AMAA 2016: 25 feature films make it to final stage

Shaibu Husseini has said that only 25 feature films made it to the final judging stage for the 2016 African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA).
The President of the Jury and chairman of the College of Screeners for this year’s edition said this while announcing nominees in 26 out of the 28 categories of the AMAA on Sunday, May 15, 2016 at Protea Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.
Reiterating that AMAA is a jury-based award and not a voting awards where nominees embark on voting campaigns to win any of the categories, he recalled that over 420 submissions were received from across Africa and the Diaspora.
Husseini said only 26 categories were announced because the Board of Jurors was yet to conclude on the remaining two categories.
“The remaining categories are special jury awards and before the awards ceremony we would have decided on the nominees and eventual winners, and by that time we would have the full jury members on the ground,” he said.
The jury president revealed that quality of movies that came into the competition improved greatly, adding that “more young people across the continent are coming into the industry as filmmakers” with over 150 short film entries.
“Our filmmakers only need to pay attention to details, especially in the technical areas. We have the stories already, especially filmmakers producing films in African languages. Truth is, we can only compete at the Oscars with our indigenous language films. To do this, we must improve on our photography, sound, editing and other technical areas. Our people need to improve on sub-titling of our films. What we do as sub-titling are jokes and there is no way our films can travel within the international film festival circuits when the people can’t make sense of our films.”
Films from Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Burkina Faso are in hot chase for the AMAA glory in the acting departments and Best Director’s Category with such films as Fifty, Dry, The Cursed One, Eye of the Storm, Ayanda, La Pagne, Tell me Sweet Something and Behind Closed Doors.
“We are very happy about the quality of works that came into the competition this year, and it gladdens our heart that every year the objectives of the awards are being achieved with film makers in Africa and beyond upping their game,” Husseini added.
The Board of Jurors of AMAA, which has academics, film makers, critics and Film Festival curators from Nigeria, Germany, United States, Zimbabwe, Jamaica and Burkina Faso as members, will decide on which film and individual talents that will emerge winners at a glamorous Awards Night on Saturday, June 11, 2016 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.