The journey towards the most prestigious & most credible film awards in the whole of Africa has begun in earnest already. The Organizers’ of the AMAA awards had the nominees’ night recently in Banjul, Gambia. The Gambia like the country is majorly called, is the smallest country on mainland Africa and with a population of just 1.7 Million welcomed many top film stars, celebrities etc to its shores recently. They were happily received by the crème de la crème of Gambia and fans. And from the little snippet we got, we heard all who came had the best of fun. There were 328 entries from all over Africa vying for the AMAA this year. And at the Nominees night the shortlist of those to vie for the prestigious AMAA were announced. We will announce a full list of the nominees, as shortlisted in Gambia in our next post.
The chairman of the college of screeners, had announced prior to the Nominees night that, AMAA regional offices in Lagos, Accra, Johannesburg and Nairobi received 328 total entries as follows: short film- 88 entries, documentaries- 57, entries from Africans in Diaspora- 43, animations- 6 and 134 features films from Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Namibia, Guinea, Senegal, South Africa, Kenya, Cameroun, Uganda, Algeria, Egypt and Zimbabwe among others.
Over 20 films were submitted from Ghana including indigenous films. For the first time, AMAA received 6 indigenous films from Ghana.
On the main reason behind the choice of Gambia as the host country for the nomination party- the head, Business Development at AMAA HQ- Miss Naomi Lucas had this to say- the choice of Gambia this year was to offer a new experience for celebrities and motion picture practitioners to explore the beauty and splendor of the West African country that had become one of the most important tourist destinations in the world.
“Many of our people are used to going to Europe and America for events and they know little about this beautiful continent. One of the objectives of AMAA is to unite Africa and celebrate our diversity.
Previous nomination events have been held in South Africa, Ghana, Kenya and Burkina Faso,’’ she concluded.
The beautiful event- Nominees night happened 4 days ago- March 17, 2012, and we have pictures of those who added colour to event and made it a fantastic occasion.
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| OSITA IHEME,CHINEDU IKEDIEZE,TONY ANIH & SONNY MCDON ARRIVING |
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| CHINEDU IKEDIEZE & OSITA IHEME |
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| 'GENERAL' CHICO EJIRO & OSITA IHEME |
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| OSITA IHEME |
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| CHINEDU,FAN & OSITA |
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| MAJID MICHAEL,JACKIE APPIAH & FANS |
