21st March, 2012
Nigeria’s Adesuwa, a Benin-set historical epic produced and directed by Nollywood director, Lancelot Imasuen-Oduwa, has led in the nominations for the 2012 Africa Movie Academy Awards, AMAA, scheduled to hold in Lagos on 22 April.
The movie joins South Africa’s Otelo Burning and How to Steal 2 Million as the most nominated in the continent’s most prestigious awards for filmmakers. For the first time, the awards will be held in Lagos rather than Bayelsa State in Nigeria.
At the event, which took place at the Kamaira Beach Hotel, Banjul, Gambia on 17 March, the award’s jury announced the nominations into the 24 categories to a glamorous audience which include movie actors and actresses from Nigeria, Gambia and Ghana.
Adesuwa bagged the nomination for the AMAA 2012 Prize For Best Film, while Lancelot Imasuen is in the race for the AMAA 2012 Best Director for the film Adesuwa. He was joined by two leading ladies in the film, Iyobosa Olaye, who stars as Adesuwa as nominee for AMAA 2012 Best Young/Promising Actor and Ngozi Ezeonu for AMAA 2012 Best Actress In A Supporting Role.
Adesuwa scooped nominations in the other categories: AMAA 2012 Best Nigerian Film, AMAA 2012 Achievement In Production Design, AMAA 2012 Achievement In Costume Design, AMAA 2012 Achievement In Make-Up, AMAA 2012 Achievement In Soundtrack, and AMAA 2012 Achievement In Visual Effects.
Nigeria altogether received 52 nominations for the awards ceremony.
South Africa was first runner up with 45 nominations, followed by Ghana with 17, Kenya with 14, Uganda with 5, Tanzania with 3, and Algeria, Cameroon, Guinea, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe.
There were also nominations for the Diaspora entries from America, Canada, France, Germany, Guadalupe, Italy, Jamaica, and the United Kingdom.
AMAA received 328 entries from across Africa, up from 220 in 2011. This includes 134 feature films, 88 short films, 57 documentaries and six animations. 43 entries came from Africans in the Diaspora, with the other entries coming from 23 countries across the continent.
South African surfing film Otelo Burning scooped the most nominees (13), followed closely by South African film How to Steal 2 Million (11) and Adesuwa (10). Ghana’s civil war film Somewhere In Africa has seven nominations, as does the Nigerian-South African xenophobia-themed co-production Man on Ground, while Kenya’s Rugged Priest has six.
Dr. Asantewa Olantunji, director of programming of The Pan African Film Festival, headed this year’s jury, which included June Giavanni, programmer for Planet Africa at The Toronto International Film Festival; Keith Shiri, founder and film curator at the London festival, Africa at The Pictures; Dorothee Wenner, a curator at The Berlin Film Festival; Shaibu Husseini, an actor, dancer and The Guardian Newspaper arts journalist; Steve Ayorinde, editor-in-chief of Daily Mirror; Ayoko Babu, executive director of The Pan African Film Festival; Dr. Hyginus Ekwuazi, a film scholar and critic; and directors Berni Goldblat and John Akomfrah, OBE.
Only films produced and released between December 2010 and December 2011 were eligible. And the winners will be announced at a glittering ceremony in Lagos, to be hosted by Heroes star, Jimmy Jean-Louis.
—Funsho Arogundade