AMAA, Facebook sign partnership agreement

Lagos – The Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) has signed a partnership agreement with Facebook for the promotion of African and Nigerian talents.

Mrs Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, founder of AMAA,disclosed this during the AMAA 2015 Sponsors’ Gala Night held at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.

She said the agreement would give an `unprecedented’ opportunity for the brands to engage with millions of African movie fans.
Anyiam-Osigwe said th e details of the agreement was contained in an e- mail from Facebook’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

According to her, part of the agreement reads : “A commercial and cultural partnership leveraging AMAA’s platform cum Africa’s film and entertainment and Facebook’s global platform.

“It is aimed at leveraging the digital reach of the most persuasive social network.

“Over the past decade, AMAA has helped cement Africa’s status on the global film scene.

“And as Facebook launches its first ever presence in Africa, it’s working with AMAA to drive digital impact in film and entertainment,’’ she said.

Anyiam-Osigwe further quoted the agreement as saying that: “with 1.4 billion active users; 120 million of whom are in Africa, the Facebook partnership offers the opportunity to further amplify African brands to the world’’.

She, therefore, said the partnership would offer African talents and film projects specific opportunities to engage the users through official vibrant pages on Facebook and instagram.

According to her, it will build a new opportunity to explore and discover Africa’s most accomplished visual artistes, musicians and other entertainment talents and experts.

Anyiam-Osigwe said that the organisers decided to stage a road show for AMAA 2015 in Los Angeles to expose it and African talents to the world.

“The world cannot get to meet African stars if those stars do not showcase their capacities to other countries,’’ she said.

On the limited attraction of African films to the Western world, Anyiam-Osigwe said it had affected returns on investment.

“For instance, 11 million dollars was spent on shooting ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’, and not a million dollars has been made from it,’’ she said.

She, therefore, urged Nigerian institutions to support local efforts at making the film industry viable.

There are 28 categories in the AMAA 2015 with 125 nominees.

South African film, `iNumber Number’, and Ivorian film, `Run’, topped the nominations with 12 nominations each.
Mauritanian film, `Timbuktu’, followed with 11 nominations while Kunle Afolayan’s October 1 received the fourth highest number of nominations, with eight.

The 2015 edition of the AMAA is holding outside the country for the first time on September 26, in Durban South Africa. (NAN)