AMAA 2026: Uganda and Kenya lead nominations, ahead of Nigeria
The nominations for the 22nd edition of the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) were unveiled on Saturday, October 17, 2026, during a live broadcast on the organization's YouTube channel. Leading the pack are "Slum Bomber," a Ugandan film, and "One Woman, One Bra," by Kenyan filmmaker Vincho Nchogu, with fourteen nominations each, reports the pan-African media outlet Afrocritik.
East Africa in the lead
The top Nigerian film, "To Adaego With Love," follows with eleven nominations. Next, with ten, are "The Herd" (Nigeria), "The Trek" and "Ben Made It" (South Africa), and "Colours of Exile" (Côte d'Ivoire), followed by "Colours of Fire" (Nigeria) with nine. For an award born in Nigeria and presented in Lagos, the hierarchy says something about the times: Kampala and Nairobi are no longer outsiders.
The premier category, Best Film, features nine titles from seven countries: "The Trek" and "Ben Made It" (South Africa), "To Adaego With Love" and "The Herd" (Nigeria), "The Fisherman" (Ghana), "Colours of Exile" (Côte d'Ivoire), "Slum Bomber" (Uganda), "One Woman, One Bra" (Kenya), and "Mabanda" (Cameroon). In total, the complete list of nominees cites 26 countries, according to Afrocritik.
Two films already on the road to the Oscars
Two of these feature films wear a second hat. "One Woman, One Bra," filmed in Swahili, Maa, and English, is Kenya's entry for the 2027 Oscar for Best International Feature Film. "Mabanda," by Kang Quintus, filmed in Pidgin English, is Cameroon's entry. The Oscars ceremony is scheduled for March 14, 2027, in Los Angeles.
See you on November 15
The awards ceremony will take place on November 15, 2026, at the Lagos Marriott Hotel. "You have raised the standard of African cinema," praised AMAA CEO Raymond Anyiam-Osigwe, as quoted by Premium Times. The jury spoke through Shaibu Husseini, executive director of the Nigerian National Film and Video Censors Board, who expressed his confidence in the selection process.
Created in 2005, the AMAA remains one of the few events that judges the continent's cinemas among themselves, without passing through the filter of Northern festivals. This year, the competition primarily rewards a geography that is expanding: the African film industry is no longer limited to Lagos, and the list of nominees shows it country by country.
This article was written in French with the help of artificial intelligence from the sources cited below, then translated from French automatically. Read the original.
