My experience at AMAA 2015 in South Africa
I promised to tackle the 11th edition of the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) in my article last week and I must say I wasn’t enthused with what I saw at The Boardwalk Hotel in Port Elizabeth during the awards.
It is so surprising how some things were simply ignored, especially at this stage of the awards. It looks like while the award is growing in terms of numbers and acceptance all over the world,its standards keep depreciating. I can’t tell why.
South Africa is a serious country and it appears as such, so when the announcement came that the awards would be making its first stopover outside Nigeria there, people had anticipated a great show and the standard to move a notch higher. This was however not the case.
If you have been following the AMAA and have attended any of the editions in Bayelsa, you probably would understand that, moving it outside the shores of Nigeria was a very important decision. Many people didn’t see it coming, however it was done and it caused many problems but could they have been avoided?
My journey to cover the AMAAs started in 2011 in Yenagoa in Bayelsa State in Nigeria and I have since been there every year, so when the opportunity came for me to be there again this year, I decided to grab it with both hands. It’s something I like doing.
The journey from the Kotoka International Airport to Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos to Port Harcourt Airport and then two hours by road to Bayelsa State is an experience on its own. The journey is often fraught with many uncertainties.
There were times that, flights are delayed and there were times that, people were stranded for whatever reasons. For me, it was exciting to make this long trip to cover the awards.
In 2012 when the awards were moved to the Eko Suites Hotels in Lagos, it did not attract so much negativity or complaints since people didn’t have to make that long trip to Bayelsa.
Though I can see that, the change of venue did not actually take anything away from the awards, it made the people of Bayelsa who look up to the award as ‘theirs’ not so happy. Other people applauded the move.
The awards then moved to its old venue in Bayelsa in 2013 and 2014. Bayelsa State holds the awards in high esteem and supports it financially. Bayelsa has come to the limelight and vastly developing because of the awards. I guess it’s just right that they will feel let down when it’s not held there.
Red carpet
When you attend a show as prestigious as AMAA, which is tagged by many as the African Oscars, one thing worth noticing, is the red carpet and a backdrop where celebrities and other equally important personalities can take photographs and be interviewed.
I have never been impressed with the red carpet with any of the editions of the awards that I have witnessed. What I witnessed this year compared to the previous ones was nothing to write home about.
Conducting interviews and taking photographs is an integral part of awards anywhere in the world. AMAA lacked the above. There was virtually no arrangement for red carpet and backdrop for celebrities to have their photographs taken. It was that bad. The only backdrop was that of a sponsor (yes really), there was none from AMAA like previously done in Nigeria.
Wrong spellings
When organisers of some quack awards make mistakes with spellings and confuse patrons, it’s no news but when AMAA does same, it’s unacceptable. Right from when nominees were announced, it was riddled with wrong spellings of the names of some of the nominees.
Ghana’s budding actress, Ama Ampofo, who was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category had her name spelt Ama Amphofo.
Maybe, it was an oversight but not acceptable at all because this is the AMAA we are talking about. After 11 years, it should be somebody’s job at AMAA to just check for possible wrong spellings of names before nominees are announced.
During the announcement of one of the categories, which had, Shirley Frimpong-Manso’s produced and directed movie, Love Or Something Like That, the movie was said to be originating from Nigeria.
This movie was written by, produced, directed and filmed in Ghana with Ghanaian cast with OC Ukeje as the only Nigerian featured. How such a movie was tagged as a Nigerian movie amazes me.
Unforgiving Twitter error
Despite the many challenges, the error of announcing two different actresses as winners of the Best Supporting Actress category on the handle of AMAA on Twitter when one name was announced at the event was a major flaw.
Nollywood legendary actress, Hilda Dokubo was announced as the winner at the awards. A day later, news was buzzing in Ghana that, Ama Ampofo was the winner. The source of that story was traced to the Twitter handle of AMAA, which announced both actresses as the winners. No apology has been offered which is disappointing.
As it stands now, AMAA is the longest standing awards organised by an African for Africans in Africa and its high time the new CEO Dayo Ogunyemi and his team sit up and give Africans the proper experience with AMAA.
If acquiring visas to attend the event in South Africa will hinder the attendance or the awards in general, why not move it back to its original venue?
Otherwise, the team could seek partnership from South African Tourism for the smooth running and acquisition of visas to avoid a situation where over 95 percent of winners would be absent.
