Brand New Categories, a New Head Judge & More Exciting Things for AMVCA 2016

The Africa Magic Viewer’s Choice Awards (AMVCA) is one of the biggest award shows in Africa as it celebrates the pan-African entertainment industry.

It has even been called the African Oscars.

BellaNaija has always brought you ALL the fun moments from the past years so you can imagine how excited we were to be part of the Press Conference announcing all the new additions to the 2016 edition.

The press conference was held in Nairobi, Kenya and Multichoice Africa brought together quite a number of media representatives so as to have adequate information disseminated about the upcoming and exciting 2016 AMVCA.

Held at the Sarova Stanley Hotel, a panel of representatives from M-Net West and East Africa discussed preparations for the 2016 Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCAs) with East African filmmakers and members of the press.

The panel included the Regional Director, M-Net West Africa, Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu, the Channel Head, Maisha Magic East, Margaret Mathore and the Public Relations Manager for MultiChoice Tanzania, Barbara Kambogi.

Respected Kenyan film producer, critic, and academic, Njoki Muhoho was also unveiled as the new Head Judge for the 2016 AMVCAs.

Opening the event, Margaret Mathore said:

“The purpose of today’s session is to inform all stakeholders in the East African film and television industry of entries for the 2016 edition of the AMVCAs. This is particularly important, given that we have new categories for next year’s edition, and have also eased the entry process so that filmmakers across the continent can send in their works. For the upcoming edition, there are three new categories which are the best East African Movie, the best Southern African Movie and the best West African movie. All these are voting categories, and will exist side by side with the best overall movie in Africa. This is indeed an exciting opportunity for East African filmmakers to not only submit their films, but also actively contribute to the retelling of the East African story through their craft.”

The event also featured a lively question and answer session with participants commending the organisers whilst also posing questions on the AMVCAs including the entry, voting and judging processes, as well as questions on the AMVCAs’ future and the possible expansion of the event.

Also speaking at the event, the newly announced Head Judge, Njoki Muhoho, spoke from the perspective of having participated in the judging process of the three previous editions whilst challenging East African filmmakers to take advantage of the new entry process and show the rest of Africa just how rich and exciting the region’s content is.

Meet the New Head Judge

Njoki’s career in TV and film is the result of a hobby gone serious. Writing as a hobby, Njoki became the Kenya National winner of MNET’s New Directions Scriptwriting Competition in 1999. Not certain if this was a fluke or symbolic of a latent talent, Njoki took a one-year sabbatical from her busy Management Consultancy career with Price Waterhouse and joined the New York Film Academy, at Universal Studios, Hollywood, earning a Diploma in Film-making. She has not looked back. She is now an Award Winning Producer.

Entries for the AMVCAs are open until the 30^th of October, 2015.

For more information, please visit www.africamagic.tv