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“The most expensive
aspect of AMAA, I think, is not the awards ceremony but the process of
getting the films in, screening the films. It takes us approximately
three months to get to the point where nominations are announced,”
discloses Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, founder of the Africa Movie Academy
Awards. It’s a Monday morning and we are in a coffee shop in Ikeja GRA
reviewing the awards ceremony held weeks before in Yenagoa, Bayelsa
State, amongst other issues.

Sponsorship woes

Unknown to many,
the graduate of Law and Political Science from Oxford Brookes
University, Oxford, UK, and her team had problems organising the
ceremony. Though they started working on the project nine months prior
to the event, things almost went awry because some sponsors didn’t
respond promptly.

“Unfortunately for
us, Nigerians tend to want to do things at the last minute, especially
government people who probably don’t realise how important it is to do
things on time. The only sponsor that came on board early enough was
UBA, while our host state had challenges,” she recalls. A discerning
person, she has however learnt from what transpired. “In regards to
next year, we’ve taken certain decisions whereby anyone hosting the
award has to take a decision and implement it before the last quarter
of the year preceding the award.”

There are
speculations that the Bayelsa State government might be getting tired
of hosting the ceremony, people say the sponsors’ night before the show
where Bayelsa State Governor, Timipre Sylva, urged corporate Nigeria to
sponsor the awards, is proof. But Anyiam-Osigwe disagrees. “No, I think
that AMAA has reached a stage where it is right for the Bayelsa State
government to ask for sponsors to come on board. The state has the
hosting right, they cannot be the sponsors of the event itself. Let’s
take the World Cup, South Africa has the hosting right but she is not
paying for everything. MTN, Coca Cola, Pepsi, everybody else is
carrying the bill and that is what it’s supposed to be.

The Governor is
doing the right thing in trying to get the private sector to sponsor
the AMAA. Why I have a lot of respect for UBA is the fact that they saw
a need to support a home grown brand; not a lot of corporate bodies in
Nigeria believe in supporting home grown brands. That is sad because no
matter what I try to do with the AMAA, if it doesn’t have corporate
support, it will not grow. The recognition of the award internationally
is more than the recognition it gets locally and that amazes me.”

The joy of AMAA

The thrill of the
AMAA for its founder this year “was the joy of the people that won.
That was really what touched me, the sincerity of the emotions that
came from the people that won. Africa has recognised what we are doing
… You have people who will call you on the day of the AMAA, people
like Forest [Whitaker] or Danny [Glover] and encourage you. No matter
the stress you are going through, when you get those kinds of people
saying to you, you have to continue. Deep down in your heart, you know
that you are doing something right.”

In spite of this,
Anyiam-Osigwe’s biggest problem remains continuity. And she intends to
tackle this continuing with her sponsorship drive. “Two days after
AMAA, I was invited to Ghana by a prospective sponsor. I have been
there twice already to have meetings with them and that’s what we are
going to do. We are going to really go out and look for sponsors.”

Is she then saying next year’s AMAA might hold in Ghana?

“It can be anywhere
but the most important thing is that AMAA has to be where the people
recognise its value. When I started the AMAA, I never knew what I was
getting into and I never believed it would grow so fast. There is an
argument we are having with Africans in the Diaspora, people like
Forest [Whitaker], CC Pounder, Tyler Perry, about opening it up to
everybody. I told them that’s why you have the Africans in Diaspora
category and we have short film and feature film. For them, this is the
award. If you listened to Glynn Turman, he was like this is not just
for you guys. It’s for everybody. So, how do you start to control all
that? We have an AGM in July and we are going to try and make everybody
understand that it’s a gradual process.

“Some people say to
me this is one of the best ones you have had but I know what the plans
were. We have already started working towards next year. I don’t know
where the AMAA will hold next year, we would know by the end of July.”

No conflict

Anyiam-Osigwe who
is part of the recently launched Africa International Film Festival
(AFRIFF) explains her involvement. “One of the things that I feel I
contribute to anything that has to do with festivals in Nigeria is my
technical knowledge. I’m tired of seeing festivals going on without
having the content that will make a festival what it’s supposed to be.
So, when I was approached, I basically spoke about the content area of
the festival.”

She also douses
fears of a potential conflict between AFRIFF and AMAA. “I see no
conflict. I think the conflict will come if for any reason they move
into what we are doing. But if it is segmented – and which I think it
is right now and it’s strictly a film festival then there isn’t any
conflict of interest whatsoever.”

Nollywood and growth

The woman whose
African Film Academy organises trainings for guilds in Nollywood and
sponsors young filmmakers to film festivals, reiterates the need for
Nollywood to grow. “I think that Nollywood needs to move on, filmmakers
have to realise that films can be made…the cameras nowadays are so
user friendly. The success of ‘Figurine’ shows that it’s not what you
shoot on but the detail and the time you put into pre- production. The
success of all the films that won at the AMAA this year, and ‘From a
Whisper’ that won last year, is that attention to detail will always
get you over the bridge.”

Regarded as an
award organiser and not a filmmaker in a section of Nollywood because
she has no production yet, Anyiam-Osigwe’s soap, ‘GRA Women’ is set to
hit the airwaves this quarter. She is also working on a film she
co-wrote “about four women that are friends. It’s a feature, a fun
film. Something that allows me express my creativity after so many
years of not being able to do something.”

Is she not worried that expectations will be high for the film given her background as an award organiser?

“And I expect it to be high,” she replies. “The unfortunate thing is
that it can never win an AMAA, it can never go in for competition so I
will just be expressing myself. But I think maybe that is what I want
to do because sometimes I hear criticisms that I don’t make films, I’m
a filmmaker. Maybe I should just do a film to express myself and make
myself happy.”