The AMAA and Its Cultural Significance: A Look at African Cinema’s Premier Awards

On October 11, the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) unveiled its 2025 nominations before an assembly of press members and industry veterans, setting the stage for what promises to be one of the most competitive ceremonies in the awards’ two-decade history. Among the frontrunners are Burkina Faso’s Katanga: Dance of the Scorpions, South Africa’s The Heart is a Muscle, and Nigeria’s Lisabi: The Uprising and the soon-to-be-released 3 Cold Dishes. The Nigerian contingent is particularly robust this year, with Red Circle, Freedom Way, Amanyanabo, and The Masked King also earning recognition.

Since its inaugural ceremony in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, in 2005, the AMAA, founded by the late Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, has established itself as one of Africa’s most significant film events, positioning itself with the tagline “Celebrating Excellence in African cinema.” As the 21st edition approaches on November 9, the breadth of this year’s selections across 27 categories offers a portrait of where African cinema stands today and where it might be headed.

The most striking pattern in this year’s AMAA nominations is the concentration of recognition among a select group of filmmaking nations. Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Ethiopia represent strong voices across multiple categories, while countries like Burkina Faso and Algeria bring crucial West and North African perspectives to the table. Films like Lisabi: The Uprising and 3 Cold Dishes in the Best Film category demonstrate the narrative maturation happening across the continent—Lisabi already secured three wins at the AMVCA, affirming its critical appeal. Yet this geographic distribution raises questions about the visibility of filmmakers from other regions. The Democratic Republic of Congo appears only once, with The Journey East in the documentary category. The Central African Republic, Chad, Guinea-Bissau, and large swaths of francophone Central Africa are absent. For an awards body claiming to celebrate pan-African cinema, these gaps matter.

One of the most culturally significant trends in these nominations is the prevalence of international co-productions. Films like Ancestral Visions of the Future (Lesotho/France/Germany), Khartoum (Sudan/UK), and Small Gods (Uganda/UK) represent African stories told with European financial or technical support. While these collaborations provide crucial resources for filmmakers from smaller industries, they also prompt reflection: Do these partnerships preserve the authentic African voice, or do they risk diluting it through Western creative influence and commercial considerations?

The Heart is a Muscle, a South African film by debut director Imran Hamdulay, appears across six categories, including Best Film, Director, Actor, Cinematography, Editing, and Makeup. This breadth of recognition signals South Africa’s continued strength as a filmmaking hub with mature technical infrastructure.

The acting categories present a more geographically diverse picture than production categories. Best Actress in a Leading Role includes performers from Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Algeria, and Ethiopia, with a particularly intriguing joint nomination for Osas Ighodaro, Fat Toure, and Maud Guerard for 3 Cold Dishes. Best Actor nominations similarly span the continent—from Keenan Arrison in South Africa’s The Heart is a Muscle to Nabil Asli in Algeria’s Algiers, from Lateef Adedimeji in Nigeria’s Lisabi to Bizimana Hussain in Uganda’s Small gods. This distribution suggests that while film production may concentrate in certain countries, exceptional performances emerge from across the continent.

The Best Debut Feature Film by a Director category is where AMAA’s commitment to “celebrating excellence” meets its responsibility to nurture emerging voices. Six directors compete, representing Nigeria, Uganda, South Africa, and Algeria. However, the absence of debut filmmakers from smaller industries raises questions about whether emerging directors from countries like Malawi, Zimbabwe, or Sierra Leone are making feature films but not reaching AMAA’s radar, or if they lack the infrastructure to produce at this level at all.

What’s missing from these nominations tells its own story. Southern African representation remains thin beyond South Africa—no Botswana, Zimbabwe, or Zambia in major categories. East Africa appears primarily through Uganda, with Tanzania present only in documentary. North Africa shows only Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt, with no Libyan or Mauritanian entries. Portuguese-speaking Africa barely registers, one film from Cape Verde, one from Mozambique, both in short film categories. Brazil’s Sisters Maid in the diaspora category provides more Lusophone representation than the entire African continent. This geographic imbalance doesn’t necessarily reflect AMAA’s selection bias but rather the reality of where filmmaking infrastructure, funding, and training exist on the continent. Yet this makes AMAA’s role more crucial. Should it merely reflect the current landscape, or should it actively work to discover and elevate voices from underrepresented regions?

The question becomes whether AMAA is celebrating all of African cinema or excellence within the African cinema that already has the resources to reach the awards’ visibility threshold. The diaspora categories acknowledge the global nature of African storytelling. Yet excellence exists in many forms. A low-budget film from a country with minimal film infrastructure might demonstrate extraordinary creativity and cultural significance but lack the marketing, distribution, and campaign resources to gain visibility. AMAA’s structure—like most major film awards—inherently favors films that can navigate these systems.

The AMAA nominations for 2025 are films that demonstrate African filmmakers’ growing technical sophistication and narrative ambition. They reveal increasing international collaboration and the rise of strong national industries across multiple countries. But they also reflect truths about access, resources, and visibility. They show that “African cinema” remains geographically concentrated, and that many regions and communities remain on the margins of the continent’s cinematic conversation. For AMAA to fully embody its tagline, celebrating excellence in African cinema, the definition of excellence might need expansion. The future of African storytelling, as suggested by these nominations, is bright, but it would shine even brighter if that light reached every corner of the continent.