AMAA 2021 Comes to Lagos

AMAA 2021 Comes to Lagos

Ferdinand Ekechukwu

The 17th edition of the Africa Movie Academy Awards will take place in Lagos on November 28, 2021. According to a statement by the Africa Film Academy, organisers of the awards, the list of nominees for this year’s award ceremony will be made public on October 21. This was disclosed at a media parley where members of the AMA team were introduced.

The new members of the team include Abiola Durodola and Oyinkan Talabi. Durodola and Talabi join AMAA director Babajide Fadoju and Steve Ayorinde, who is the president of the jury for the 2nd consecutive year. A former commissioner for Tourism Lagos State, Ayorinde is also the Chairman of the Governing Council of AMAA, a position he has held for over ten years and a pioneering member of the 17-year-old Africa Movie Academy Awards.

Founder of AMAA and veteran filmmaker, Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, also outlined planned activities marking the annual film ceremony. She however noted that for safety reasons and travel restrictions occasioned by Covid-19, many will not be able to attend the event.

Anyiam-Osigwe added that this year’s award ceremony will be a hybrid of both physical and virtual participation, while nominees were advised to be fully vaccinated to facilitate their travel to Nigeria.

The academy also said it would launch a new initiative, “100 film project”, which is aimed at training and supporting African creatives. On it plans to make a total of 100 films in 18 months, the project manager, Abiola Durodola, said AFA will be training new talent for the film industry which is all-encompassing of the wider creative community and skilled labor like carpenters, tailors, and hairdressers.

Durodola, who is the project manager, said: “Over the years, we have seen the many gaps in the filmmaking process in Nigeria and Africa at large and we have always tailored our initiatives, conversations, and trainings to breach this gap. One of such gaps that we are breaching is the near-isolation in which the filmmakers work in Africa.

“To support this process, we have created the 100-film project which we have been crafting for a few years now and it is a culmination of a lot of what we have done and still doing. The 100 film project is a platform that uses films to create value for brands, particularly African brands. This is a way for brands to leverage the continued growth of Nigerian films while supporting the creative industry.”

The Africa Movie Academy Awards, popularly known as AMAA and The AMA Awards, are presented annually to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry.

The awards are aimed at honouring and promoting excellence in the African movie industry and Africans in the diaspora as well as uniting the Africans from across the globe through arts and culture.

The award presentation is attended by numerous media representatives, celebrities, politicians, journalists, actresses and actors from all across the world.

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