The Nigerian Civil War historical movie, ’76’ and an Ebola film, ‘93 Days,’ are leading the nominations list of the 2017 African Magic Viewers Choice Awards, which will take place in March 2017, with eight nominations each.
In the ‘Best Movie West Africa’ category, the battle is among ‘93 Days,’ ‘76,’ ‘Oloibiri ,’ ‘A Trip to Jamaica,’ and ‘The CEO.’
Bimbo Akintola must outshine Rita Dominic, Adesua Etomi, Zimkhita Nyoka, Meg Ottamwa and others to win the ‘Best Actress in Drama.’
In the ‘Best Actor in Drama’ category, there are heavyweights like Richard Mofe-Damijo for his role in ‘Oloibiri,’ Ramsey Nouah in ’76,’ the veteran, Olu Jacobs for his role in ‘Oloibiri’ among others.
The Regional Director of Mnet West Africa, Mrs. Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu, explained that the nominees were selected from over 100 entries received by the organisers. She maintained that if a movie was not entered, despite being a great production, it would not be shortlisted.
Last year, Amstel Malt was a major partner of AMVCA. But, according to her, Amstel Malta is not part of the 2017 edition due to reasons she failed to disclose.
She said, “What we had with Amstel Malt was a partnership deal, but they are not a partner anymore. We are grateful for their support last year, but we now have three other partners. They are MTN, Tecno Mobile and Konga and we are excited about their partnership.”
Despite being a regional ceremony, the MNET Director insisted that having AMVCA in Lagos was not a big deal, insisting that all that matters was having a successful show.
Refusing to disclose veterans to be honoured this year, she insisted that it was in their tradition to disclose the names at the awards ceremony. At the Last edition, Late Bukky Ajayi and Sadiq Daba were honoured, which was quite emotional as the former died few months laters.
She stated, “If you have been following AMVCA, you will know that we do not announce the names of people we plan to honour until that day. That has been our tradition and the beautiful of it.”
Young actors like Ivie Okujaye, Somkele Idhalama, Ebele Okaro, Khanyi Mbau, Namundi Mbusi and Gideon Okeke among others are likely to smile home with awards in March.
