The AMVCA’s 10-Year Milestone

Babatunde Apalowo’s debut film, All Colours of the World Are Between Black and White, and Apolline Traoré’s Sira, which secured the Panorama Audience Award at the Berlinale Film Festival, also piqued the interest of non-African audience to African films. Additionally, there has been an increase in international collaborations between African filmmakers and their Western counterparts with institutional support from cultural institutions. Although all these appear as being seemingly uncoordinated efforts, it shows that there is blossoming interest in shaping the African film industry. While the cinematic excellence and successes of these films and industry developments might be exclusive of the AMVCA, their presence in international film festivals and potential ability to imprint the lore of African cinema on foreign audiences, is in sync with what Femi Odugbemi, the head jury of the AMVCA, mentioned in a recent interview with Arise TV. According to Odugbemi, the AMVCA instils the need for technical and cinematic excellence in filmmakers. And this progress attests to his statement.

Now, the 10th edition of the AMVCA is scheduled to take place on May 11, 2024, in Lagos. The ceremony will be broadcast live in over 50 African countries. While there is much to celebrate, the award show still has some room to grow.

Following years of online protest by film enthusiasts and critics, the AMVCA organizers have conceded to one of the audiences’ requests: relying on its judges to select the winners for selected categories. Thus, unlike other years, these big categories—the Best Actor and Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress—will now be determined by the jury. This means actors and actresses can compete fairly based on commendable and impressive performances. Contrary to when massive social media campaigns and access to a large social media followership were yardsticks to winning these categories, now nominated actors and actresses with minimal followership can contest fairly for these award categories.

Nigerian culture journalist and writer, Jerry Chiemeke, has a somewhat conflicted response to the non-voting development. He appreciates that the organizers are open to listening to complaints from the audience. To Chiemeke, it shows that AMVCA, in its relentless effort to be the African Oscars, is attaining credibility for itself. However, Chiemeke asked, ‘Isn’t having non-voting categories in a viewers’ choice award a misnomer? If it’s a viewers’ choice award, why deprive viewers of their voting rights in certain categories?’ Chiemeke concludes that the organizers might want to consider changing the name of the award ceremony because ‘you can’t call it a viewers’ award and have non-voting categories.’

Earlier, the Best Writing category for film and TV series was one award. This year, Best Writing for Film and Best Writing for TV have been rightly separated. For an award show that is interested in meeting global standards, it is comical that it took it a decade before the AMVCA made this change. Although things are still unfolding, these progressive steps may indicate the organizers’ commitment to further listening to the demands of their audience and by extension its steadfast commitment to embracing global and industry-standard practices.