Organisers of African Movie Academy Awards Hold Press Briefing to Explain Choice of Lagos for 2016 Edition

The organisers of the African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) held a press briefing on Tuesday the 26th of January, 2016 to communicate the choice of Lagos, Nigeria as the venue for the 2016 edition.
In attendance was Ms Peace Anyiam -Osigwe (Founder of AMAA) , Mr Kabiru Ailakhu (Head of Logistics, AMAA) , Mr Akinfolarin Oluwaseun (New Project Lead) , Mr Francis Lawani (PR), members of the press, among others.

The founder of AMAA Ms Peace Anyiam -Osigwe explained that last year's event was negatively affected by the delay in visa issuance by South Africa, the host country.

She said " one of our greatest disappointments last year at AMAA was the fact that countries like Cameroon, Mauritania and Ethiopia struggled to get their visas to come into South Africa. Ghana got their visa on the day of AMAA by 6pm.

She further elaborated on the choice of Lagos for the 2016 edition. According to her, she wants an event where the nominees will be present. To that effect, she strongly believes that Lagos, Nigeria is the best place because Nigerians are very friendly and accommodating and the whole process will be less stressful  compared to last year's edition.  " For us to get visas, we had to go through the South African President. We lost a lot of money to airlines because we always fly our nominees ".

The AMAA nominations for 2016 will run from the 17th to the 20th of March 2016 in conjunction with the African Cinema Business Roundtable event in Dubai. Discussions which will focus on Africa as the new frontier for creative investment will be held at the roundtable . The date for the event is the 30th of April 2016, but the venue is yet to be disclosed.

Mr Akinfolarin Oluwaseun, the New Project Lead laid further emphasis on the Africa Cinema Business Roundtable in Dubai. He explained that the roundtable was aimed at creating wealth for the African film industry and boost creativity among film makers across Africa.

Ms Peace Anyiam - Osigwe also spoke on AMAA's achievements over the years. She is also grateful to her entire team for their support all through the years. 

She also solicited the support of everyone especially the media in conveying the right message across to people. She encouraged everyone to work with AMAA to boost African originality and creativity. According to her " creativity is a circle and not a pyramid. It's not a competition. Limiting yourself to competition makes you stop being original".

Visit http://www.ama-awards.com for more on nominations and submission of entries