Plans are in top gear for the celebration of the 10th year anniversary of the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), Peace Anyim-Osigwe, the awards CEO, has announced.
Part of the plans for the celebration includes the hosting of the nomination night in South Africa. According to her, Ghanaian actress and one-time AMAA winner of the Best Actress in a Leading Role, Lydia Forson, is the 10th anniversary brand ambassador.
An excited Forson, who spoke from the heart, said her relationship with AMAA started about seven years ago when she first attended the awards in Nigeria out of curiosity when she was first nominated for an award.
“I came to Nigeria and bought my ticket myself because I missed my AMAA arranged flight. That year, I didn’t win but I was amazed by the quality of filmmakers and professionals in the industry I met. I was like waoh! this is how huge this platform is. I have formed life-long relationships from AMAA because I have been coming every year after the first time.
“I met Kunle Afolayan at AMAA and he told me he liked my acting and he would like to work with me. Two years after, he called me to work on his set for his film Phone Swap. I have also met colleagues from other parts of the world through AMAA that I have built rewarding relationship with.
“The icing on the cake for me was when I won AMAA as Best Actress with Jackie Appiah, and the doors it opened for me. The calls for jobs were coming in from different parts of the world and when I asked why they were all calling me for some of the career defining jobs I got after I won, they said but you have just been crowned as the best actress in Africa.
“AMAA is ours and we must support it. There are challenges here and there which people have talked about, but for me AMAA is bigger than any logistics problem and the advantages and benefits are huge. AMAA will continue to get better and overcome some of the challenges. As practitioners in the industry, we must be united and support our own. AMAA is getting bigger and bigger every year. It started with Nigeria and about three countries participating in the early years, but it has grown big now with almost all countries in Africa participating. Peace and her team have done great job and we must commend them,’’ she said.
As AMAA ambassador, Forson is expected to travel across Africa and around the world to engage with critical stakeholders in a year-long speaking engagement activities.
In the same vein, the organisers of the prestigious awards announced a People’s Choice Awards system as part of the way of re-engaging with the past winners of AMAA and create a two-way communications between the past winners and the populace.
“We are giving the public across Africa choice to choose their best from our past winners in all the categories. This is different from the main award which is Jury based. Our PCA is to bring back our past winners and allow the public to choose the best of the bests. For our PCA, winners in each of the categories will get cash reward of $10,000 each and the public will have chance to text and win. It is our 10th anniversary next year and Africans will have opportunity to win fabulous prizes ranging from phones, iPad, and a car by texting who is their best among our bests of the past nine years,’’ said Peace Anyiam-Osigwe.
