AMAA: Fighting Credibility Battle?

The 8th edition of the Africa Movies Academy Awards (AMAA) may have come and gone but the memories of it linger on. For the first time, the awards event, which is always seen as Africa’s Oscar, was held in Lagos, the centre of Nigeria’s entertainment industry. Some who won the cherished award are still swimming in the euphoria of beating others to win it while the gallant losers have taken fate. But one thing some stakeholders in the film industry would love the organisers to tackle is its credibility. There is no doubt that AMAA is presently facing a credibility battle. In Ghana, the Ghana Movie Awards (GMA) is more respected than AMAA. The reason for this is because they believe that AMAA tends to go by the common adage ‘he who pays the piper calls the tune.’ Their argument is that a Nigerian cannot own AMAA and remains unbiased in choosing its winners. Another problem killing AMAA’s credibility is the nomination of some yet-to-be premiered movies for AMAA. Those against that policy believe that it is not enough for a few particular set people to review a movie and puts such for AMAA nomination. They believe that Africa Film Academy, the body responsible for AMAA nominations should make movies nominated AMAA be movies already released or premiered for public viewing withing a particular timeline or time frame. This they believe will stop controversies yet-to-be released movie create. Adesuwa got 10 nominations while it was still battling with when to get a press screening. Now, it has won three awards and it is to be premiered on May 4 while its press screening was done in late March 2012. For AMAA not to experience a break away, it needs to quickly work on its credibility so as to make the awards institution a truly African pride.