Oris Aigbokhaevbolo Launches The Critics’ Awards for Africa to Award Excellent African Film and TV

Nigerian film critic, Oris Aigbokhaevbolo, has launched The Critics’ Awards for Africa (TCAA), an award to celebrate technical excellence and creative ambition in film and television. According to its official statement, the TCAA will prioritize artistic merit and craft over box-office success or popularity.

The awards will feature about a dozen competitive categories across film and television, including Best Film, Best Series, Best Documentary, Best Writing for Screen, Best Directing, Best Editing, Best Sound, Best Performance, and Best Supporting Performance. To be eligible, films and shows must have been released to the public between January and December 2025.

TCAA is positioned as a critics-led intervention within the Nigerian film industry. The awards are designed to foreground ambitious writing, directing, editing, sound, and performance at a moment when Nigerian and African cinema is attracting unprecedented global visibility. Marketing and production for TCAN are handled mainly by One Management, led by entertainment executive Emem Ema.

Nominees and winners will be selected by a jury composed predominantly of Nigerian critics, complemented by a smaller proportion of Western critics with sustained engagement with African and global cinema, alongside a limited number of experienced entertainment industry figures. This structure is intended to balance local critical authority with an international perspective while maintaining independence.

The Critics’ Awards for Africa

In Culture Custodian’s essay about the utility of a Nigerian film review, we argued that reviews, positive or negative, extend a film and series’ lifespan. This argument underscores the cultural importance of a Nigerian film critic as an active participant in the industry. Their reviews, essays, and curated conversations give a film a second life beyond the screen, serving as a cultural archive of thoughts, opinions, and ideas about Nigerian cinema and filmmakers. 

The Nigerian film review and critics are a living part of the Nigerian film industry. The relationship, as history has shown, will never be cordial but it can be respectful. And this award will further show that. For decades, the Nigerian film industry has been known for its quantitative, rather than qualitative output. This has given it the position as one of the world’s two largest film industries by volume, both renowned for high-output, culturally rich, and melodramatic cinema. But with TCAA, this is a possibility that can slowly change, even if it will take years. By awarding better writing, immersive performance, visionary  and bold directing, the TCAA can inspire a new generation of mainstream filmmakers who are conscious about cinema. 

In Culture Custodian’s article about the recently announced African Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA), concern was raised about the awards show prioritizing commercially successful films over artistically successful ones. Despite the critical acclaim that greeted Korede Azeez’s With Difficulty Comes Ease, Taiwo Egunjobi’s Fire and the Moth, and Ema Edosio-Deelen’s When Nigeria Happens, they were missing on the nomination list in 2024 and 2025. The absence of these films and others of similar artistic merit and depth calls to question the AMVCA’s preference on “recognizing and celebrating excellence in African film, television, and creative talent.”  A critics-awarded award could help resolve this. The award’s interest in a film’s artistic and technical merits could help resolve this. 

Globally, there is a long list of critics awards, including New York Film Critics Circle Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, and others. The Nigerian film industry might be skeptical in “accepting” TCAA initially. Thus, it might take years before it enjoys the same industry acceptance given to the earlier-mentioned critics’ awards. But, what’s certain is this: the award is here to stay. For Nigerian filmmakers, it will be a nod to their hard work and dedication to their craft, acknowledging their contribution to the growth and development of Nollywood. For Nigerian critics, it’s an acknowledgement of their importance in the Nigerian film industry. 

The inaugural Critics’ Awards for Africa will take place in the early weeks of the second quarter of 2026. Further details will be rolled out in the coming weeks. Submission guidelines and more eligibility criteria will be announced in due course.