AMAA Set Up To Reward Excellent Narration In African Movies — Peace Anyiam-Osigwe

President of the Association of Movie Producers (AMP) and founder of the prestigious, globally acclaimed film awards, Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), Peace Anyiam-Osigwe MFR is a Nigerian entertainment executive and leading voice in terms of African filmmaking art. A pioneer of the screening of Nollywood films at international film festivals in the last three decades, she has been a positive fixture in the Nigerian entertainment industry. In a recent interview, the lawyer revealed details about her early life and the memorable reward system she conceptualised 18 years ago, AMAA.

You recently added another year to your age and the celebratory messages rolled in from all angles. What would you credit that to?

A lot of my achievements are tied to the entertainment industry. It is an industry I engaged in from a very early age, and along the way, it’s been a collaborative effort.

Did you always plan to be a lawyer?

No, I didn’t plan to be a lawyer. I was really obeying the orders of the matriarch of the Anyiam-Osigwe family, my mother. You dare not disobey my mother.

Nigeria, many believe, is not the easiest place for laudable initiatives; many say  there is no enabling environment, but you seem to have proven that notion wrong with all your accomplishments. What’s your secret?

Nigeria is difficult, but if you believe in your path, you keep updating your knowledge to lead the pack, then you can find a way to navigate through the quagmires of the difficult terrain. Also, build a network around yourself, have diverse interests around your main objective. Be patient, find your team, don’t be a lone ranger, listen to criticism. Additionally, always have a plan and make sure you elevate yourself away from toxicity. Keep the right energy in your space too.

You have headed a number of associations and served as chair for some initiatives. Of all of them, which tested or challenged your abilities the most.

I think I am having the biggest test of my abilities right now as the President of the Association of Movie Producers, the oldest Registered Producers Guild in Nigeria. It is 25 years old this year, but we are having to build back some structures to put proper professional guidance for producers. We are at the moment trying to draw up master agreements between us and other guilds, open up more distribution channels for members, set up a catalogue, capacity building for members and other things.

Your family is renowned by many in Nigeria and beyond. Did that contribute to your pursuit of excellence or is it simply your nature?

That was simple. I am a stickler for excellence, I am a total daddy’s girl.

You’re a woman of many parts who grew up among many boys. Did that in any way challenge you to become the woman you are today?

My brothers are my sounding board; my brothers are plenty biological and otherwise. Most of my brothers friends became my big brothers as well, they made sure I was super independent. I am not too sure if that’s very good or not.

What piqued your interest in entertainment originally, and how did AMAA start? So far, would you say it has been a fulfilling journey for the awards?

It started basically as an idea to create a networking and a reward platform for filmmakers who are black from across the world. Having grown up in the United Kingdom and everything, I saw how hard it was for black filmmakers generally to get platforms to show their films and showcase their works. When I came back to Nigeria, I realised that there was a need for an African platform where we would gather and control our narrative of what made a good African film and also encourage good quality, technical, stories that are positive towards our image and I think that our journey has been good so far in the terms of transparency and the jury system.

I think that AMAA still has some issues, teething problems; one of them being funding, and the other the crazy logistic issues of getting people across Africa. It is more complicated than getting people across Europe. It is so hard to fly people even straight from Burkina Faso to Nigeria or from Cameroon, Malawi to Nigeria. When you are trying to do something that is African oriented, you find that logistics across Africa is actually a nightmare. Sometimes, that has given AMAA some logistics problems. visas between African countries is also crazy, and that was why Rwanda was one of our easiest events in terms of the fact that everyone could just arrive and we pay for visas on arrival. It made our lives so much easier, and it was one of the most cost-effective in terms of visas because sometimes we have to pay as much as 200 to 300 dollars for visas for people. So we’ve had to make different amendments for different filmmakers as the years have evolved, and change the funding pattern for the awards and try to make it more sustainable.

Can you walk us through the inception of AMAA, and what the 2021 calendar holds?

AMAA started in Bayelsa State and it was technically going to stay there for a lot longer, but then the governor of Bayelsa State at the time Seriake Dickson maybe had other ideas about the event really. But at a point, AMAA was growing with Bayelsa State and Bayelsa was growing with AMAA, and technically that was what we were trying to do. He was building hotels; we went from having 200 to 300 guests to having over 1500 guests for every AMAA.

AMAA has been held now for 17 years. 10 years of that was in Bayelsa, three of the events in Lagos, one in South Africa, one in Rwanda, one in Abuja and the virtual edition last year. We are at the moment working on the 2021 edition and calls for entry started on April 1 on Film Freeway goes on till July 31. AMAA will hold November 2021; Nominations will be announced at the end of September.