East will battle West at the Africa Magic awards

The awards season is upon us again and, in the week that saw  African success in Lupita Nyong’o in Hollywood, Africa will finally have to choose from the cream of the film industry.

In her first major filming season Lupita rocked the Golden Globes and got the approval of the Guild- what a season!

The list of nominees for the second annual AfricaMagic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCAs) which went up for voting is quite illustrious

And from a quick look at the list that was released over the weekend it is evident that this is going to be a battle between East and West.

 The AMVCAs are becoming established as a highlight on the continent’s entertainment calendar!

In total, 28 awards in 26 categories will be awarded at the 2014 Africa-Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards in Lagos on Saturday, March 8.

Leading the nominations is Ghanaian film “Contract” followed by Nigeria’s “Living Funeral” with eight, Tanzania’s “Siri Ya Mtungi” with seven, Kenya’s “Nairobi Half Life” with seven and “Last Flight” to Abuja with six.

In the hotly contested category of Best Movie are five titles — “Last Flight to Abuja”, “Contract”, “Living Funeral”, “Flower Girl” and “Awakening”.

In the acting categories, a wide cross-section of Africa’s stars were also nominated. Best Actress in Drama nominees are Stephanie Wilson, Veronica Waceke, Nse Ikpe-Etim, Nkiru Sylvanus and Ivie Okujaiye.

 In the Best Actor in a Drama category, Juma Rajab Rashid, Hlomla Dandala and Tope Tedela were nominated alongside Ghanaian Majid Michel, who scored got two nods.

AfricaMagic also announced a brand new category, The New Era Award, which will recognise and honour individuals who have made significant contributions to creating a new era for African film and television.

 Nominees in this category are: Desmond Elliot, Kate Henshaw, Rita Dominic, Rukky Sanda and Uche Jombo.

As expected M-Net Africa managing director Biola Alabi  sees this as an opportunity for the nominees to put themselves in the spotlight and it should therefore serve as a source of future motivation.

“We are so impressed by these skilled persons whose value to Africa must be recognised and honoured. We send all the nominees our best wishes for the Awards, but want to also remind them that their nomination is an acknowledgement of the remarkable work they have done and are continuing to do in creating compelling African entertainment.

She adds: AfricaMagic is also delighted that the success of year one of these Awards can be so clearly seen in the sharp increase in the number of entries received this year.

Nominees for the 2014 AfricaMagic Viewers’ Choice Awards were selected by a nominee judging panel comprising some of the industry’s leading professionals and the selection process was verified by the accounting firm of Sizwe Ntsaluba Gobodo.

Now, with voting open, fans can cast their vote in the 2014 AfricaMagic Viewers’ Choice Awards at www.africamagic.tv. Public voting will close on March 3, 2014.

But as Biola Alabi was enthusiastic about what the future holds, the battle that has already been set is more likely to feature East Africa versus West Africa with patches of Southern Africa.

It remains an interesting prospect as to whether the game of numbers shall again come into play here as Nigeria has always outdone East Africa at contests that involve voting.

It is by no doubt that Nollywood as they prefer to be called are the leading film producers on the continent followed by Bong movies in terms of volume.  With nine nominations for Siri Ya Mtungi and Shoe Shine, Tanzania’s film industry is definitely laying some claim here – we are coming for you!

And as Biola said at the news conference where the nominees were announced, it is an opportunity for actors to put their feet on the ground, which means that with  a nomination the likes of Amil Shivji and Juma Rajab are already winners in their own right.

Should they go on to win, they will have had a claim at what only Sameer Srivastava and Sanjni Srivastava  in ‘The Ray of Hope’ achieved at the inaugural awards last year.

This will be Juma Rajab’s first nod at such international level despite having had a career that can easily pass as successful on the local scene.

As Amil Shivji, his rise in the film industry has been meteoric, one that has shaken the cradle that was once considered sacred and untouchable.

Shoe Shine which has been nominated in the Best Short film category is Amil Shivji’s first shot at filming and it has already garnered plenty of success surpassing even the 25 year-old’s expectations.

The film has already posted some success and the producer was one of the greatest surprises at the Zanzibar International Film Festival as it won a couple of awards.

According to Amil the main reason that this film has attracted such a buzz that is traversing the continent is because it tells a true story that people want to hear.

“The way we tell the story captures the different aspects of Tanzania lifestyle which has never been told before,” he says.

This perhaps is a shared value that both ‘Shoe Shine’ and ‘Siri Ya Mtungi’ share, a value that is lacking in our noisy Bongo films arena where the story line is easily predictable.

This is why despite the glamour and the pomp that has become part of our home industry not many of these actors and actresses can have a look inside such prestigious awards.

Most of our film makers and actors today either by default or design have chosen the easy way out and this is why they can hardly compete in the open categories in a film festival like ZIFF.

It was quite shameful that with an industry that boast to be the second in output, none of our local films made it to the top 10 films that shook theatres across our vast continent.

With the mention of these two films, some soul searching ought to be done and some serious questions asked; Is it true that we don’t have great stories around us?