The 15th edition of the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA 2019) was held on Sunday, at the Landmark event centre in Lagos, Nigeria, and was a star-studded one which saw some stakeholders in the African movie industry received honors for their work.
The event saw filmmakers and actors as well as industry players all over the continent, attending. It was a night of glitz and glamour as Nigerian Actress and producer, Kemi Lala Akindoju, Lorenzo Menakaya and comedian, Funnybone were the hosts for the night.
Young Ghanaian actor, Cynthia Dankwa, who played the role of Esi in the much talked about Ghanaian film ” The Burial Of Kojo” won the award for Best Young/Promising actor of the year whiles rapper cum director, Blitz Bazawule,popularly known as Blitz The Ambassador took the award for Best Director-First Feature Film for the same film, ”The Burial Of Kojo”.
”The Burial Of Kojo” is Blitz The Ambassador’s first directional film as well as Cynthia’s firt ever starred film. He beat follow Ghanaian Nicole Amarteifo (Before the Vows) (Ghana, Nigeria’s Adekunle “Nodash” Adejuyigbe (The Delivery Boy) and Tanzania’s Sippy Chadha – Subira to win ‘Best Director-First Feature Film’.
Filmed entirely in Ghana on a micro-budget, with local crew and several first-time actors, the film tells the story of Kojo (Joseph Otsiman), who is left to die in an abandoned gold mine, as his young daughter Esi (newcomer Cynthia Dankwa) travels through a spirit land to save him.
The film was produced by Blitz Bazawule, Ama Abebrese and Kwaku Obeng Boateng.
It had its world premiere in New York on September 21, 2018, at the Urban World Film Festival, where it was recognized as Best Narrative Feature (World Cinema). It is distributed by ARRAY and was released on the popular streaming service Netflix on March 21, 2019, making it the first Ghanaian film to premiere in selected countries worldwide, on Netflix.
Saturday’s event was hosted by multi-talented actress Lala Akindoju, comedian Funnybone and Lorenzo Menakaya.
