Nigeria, South Africa Leads AMAA 2012 Nominations

A release from Africa Movie Academy Awards’ Ghana rep yesterday said Nigeria’s ‘Adesuwa’, South Africa’s ‘Otelo Burning’ and ‘How to Steal 2 Million’ garnered the most nominations for the 2012 Africa Movie Academy Awards scheduled to be held in Lagos on April 22, 2012.

At the nomination event, which took place at the Kamaira Beach Hotel, Banjul, Gambia on Saturday, the awards’ jury announced the nominees in 24 categories to a glamorous audience which included actors and actresses from Nigeria, Gambia, Ghana and other celebrities that converged on the capital city of Gambia.

Nigeria received 52 nominations whilst South Africa got 45 nods. Ghana had 17, followed by Kenya with 14, Uganda with 5, and Tanzania with 3.
Entries from America, Canada, France, Germany, Guadalupe, Italy, Jamaica, and the UK also got nominations.
AMAA received 328 entries from across Africa, up from 220 in 2011. These included 134 feature films, 88 short films, 57 documentaries and six animations.
Forty-three entries came from Africans in the Diaspora, with the other entries coming from 23 countries across the continent.
South African surfing film ‘Otelo Burning’ got the most nods (13), followed closely by South African film  ‘How to Steal 2 Million’ (11) and Nigeria’s Benin-set historical epic ‘Adesuwa’ (10).

Ghana’s ‘Somewhere in Africa’ had seven nominations, as well as Nigerian-South African xenophobia-themed co-production ‘Man on Ground’, while Kenya’s ‘Rugged Priest’ had 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 and Dorothee Wenner, a curator at the Berlin Film Festival.

Only films produced and released between December 2010 and December 2011 were eligible.
The winners will be announced at a glittering ceremony on 22nd April 2012, hosted by Heroes star Jimmy Jean-Louis.
For the first time, the awards will be held in Lagos rather than Bayelsa in Nigeria.

“Our theme this year is ‘Africa Rising’,” said founder Peace Anyiam-Osigwe.
“Africa’s economies are consistently growing faster than those of almost any other region of the world and our film industries are following suit.

With the success of last year’s AMAA winner, ‘Viva Riva!’, all of a sudden there’s this great excitement about the potential of the African film industry, which is clearly demonstrated in this year’s diverse nominees.”