Tag: AMAA

At a press conference held in Lagos yesterday, organisers of Africa Movie Academy Award (AMAA) disclosed plan to celebrate the 10th edition of the award sheme in style.

Held at the African Sun, Amber Residence Hotel, GRA, Ghanaian A-List actress and one time AMAA’s Best Actress in a Leading Role, Lydia Forson was unveiled as the anniversary brand ambassador.

An elated Lydia said her relationship with AMAA started about seven years ago, when she first attended the award as a nominee:

‘’I came to Nigeria and bought my ticket myself because I missed my AMAA arranged flight. That year I didn’t win, but I was amazed by the quality of filmmakers and professionals in the industry I met. I have formed life-long relationships from AMAA because I have been coming every year after the first time. I met Kunle Afolayan at AMAA and he told me he liked my acting and he would like to work with me. Two years after, he called me to work on his set for his film Phone Swap. I have also met colleagues from other parts of the world through AMAA that I have built rewarding relationship with.

‘’The icing on the cake for me was when I won AMAA as Best Actress with Jackie Appiah and the doors it opened for me. The calls for jobs were coming in from different parts of the world.

“AMAA is ours and we must support it. There are challenges here and there which people have talked about, but for me AMAA is bigger than any logistics problem and the advantages and benefits are huge. AMAA will continue to get better and overcome some of the challenges. As practitioners in the industry we must be united and support our own. Peace and her team have done great job and we must commend them.’’ She said.

As AMAA ambassador Lydia is expected to travel across Africa and around the world to engage with critical stakeholders in a year-long speaking engagement activities.

In the same vein, the organisers of the prestigious awards announced a People’s Choice Awards system as part of the way of re-engaging with the past winners of AMAA and create a two-way communications between the past winners and the populace.

‘’We are giving the public across Africa to choose their best from our past winners in all the categories. This is different from the main award which is jury-based. Our PCA is to bring back our past winners and allow the public to choose the best of the bests. For our PCA, winners in each of the categories will get cash reward of $10,000 each and the public will have chance to text and win. It is our 10th anniversary next year and Africans will have the opportunity to win fabulous prizes ranging from phones, Ipad, and a car by texting who is their best among our bests of the past nine years,’’ said Peace Anyiam-Osigwe.

Journalists are not left out of the reward system, as reporters who have covered the event in the last nine years will be rewarded through a selection process by media professionals who will assess their past and future reports till March 2014.

According to Mr. Steve Ayorinde, Chairman of the Jury for the 10th anniversary edition, journalists in the print, broadcast and online will have a chance to win $5000,$3000 and $2000 respectively by submitting their best two articles and or features stories that depict the essence of AMAA and impact on African cinema.

FURTHERING its motherly role for the African cinema, the Africa Film Academy (AFA), umbrella body for the annual Africa Movie Academy Award (AMAA), used the opportunity provided by the ongoing Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) to conduct a focus session, where filmmakers from Africa raised some thoughts on how best to advance the continent’s business approach to filmmaking.

The forum fingered African leaders as the major challenge to the breakthrough needed, because they do not see film as the biggest medium by which the cultures and rich history of the continent could be exported to the rest of the world.

Tagged the African Cinema Business Roundtable (ACBR), participants at the meeting charged the leadership of each country to come up with by policies that will support the industry in all areas of needs.

The ACBR, is also an arm of AFA, founded 10 years ago. The event at the 38th edition of TIFF had Mr. Dayo Ogunyemi, CEO of 234Media, a Kenya-based company as Keynote Speaker, leading the discussion on Policy, Funding, Distribution and Sustainability.

The forum witnessed filmmakers and allied professionals and journalists from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Canada, Senegal, United States, Congo DRC and Nigeria interacting for more than three hours.

In his presentation, Ogunyemi noted that governments in Africa should support the industry through enabling laws and regulations that give tax incentives and lower the cost of making films, adding that cinema is vital to the growth and development of film in terms of profitability and sustainability for filmmakers.

He stressed that for film to have wider distribution and gross more revenues, Africa needs more than 10,000 screens and the number of available screens in theatre across the continent is a far cry.

“We weed combination of big screens that will appeal to the middle-class and the rich, while we must focus on community viewing centres that will take film to inner-cities and rural areas where our experiences have shown that people in these places do come out to watch films.”

Jamel Quebak, a filmmaker from South Africa whose film ‘Of a Good Report’ is on the official listing of the Toronto International Film Festival noted that governments at all levels in Africa must see films as cultural products like the rest of the world, most especially in Europe and America by investing in infrastructures that will make the industry buoyant and vibrant.

In his contribution, Nigerian filmmaker, Lancelot Imasuen charged participants which also included film exhibitors and distributors to develop more robust distribution channels that will enable filmmakers earn good returns from their investments. He added that nobody has given the industry any distribution model that becomes money spinners and that is different from the existing models that are not yielding much.

In her closing remarks, AMAA CEO, Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, who announced that entries for film submission into the 10th anniversary edition of AMAA is opened, enjoined participants to collaborate as filmmakers from Africa, while also engaging political leaders and policy makers to develop policy options that will make the business of filmmaking profitable and sustainable.

MONTHS after Super Eagles player Mikel Obi announced the launch of his music label Matured Money Minds (MMM) Records with five fresh signees; the Chelsea midfielder went a step further to show how serious he was with the official unveiling of the artistes at Metropark, G.R.A, Lagos.

Leading the pack is the football star’s younger brother Patrick Obi (Edgar) with four other artistes Charrass, Kido, NO2, and Mr Jay. The group seeks to contribute their quota towards the development of the music industry like most young people are using their talent and originality to carve niches for themselves.

According to the leader of the group, Edgar, music started for him at a tender age but football took the better part of him until his musical dreams came alive again when he and his elder brother, John Obi Mikel founded MMM Records in 2012.

“The birth of MMM Records means so many things to me; I always knew I could have a second chance at music and that dream came alive last year when MMM Records was established. Setting and re-writing history is what the Obi family is known for; we are goal getters and pace setters in sports and business. I think music lovers should get ready for us because we are about to become household names on the music scene.”