As African Movie Academy Awards, AMAA, celebrates its 9th edition this year, there is an unprecedented upsurge in the number of films that have been submitted by film markers across Africa and in the Diaspora with the Francophone African countries leading the pack.A total of 671 films have been submitted for this year’s AMAA compared to average of 300 plus that were received in the previous editions according to Mr. Shuaib Hussein, a member of the awards jury and chairman of the College of Screeners who released the entries statistics during the week.
‘’This year is a milestone for AMAA as the award will hold its 9th edition and surprisingly the French speaking African countries have finally embraced the award as the best and biggest in Africa. I want to give kudos to the promoters of this award for the commitment and dedication. It is a lot of hard work to really get the French speaking countries to believe in AMAA.
‘’ Before now we may not get film from more than two to three francophone countries but this year it is a clean sweep. We have entries from Togo, Congo, Cote D’voire , Mali, Niger Republic, Benin Republic, Guinea, Senegal and Cameroun. We are happy about this development. The promoters of AMAA have ensured that the integrity of the award remain unassailable and this account for the level of huge participation across Africa and the Diaspora.”
Hussein also revealed that film makers from South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Gambia, Zimbabwe and Sudan entered their films for the most prestigious reward system for motion picture industry in Africa.
‘’From Diaspora film makers we received entries from United States, Brazil, Singapore, UK, Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica. This is a fitting way to celebrate the 10th edition of AMAA,” he said.
Giving the breakdown of the entries, the chairman of the College of Screeners said 184 short films,108 Diaspora features – documentaries and shorts films, 60 documentaries from Africa and 319 feature films from within and outside Africa including films made by Africans living abroad were received.
On how far the screeners have gone with their work, Hussein explained that the College of Screeners started full camp on February 25th in Banjul capital of Gambia while the 15-member screening body has members from Nigeria from Ghana, South African, Nigeria, Senegal, Cameroun, Benin Republic, Mali, Burkina Faso and Togo.
‘’Before the camping stage which has started in Gambia all the films have been pre-selected by members of the academy’s pre-selectors scattered all around Africa. At the pre-camp stage films are pruned down and films weeded out were those that do not meet entry rules, like films that are more than 2 hours long; films that are inconclusive, language films or films in vernacular that are not subtitled and films that are generally of poor quality,” explained the College of Screeners boss.
No comments:
Post a Comment