The Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) says most movies, adjudged “popular” by fans, don’t emerge winner of its awards on grounds of “technicalities”.
Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, the academy’s chief executive officer (CEO), said this during a media parley with TheCable Lifestyle in Lagos on Wednesday.
The event was held ahead of the 15th edition of the prestigious award starting on October 27. This year’s edition of the awards is titled: “Engaging the Narrative.’
Reacting to controversies that often trail most its decisions on film selections, Anyiam-Osigwe explained that winners in each category are often announced by independent jurists of the academy who assessed movies based on their technical composition.
“AMAA strictly operates a jury system. The academy has six stages to the award proper during which entries are critically assessed before selecting the best in the last stage. The movies are assessed by curators of African cinema, critics, professors and renowned film make,” Anyiam-Osigwe said.
“I always tell people not to be emotionally swayed when results are announced. The entries are always subjected to thorough scrutiny by our independent jurists who often assess them technically. There are technical parts for us as filmmakers that must cross the critical eyes of the jurists and that is what determines which film gets AMAA award.
“The most popular films don’t also go to The Academy Awards known as Oscars. It is about a particular house style. Also, what appeals in general may not appeal to the jurists, they are looking for quality control and other things such as sound, picture quality, scripting and sometimes relevance. So, a lot of times, there are popular movies out there that don’t win.”
“We keep making sure that the best quality film in Africa gets celebrated. Our 15 years has been a journey and it is entering we are seeing films getting better and better and the competition gets harder across the continent. This year, looking at the quality of films we have to go through from Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa are getting tougher.”
Commenting on the theme of this year’s event, the CEO stated that it reflected the evolution of the award and how the academy has been adding value to the socio-economic growth in Africa.
“Over the last 15 years, AMAA has succeeded in telling the African story in a unique way. There’s lot more interest, there’s a lot more engagement and lot of people,” she said.
She disclosed that already, over 700 entries have been received so far, adding that this year’s edition would feature 210 nominees from 26 different categories.
Anyiam-Osigwe further stated that the jurists were already at the academy of jurist in Lagos, assessing the entries for this year.
This year’s edition of the award would be hosted by Funny Bone, Kemi Lala Akindoju and Lorenzo Menakaya.
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