*Award holds May 20
ON its 9th edition holding April 9, the prime movie and television award project, Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Award, AMVCA, is returning ace storyteller and media content creator, Femi Odugbemi, as head of Jury.
In briefing the media on the coming award season, Dr. Busola Tejumola, Head of Content and West Africa Channels at Multichoice, announced Odugbemi’s return.
“The awards have become a yardstick for measuring excellence in the Nigerian movie industry and in Africa as a whole, and this edition is set to be unique,” stated Dr. Tejumola.
Odugbemi was the pioneer head of jury in 2012 when the AMVCA was born, and he set up the principles and processes that lead to the selection of the winners in the various categories of the much-acclaimed African award project. He nursed the jury till 2014 when he yielded the field to another head from another African country, though on insistence by the promoters of he project, Multichoice, he remained in the background to help guide the process to sustain the credibility of the project. He returned in 2019, to head the jury again.
A voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the United States since 2018, Odugbemi was last year appointed into the jury team of the Emmy Awards in New York. He is equally a three-time head judge of the Uganda Film Festival (2014-2016), and a juror for the 2016 British Council “Shakespeare Lives” project.
The lead creative director and CEO of Zuri24 Media, Odugbemi is a renowned film director and producer whose signature is on those popular daily pan-African Tv drama including Tinsel, Battleground, MovementJAPA, Brethren, and currently running, Covenant. His feature films include Maroko, Bar Beach Blues, Gidi Blues, among others, while his documentary works include Oriki, Ibadan, Bariga Boys, DO Fagunwa, and others.
ON the 2023 AMVCA, Tejumola disclosed that this year’s edition received 40% more movie entries than in 2022.
Like the previous year, Tejumola said it would be a three-day event which will start on May 18 with the Opening Night and Cultural Day event, followed by the Digital Content Creators, Young Filmmakers Day and then the Runway Show/Nominee Gala on May 19. The celebration will climax with the Award Night on May 20.
According to her, “The AMVCA has in the last eight years become the unit by which excellence is measured and recognized and this 9th edition of the AMVCAs stands in a unique position being hosted in the 20th year of Africa Magic operations in Nigeria and at a point when cinematic output across Africa is entering a phase of global recognition and appreciation. We will be hosting a 3-day event that has begun with the call to entry which ended March 17.
“We have a 40% increase in the number of entries compared to the last edition. Shortlisting has begun, and we will move to the judging phases.
“The Head Judge for the 9th AMVCA is the veteran film director, producer and writer Femi Odugbemi. The nominee announcement will be on April 9, at 7 pm, across all Africa Magic channels, after which the voting portal will open.”
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