The nominees for the Africa Magic Viewer’s Choice awards, honouring the very best African film and television productions, have been announced.
Popular South African film Otelo Burning picked up 14 nominations, closely followed by Nigerian film The Mirror Boy, which has been nominated in 11 categories. Man on Ground, a joint production between South Africa and Nigeria, came third with nine nominations in total.
Other popular film titles that received nods included Perfect Picture, Two Brides and a Baby and Maami and Skeem.
In the television world, Kenyan show Lies that Bind did particularly well to pick up six nominations, including a Best Actress nod for Maureen Koech, a relative newcomer in the film industry.
There are very few actors that are focused and she is one of them,’ her co-star Maqbul Mohammed told All Africa. ‘She has focus and discipline. And because of that I think that she will go very far.
As expected the majority of the 110 nominations hailed from South Africa and Nigeria although a good number of submissions were received from Kenya
There was a reasonable amount of movies from Kenya, and East Africa, mainly on the Local Language Swahili category,’ board member of the Independent Producer’s Organisation Bongiwe Selane said. ‘It’s a pity that there weren’t that many independent movies, but the kind of stories that came up was fascinating. The story lines are no longer rooted in culture, but in modern day Africa and the challenges that Africa goes through now. It’s the Africa we live in now and not the romantic view of the continent, but a new voice; a great voice!
The awards ceremony will be held on 9 March in Lagos, Nigeria. Viewers will be allowed to vote in six categories, while 18 of the category winners will be selected by an expert judging panel. The viewer’s choice categories include Best Actor (Drama), Best Actress (Drama), Best Actor (Comedy), Best Actress (Comedy), Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.
The initiative was designed to recognise and reward African excellence and creativity, and in addition to having professionally-judged categories, will also include some categories in which viewers themselves will vote for winners,’ event sponsor Multichoice said.
Voting will close on 3 March and can be completed online.