Vaya, Queen of Katwe, 76 top AMAA 2017 nominations

Akin Omotoso’s Vaya, has been nominated in 10 categories for the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) 2017. At a press briefing in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, President of the AMAA Academy of Jurors, Mr. Berni Goldblat, said, a Swiss citizen named Vaya, Queen of Katwe from Uganda, 93 Days and 76 both from Nigeria are […]

Akin Omotoso’s Vaya, has been nominated in 10 categories for the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) 2017.

At a press briefing in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, President of the AMAA Academy of Jurors, Mr. Berni Goldblat, said, a Swiss citizen named Vaya, Queen of Katwe from Uganda, 93 Days and 76 both from Nigeria are among films with the highest number of nominations.

According to a statement by the organisers, “This year, a total of thirty categories are up for grabs by Africa’s leading actors and film makers from the continent and the Diaspora.”

The statement also said there is a new AMAA Best Comedy category and three special Jury prizes this year following the quality of films that were submitted for the awards.

Goldblat, quoted in the statement, said, “Every year the competition gets stiffer and this year in particular we have great films for consideration. The quality of production in Africa continues to improve and national governments are investing to support the growth of the motion picture industry. This is a major achievement for AMAA in its 13-year history. 

After Vaya, 76 a periodic Nigerian film got the most nominations and Ugandan film starring Lupita Nyong’o both got Queen of Katwe got eight nominations each.

93 Days, a movie about the 2014 ebola crisis in Nigeria, earned seven nominations and other Nigerian productions such as Oloibiri and Slow Country got seven and four nominations respectively. 

A member of the jury and Chairman of College of Screeners, Mr. Shaibu Husseini, speaking on the process that led to the selection of the nominees from the pre-college screening to when the College of Screeners decided on the best among the 438 films that were submitted for the AMAA Jurors’ consideration, said, the College of Screeners which has six university lecturers, four of them with Phds in Film and Communication Studies and one a full professor and other professionals and critics in the industry decided the nominated films. After the announcement of the nominees into the various categories the jurors will meet again to decide on the final winners that will be announced on the awards’ grand celebration night in Lagos.

Husseini, said, “We are also proud of the quality and diversity of the Academy Jurors and the members are renowned and globally respected film makers, festival programmers, curators and academics. The Jury after this nomination process will again do justice to determine the winners.”

AMAA will hold in Lagos in July and will be hosted by Lagos State Government.