PRE-EVENT activities for the 10th anniversary edition of the most jury-resourced film reward scheme in Africa; the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) is in top gear. Releasing a statement on submission of entries recently, Ms. June Givanni, head juror for the 2013 edition who announced that August 1 to December 31, 2013 is the period for the submission of films for AMAA 2014, said AMAA will be honouring African icons like former South African president, Nelson Mandela, father of African cinema, late Ousmane Sembene and late Nollywood-inclined lawyer, Efere Ozako.
These decisions, among others were reached at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of AMAA which held in Durban, South Africa last month. Givanni, who presided over the AGM stated that the Jury made some amendments of the award categories as a way to deliver an impressive 10th year event: ”We have introduced an award that is named after former President Nelson Mandela called Madiba Africa Vision Awards which will be given at the discretion of the Jury to any film that captures the essence and vision of the category. The category for Best Film by African Living Abroad has been cancelled.
”We also renamed two categories after two exceptional Africans who have contributed to the growth and development of the film industry. The Best Film in African Language will now be Sembene Ousmane Awards for Best Film in African Language while the Best Short Film Award category will now be called Efere Ozako Award for Best Short Film. AMAA is immortalizing the names of these two great men with the awards,” she said.
Givanni added that a new category; Best Director First Feature Film has been introduced to encourage young and upcoming film directors to continue to strive for excellence and best practices.
The meeting which had the presence of AMAA’s CEO, Ms Peace Anyiam-Osigwe and the company’s Director of Administration, Mr. Tony Anih was attended also, by Mr Ayo Baku, Director of Pan-African Film Festival Los Angeles, Dr. Asantewa Olatunji, Co-Director of PAFF, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief at National Mirror Newspaper, Mr. Shaibu Husseini, journalist and film critic, Mr. Keith Shiri, an international film curator and programme advisor to the London Film Festival, Mr. Berni Goldblat, member of the jury of the International Francophone Film Festival of Namur (FIFF Namur) in Belgium and Professor Hyginus Ekwuazi, lecturer at the department of Dramatic Art, University of Ibadan and also former Managing Director of Nigerian Film Corporation, Jos.
AMAA made its debut in 2005, and in preparation for the 2014 edition, the scheme is buying into major film festivals in the world for a series of pre events activities. After the making appearances at the just concluded Durban Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Canada, is the next stop where the AMAA team will be hoisting the 10th anniversary banners, participating at seminars and facilitating partnerships that will promote the African cinema.
While the award ceremonies held in Nigeria in the past nine years, surround activities, including nomination parties, seminars and Film in a Box, a charity capacity building training in various aspects of film productions are staged in various countries in Africa. The very recent is the graduation of about 500 film students in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, via the Film in a Box capacity building initiative.
Founder and Chief Executive of AMAA, Peace Anyiam-Osigwe who recently, was on CNN’s African Voices, a weekly show that highlights Africa’s most engaging personalities, talked about her incursion into Nollywood as a producer and what necessitated the AMAA idea: “When I first came back to Nigeria, I realized that the biggest issue with us as filmmakers was the lack of acknowledgement and actually celebrating ourselves for the work that we do. And Nollywood was not being given the recognition that it deserved at the time,” she said to CNN correspondent, Vladimir Duthiers.