Late Nollywood actor, Justus Esiri of Nigeria has emerged Best Actor in a leading role with his female counterpart, Florence Maseba of South Africa as Best Actress in this year’s Africa Movie Academy Awards, AMAA, which held at the Gloryland cultural centre in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.
Out of the 27 categories of the awards, Nigeria clinched 13 followed by South Africa with 4 awards.
Belinda Effah, who featured in the film titled, Kokoma won the award in the category of Best Promising actor while best director went to Niyi Akanni courtesy the film, Heroes and Zeros.
Kweku Ananse of Ghana won Best Short Film and Best Animation was won by the Southern African film titled Adventures of Zambezi while Haiti and United States of America clinched Best Diaspora Feature Award with the film titled, Stones In The Sun.
Chief Pete Edochie and Tunde Kelani were among recipients of the AMAA Lifetime achievement Awards while the documentary titled, Nigerian documentary “Fueling Poverty” took top honours in the Best Documentary category.
The colourful event, which was rounded off at about 4.00 a.m on Sunday morning, was attended by Bayelsa State Governor, Hon. Henry Seriake Dickson, Rivers State Deputy Governor, Engineer Tele Ikuru, who stood in for Governor Rotimi Ameachi, Minister of Culture and Tourism, High Chief Edem Duke, who represented President Goodluck Jonathan, , South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, Lulu Loius Nmguni as well Ministers and family members of Malawian President, Joyce Banda, among others.
It also featured performances by musicians from Nigeria, South Africa and Malawi as well some Nigerian comedians.
