THE COUNTDOWN to the 16th Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), the Premier Africa Film Awards® has begun.

The Africa Film Academy has invited filmmakers to submit their feature, short, animation and documentary works for consideration in 28 film categories of the awards. Submissions deadline is the April 1, 2020. Nominations will be announced on the August 30.

The AMAAs will be held on October 25, 2020 in Lagos Nigeria and will be televised globally. Only films produced and released between January 2019 and March 2020 may be entered for this celebration of African cinema.

Evolving from a one day event — televised live — to an annually chronicled African event, the AMA Awards is now an established engagement platform for filmmakers, industry professionals and all creative industry stakeholders. The primary aim of the AMA Awards is to facilitate the development and showcase the social relevance of African cinema from filmmakers across the globe.

The awards are presented to recognise and honor the excellence of professionals of African descent in the film industry world wide. This includes directors, and all professional aspects of filmmaking. The AMAAs also serves as a platform that continually unites the black filmmakers through arts and culture. Last years eventwas hosted by Lala Akindoju and Lorenzo Menakaya.

The ceremony presented the best African actor of the year to Marc Zinga – for his lead role in the Rwandan movie, Mercy of the Jungle while Sola Sobowale won the best actress for her lead role in the Nigerian movie King of Boys. Other winners include Jahmil X. Qubeka, who won the Best Director award for Sew the Winter to My Skin. Cynthia Dankwa of BURIAL OF KOJO won for Best Young Promising Actor. Best Diaspora Short movie went to Bail. Award For Best Animation went to Choices. Best Diaspora Documentary went to My Friend Fela.

Each completed entry for 2020 entries must be accompanied by all the supporting materials listed on the submission forms, including a synopsis of the film, the list of credits, marketing stills of the film, filmographies of the directors and producers, submissions can be made on https://filmfreeway.com/festival/africamovieacademyawards-882089

The Academy also awards the category for Best Africa Film in the Diaspora and Best Diaspora Short Film Awards. inclusive of Caribbean Shorts and Caribbean features. In 2020 the Africa Film Academy will introduce a special category for Asian Foreign language category.