Africa Movie Academy Awards 2015
June 22, 2015
According to their award website ... ''AMAA is a platform that projects the black film industry to Africa and the rest of the world. It is a glamorous celebration of artistry honoring excellence in African Filmmaking and Cinema.''
AMAA is regarded as the most prestigious film awards for African Film makers in celebration of African Film and this 2015 edition means it is now in it's 11th year, set for June with the theme 'The Stories never End'
AMAA becomes a big deal in a world where we almost only know about foreign festivals and Awards like Oscar (Academy Awards), Cannes Festival, Annecy, BIFA (British Independent Film Awards) just to mention a few, so when you find out that you have been nominated in the Africa based award celebrating similar ideals then you are glad in a way and also when that award is happening in the most populous nation in Africa and most populous dark skinned nation in the world - Nigeria, then I am sure it brings more joy because either we like it or not, all eyes are always on Nigeria (and ofcourse for various reasons) and from experience, corporate Nigeria is always behind this event, political Nigeria too keys in and it reaches some good level of audience because of the entertainment side to it where celebs make appearances and performances. Bayelsa State in Nigeria, West Africa an oil rich state hosts are hosts for the award event.
While we have a long list of nominee and categories, our attention is focused on the Animation side of things and that is good news because computer graphics and animation is certainly taking its place within West Africa and Africa at large. Animation has not always been a category when AMAA started in 2005 and in fact they only had a category for animation from 2008 and that stopped in 2011 but continued in 2012.
In the last 2 editions of the award, we have had the South African animation company triggerfish animation studios get nominated and won the category with Khumba in 2014 (their second feature animation movie), in 2013 they also won with Zambezia (their fist animated feature film which I was privileged to have worked on as part of the studio). Triggerfish was duly represented at the event by Mike Burkland.
This year triggerfish is conspicuously absent within the animation category (however South Africa still has their presence in a few other categories), what I know is that triggerfish is now quite busy with a few top level animated feature projects, working on ''Sea-Monster'' at the moment and may be the reason for not participating once again in this category. Here is the animation category nominee.
AMAA 2015 AWARD FOR BEST ANIMATION
The Throne – Nigeria
Alternative to Corporal Punishment – Namibia
The Legacies of Rubies – Nigeria
Agorkoli – Ghana
The absence of South Africa certainly means countries like Nigeria a usual nominee in that category, Namibia and Ghana (both new comers in same category) have chances of winning the category with Nigeria having a double nomination there.
The biggest news here for Ghana is the animator who has been nominated for the country with his movie AGORKOLI - an interesting animated short that reveals the history of Africa, carefully researched and laid out in animated graphics, the plot is really interesting and the artistry is captivating.
Francis Y Brown recently returned from his invite to be part of Annecy Film Festival in France on the wings of the same animated short AGORKOLI... see here.
It's a big boost for Ghana, for Francis himself, for all upcoming animators in the industry and for the Animation West Africa Community also known as the AWA network where he belongs and functions nicely. He and his team at AnimaxFYB studio are certainly to be watched out for.
(AWA Foundation is the official face for the West African cg and animation industry)
CHECK OUT OTHER NOMINEE CATEGORY BELOW
AWARD
FOR BEST SHORT FILM
AWARD FOR BEST ANIMATION
AWARD FOR BEST
DOCUMENTARY
AWARD FOR BEST FILM IN AN AFRICAN LANGUAGE
AWARD
FOR BEST FILM BY AN AFRICAN LIVING ABROAD
AWARD FOR BEST DIASPORA
SHORT
AWARD FOR BEST DIASPORA DOCUMENTARY
AWARD FOR BEST
DIASPORA FEATURE
AWARD FOR ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION
DESIGN
ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
AWARD FOR ACHIEVEMENT IN
MAKE-UP
AWARD FOR ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUNDTRACK
AWARD FOR
ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECT
AWARD FOR ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND
AWARD
FOR ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
AWARD FOR ACHIEVEMENT IN
EDITING
AWARD FOR ACHIEVEMENT IN SCREEN PLAY
AWARD
FOR BEST COMEDY FILM
BAYELSA STATE GOVERNMENT ENDOWED AWARD FOR
BEST NIGERIAN FILM
AWARD FOR BEST CHILD ACTOR
AWARD FOR BEST
YOUNG/ PROMISING ACTOR
AWARD FOR BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING
ROLE
AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
AWARD FOR BEST
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING
ROLE
AWARD FOR BEST FIRST FEATURE FILM BY A DIRECTOR
AWARD FOR
BEST DIRECTOR
AWARD FOR BEST FILM
See you at the awards.
Posted by Sen. Posted In : News