The journey towards the most prestigious and most credible film awards in the whole of Africa has begun in earnest already.
The foremost movie award, which holds on May 24, 2014,will see all the movie actors, actresses, practitioners and several other stakeholders across the continent moving to Yenegoa, the Bayelsa State capital, to witness the 2014 edition of the annual movie awards.
The atmosphere for the preparation is very encouraging as hundreds of movie makers are all looking forward to attending the award night, which has been described as a night of fun and razzmatazz among the African movie buffs.
There are about 328 entries from all over Africa vying for AMAA this year.
And at the Nominees Night held in Johannesburg, South Africa recently, the short list of those to vie for the prestigious award was announced.
Interestingly, for the first time, two South African films titled: “Of Good Report” and “The Forgotten Kingdom,” show strength of dominance as contained in the nomination list, which was released some weeks back at the Nomination Party in South Africa.
The two films will contend with Accident (Nigeria), Potomanto (Ghana) and children of Troumaron (Mauritius).
Shortly before the release of the list, Of Good Report has made a remarkable outing at notable film festivals, where it reigned with controversies.
Although not much has been heard of other contenders in that category, they must also be carrying some strength to have been listed.
Of Good Report became famous after it was banned in July by the Film and Publications Board of South Africa on the grounds that a sex scene between a school teacher and a pupil amounted to child pornography.
Although the ban was later overturned by the Board’s appeal tribunal and a 28 million Rand damage awarded against the FPB.
The profile of the movie has been on the rise with its premiere at the Tronto International Film Festival in September and later at the Africa International Film Festival in Nigeria, where it opened a debate on artistic expression and went ahead to win the Best Film award.
Its Director, Jamil X.T Quebeka, will also contend with his country man, Andrew Mudge, for The Forgotten Kingdom; Nigeria’s Teco Benson for Accident; Ghanian Shirley Frimpong Manso for Potomanto; and Mauritius Harrikrishina and Sharva Anenden for Children of Troumaron in the 26 categories of the AMAA.
Of Good Reports also got not less than 13 nominations, followed by The Forgotten Kingdom and Potomanto, with about nine nominations each, while Accident and another Nigerian film, Apaye, also got about six nominations.
Interestingly, two categories, Efere Ozako Award for Best Short Film and Ousmane Sembene Award Best Film in an African Language, were named after two late film industry heros of Nigeria and Senegalese origins.
Unlike last year edition, it was dominated by Nollywood movies from Nigeria such as Confusion Na Wa, Last Flight To Abuja and few other flicks carting away all the laurels from the major categories.
The 2013 edition also saw Nigerian faces like Chioma Chukwuka Akpotha, Femi Jacobs, Banky W, Linda Ejiofor, Rita Dominic, Waje and some few other outshining their other African counterparts with their artistic works.
However, with this year’s edition, the sky is the limit for the South African films.
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