WITH the dust yet to settle on the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) which held last Saturday at Boadwalk Convention Centre, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, filmmaker Kunle Afolayan, whose movie October 1, carted home three awards has expressed joy over winning.
“It feels good,” said Afolayan while speaking to The Nation over his movie’s outing at the AMAAs. “We have worked. And our work got recognised in three different categories.”
October 1 won Best Actor in a Leading Role with veteran actor Sadiq Daba as the winner, Best Costume Design and Best Nigerian Film endowed by Bayelsa State Government.
However, notwithstanding the accolades, Afolayan, not one to rest on his oars, has already moved to another project. He is currently working on a new movie, The CEO.
“That’s the filmmaking life for you,” he said. “You don’t just do one and sit there. You have to keep moving. But the memory of the film will always be remembered every first of October.”
Also at the event, Tony Elumelu, Chairman of UBA Plc and Heirs Holdings, was announced as the Honorary Counsel to the AMAAs. He accepted his new status alongside other honorees such as Horace Ovi, Harry Belafonte and Melvine Van Pebbles who also bagged lifetime achievement awards.
Elumelu, who was at the United Nations General Assembly Summit on Sustainable Development Goals, in his speech read by Peace Anyiam-Osigwe at the awards ceremony, thanked AMAA for the honour and said that he will continue to work to promote the arts and entrepreneurship in Africa for three reasons which include self-determination and self-empowerment, Economic and social Development Aspirations of the Continent and most importantly, Pure Entertainment.
Meanwhile, Mauritania led the pack in the number of awards among the countries in competition with the film, Timbuktu winning AMAA statuettes for Best Film, Best Film in an African Language, Best Child Actor and Best Director. South Africa, with the film, I Number Number, and Mauritius with the film, Lobraz Kaan registered their presence on the winners’ table.
Other countries on the winners’ list include Ethiopia with the film Triangle Going to America, Egypt with the film Egypt’s Modern Pharaohs, Angola with Njinga: Queen of Angola among others.
The Founder of the awards, Peace Anyiam-Osigwe and the new CEO, Mr. Dayo Ogunyemi jointly expressed satisfaction with the awards show despite the challenges of Visa many delegates faced to get to Port Elizabeth.
However, Anyiam-Osigwe challenged the government of South Africa to do more in opening her country to other African compatriots as all African nations fought alongside South Africa to defeat apartheid.
“We are one and the theme of AMAA and our other initiatives this year is AFRICAONE. We will be going on tour of Africa with our creative artistes in music, film, comedy, visual arts and fashion with this message. The creative sector can employ millions of African youths and our governments must support and invest in this sector,” said Anyia-Osigwe who received thunderous applause.
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