7 Years of AMVCA’s Best Score/Music Category: How Well?

When the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA) introduced the Best Score/Music category as part of improvements to the 11th edition in May 2025, it was met with considerable excitement. This category had previously existed as Best Soundtrack from the 5th AMVCA in March 2017 (with a million Naira cash prize) until the 9th edition in May 2023. In 2024, it was collapsed into a single Best Sound Design category, much to industry chagrin and in contrast to standards at other prestigious film awards worldwide. According to the 11th AMVCA’s Head Judge, Femi Odugbemi, reintroducing the Best Music/Score award, alongside the Best Sound Design segment (formerly Best Sound Editor), was a deliberate step towards all-encompassing filmmaking acknowledgement. 

In the award’s first reiteration, scores and soundtracks from five films were nominated. Tolu Obanro took home the win for his work on Netflix’s six-part limited series, Seven Doors. Film journalist Joseph Jonathan described the film’s sound design and soundtrack as “amplifying the emotional intensity of each key moment and enriching the overall experience.” In 2023, Obanro and Adam Songbird had scored double nominations for their work on King of Thieves (Agesinkole) and Battle on Buka Street. As such, winning the three-pronged AMVCA trophy was a defining moment for one of the most prominent sound professionals in the world’s third-largest film industry. He had also been nominated for the Yoruba epic, Lisabi: The Uprising’s sound design in 2023. 

Leading up to this year’s AMVCAs, much of the focus was directed elsewhere. Attention was on the acting categories and other heavyweight pots like Best Writing, Best Director, and the crowned jewel of the awards show, Best Movie. Of major interest were My Father’s Shadow, a film whose Cannes-to-BAFTAs run dominated news cycles around the globe and whose soaring nominations spurred conversations about eligibility; Gingerrr, whose critical ill-reception was at odds with an edition-high 9 nominations; Daniel Etim Effiong’s crime thriller The Herd, which also scored 9 nominations; and the Best Supporting Actor (Male & Female) categories, which attracted ‘category-fraud’ accusations. But as all this unfolded, there was an even more interesting battle in the sound categories. 

In the Sound Design category, Obanro received two nominations for his work on Gingerrr and The Party. South African music producer and sound engineer Vaughan Phillips, known professionally as Syntrax, also earned two nominations for his work on Ben Made It and Sebata (The Beast). Rounding off the gauntlet were the duo of Pius Fatoke and CJ Mirra (My Father’s Shadow) and Fisayo Adefolaju (The Herd). In the Music/Score category, Obanro also scored two nominations for the same films, going up against Oscar Herman-Ackah for To Kill A Monkey(the mind behind THE PRISON SONG, the viral 2024 soundtrack from his forthcoming Finding Messiah film), Kenyan music producer So Fresh 254 for MTV Shuga Mashariki, singer-producer Nissi Ogulu for the much-slated Cold Dishes, Chubb Okobah for Osamede,  and for My Father’s Shadow,  another CJ Mirra pairing (with Duval Timothy). 

If 2025 was a tough year to call, this year’s pool of Best Music/Score nominees was equally competitive. The nominees represented a broad range of talent from within and beyond the continent. So Fresh 254, in scoring a nomination, was one of 12 Kenyans on the list, with MTV Shuga Mashariki winning the Best Writing (TV Series) award. Nissi Ogulu might be better known for her music and work with her older brother, Damini ‘Burna Boy’ Ogulu, who was executive producer for 3 Cold Dishes. However, her collaboration with Ugandan composer and audio engineer Ahuurra Andrew (Freedom Way, Ms. Kanyin) proved to be a bright spot in an otherwise chaotic film, and one of the year’s standout original soundtracks. Chubb Okobah’s nod for the British Punitive Expedition of 1897-set Osamede, like Ogulu’s, was surprising but also rewarding for a talent at the forefront of Nigerian epic film and TV (Africa Magic’s Riona and Itura). 

However, in the lead-up to the Saturday, May 9, 2026, ceremony, three were clearly ahead of the pack. Heman-Ackah created the soundscape for his partner Kemi Adetiba’s much-discussed To Kill A Monkey mini-series, in a manner described by writer Osamudiamen Joe as “saturating the film so much that the music seems to spill over into the real world.” Afrocritik Editor and Head of Film, Vivian Nneka Nwajiaku, called it a “brilliant composition.” The fact that this nomination came about, despite accompanying comments on the score’s distracting elements by the aforementioned writers and other observers, goes to show the extent of the score’s overall quality. 

