London, among others were the rave then. But all of Africa was watching and bidding its time for the day when it would show up. Nigerian moviemakers would continue to rule the awards in the next edition in 2006, which had films from Gambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Burkinafaso making a showing with Tanyaradzwa (Zimbabwe) and My Mother’s Heart (Ghana) wining in the Best Cinematography and Visual Effects categories, respectively. But, a Nigerian film, Rising Moon won Best Picture at the end of the day.
Nollywood had after all taught the world to make films on video and it would continue to clear the awards in most of the categories. Not quite, as the case was in 2007, which was the first time a South African film made it to the AMAA, the country entered two films actually, Bitter Water Mara and Bunny Chow. Though Sitanda, a Nigerian film produced from the Amstel Malta Box Office talent show won Best Picture in the 2007 edition the awards have not been the same since.
In 2008 it was the turn of Ghana, which won Best Picture with Run Baby Run. In 2009 Kenya won with From a Whisper. It was clearly Kenya’s year but South Africa also reared its head winning in three categories next to Nigeria’s eight.
But not one of them could stand the sweep staged by Kunle Afolayan’s The Figurine, which won in five categories with Ramsey Nouah winning Best Actor in a Leading Role the film also won; Best Cinematography, Best Achievement in Visual, Heart of Africa Award for Best Film in Nigeria and Best Picture.
In 2011, it was Viva Riva’s turn to scoop six awards after being nominated in 13 categories. It won in Best Film, Best Directing, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress categories. Last year Nigeria and South Africa locked horns but it was Nigeria which eventually had dominance.
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