My Father’s Shadow presented a unique pairing of two non-Nigerians in a film whose OST design featured the Nigerian flag on a compact disc. But if there’s anything Ludwig Göransson proved with the Black Panther soundtracks, it’s that the magic of music scores surpasses national ties. CJ Mirra, an Australian/British composer and sound designer, had previously worked on Akinola Davies Jr.’s acclaimed 2021 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize-winning debut short film, Lizard. While Duval Timothy, who interestingly also goes by ‘Bankole’ despite being of English and Sierra Leonean-Ghanaian descent, had worked with an impressive selection of artists, including Kendrick Lamar (on 4 songs from 2022’s Mr Morale and the Big Steppers) and Solange. In her essay for Culture Custodian, culture journalist Shallom Tewobola acknowledged “attention to detail” as the factor elevating “My Father’s Shadow” to masterpiece status. That detailing was thanks in no small part to the scoring efforts of this duo. 

Of Obanro’s two nominations, Gingerrr was the stronger pick. The soundtrack was an eclectic combination of 3-step and rap (Pepeye), gospel (Family, Adura), rock ballads (Golden Boy), and rock-inspired dubstep (Action), among other genres. This made for a rousing mix. In a 2025 sit-down with Culture Custodian, he described this as experimentation aided by the film and story’s futuristic setting. While many complained about some of Gingerrr’s 9 nods, there were barely any complaints in this regard, which says a lot about the quality of the score. This might also speak to the audience and enthusiasts’ disconnect from sound categories at film award ceremonies. Unlike editing, cinematography, costume design, make-up, and visual effects, sound is more difficult to appraise. 

By the time Duval and Mirra were announced as winners—My Father’s Shadow’s third of five wins of the night—it was clear the film was on its way to a potential historic sweep. And it did in fact sweep: winning both sound categories, Best Writing (Movie) for Wale Davies and Akinola Davies Jr., Best Director for Akinola Davies Jr., and Best Movie for Fumbi Ogunbanwo and Rachel Dargavel.  As expected, the spotlight was on the other categories won and lost. Twitterati debated My Father’s Shadow’s distribution model, promotion, and cinema run. Fans debated the age-old ‘box-office vs awards’ topic. It was business as usual. Duval and Mirra’s names were merely lumped in news reports of the night’s winners, excluded from most of the commentary that followed. 

Beyond the fanfare, the duo’s win signifies an informed jury selection process in the Best Music/Score category. It’s difficult to imagine scenes like the funeral procession for Folarin (Spe Dirisu) bearing as much heft and grandiosity as it did without those restrained piano keys on A O Pade Leti O Do (feat. Okikioluwa Adewale). Or the tension of watching Folarin and his two boys, Remi and Akin (Godwin and Marvellous Egbo), go through that final police checkpoint, knowing about his participation in the Bonny Camp incident, without the sounds of Coup pt. 2 and pt. 1. My Father’s Shadow’s soundtrack was in full synergy with the film’s underlying spiritual narrative, without overpowering shots; foreboding when required, yet foregoing unnecessary Easter eggs. This is who and what you want winning the continent’s most popular film prize for scoring: music that “breathes life into the narrative”, as was specified when the award was reintroduced. 

Organisers can boast of Best Music/Score as a category with legacy wins to date. Past winners include The Encounter in 2017 (Michael Ogunlade), Tatu in 2018 (Evelle), Living in Bondage: Breaking Free in 2020 (Larry Gaaga and Flavour), Gold Coast Lounge in 2022 (Pascal Aka and Raquel), and Anikulapo in 2023 (Kent Edunjobi).  Even better, the nomination lists read like a who’s who of prominent composers of the past decade, dating to its first inclusion in 2017. Contemporary artists are equally represented, again mirroring what’s obtainable on stages like the Oscars and the Golden Globes. This is not to say every win has been without contention, there’s an appreciable level of consistency that few other categories at the 13-year-old award show can claim. 

Coming off one of African cinema’s most monumental years in recent history, one can only hope for increasingly good fortunes in this category. It would be delightful to have even more composers nominated consistently, akin to contemporary battles among older composers like Hans Zimmer (Dune, Interstellar, The Lion King) and John Williams (Schindler’s List, Superman), and younger producers like Hildur Guðnadóttir (Joker, Hedda), Jerskin Fendrix (Poor Things, Bugonia), and Göransson (Oppenheimer, Sinners). It would be even more delightful to have a separate award for original songs, seeing as the jury has, in the past, accorded individual records (Tene off the Living in Bondage: Breaking Free soundtrack, in 2020). Our film and music industries are ripe for this acknowledgement. All we need is more synergy, with younger producers coming on board through short films, web series, NollyTube, and any other avenues they deem fit, and with licensing agreements brokered more frequently at all fiscal levels of production.