AMAA 2015 JURY STATEMENT DELIVERED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE JURY FOR 2015 MR. KEITH SHIRI: Saturday September 26, 2015. Port Elizabeth    South Africa

On behalf of the jury members I welcome you to the AMAA 2015 Awards. Over the last 11 years, the AMAA Awards has set itself the challenging but rewarding task of celebrating the best of our continent and its Diaspora’s filmmaking.

To this end, our aim has always been to reward and encourage African originality in film production; to seek out and bring attention to the continent’s unique and distinctive talents; to champion her distinctive voices and to encourage and nurture that rare combination of ambition and originality that is the best of our movie making.

Every year, hundreds of films from across the continent and its Diaspora arrive at the AMAA offices.  This year we received close to 800 movie entries from over 60 countries, mostly within Africa and also from around the world. This unprecedented number of entries, in all categories and from many African diaspora countries and communities. can lead only to this conclusion: AMAA is indeed, a truly Pan-African event and a global brand.

It is significant that this year for the first time in AMAA’s history, the nominations event was held in the African Diaspora, in Los Angeles:  and that the Awards themselves are held outside of Nigeria, here in South Africa.

And after our several weeks and months of consultations, we commend to you tonight, our roll call of the best for 2015.

Thank you and have a wonderful evening.

The Jury 

Keith Shiri, London based programme advisor BFI London Film Festival, Artistic Director of the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), President of the AMAA 2015 Jury.

Ambassador Filippe Savadogo    Former Secretary General FESPACO   Burkina Faso

John Akomfrah, OBE, London based Ghanaian filmmaker  

Prof. Hyginus Ekwuazi, Professor of Broadcasting and Film, University of Ibadan

Former Managing director of the Nigerian Film Corporation, and until recently Head of the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Ibadan,  Founding Director National Film Institute and former Director General Nigerian Film Corporation Jos, Nigeria.

Steve Ayorinde, Journalist and former MD of “National Mirror” newspaper, Nigeria

Dorothee Wenner, filmmaker and curator at the Berlin International Film Festival

Asantewa Olatunji, Programming Director of PAFF, Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles and Atlanta,

June Givanni,  International film curator based in UK,  Artistic Director of the Colours of the Nile Film Festival, Addis Abeba; and director of the June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive    

Shaibu Husseini, film journalist and critic at Lagos based The Guardian newspapers, Nigeria

Berni Goldblat, filmmaker and producer based in Burkina Faso

Ayuko Babu, Executive Director of PAFF, Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles and Atlanta

Charles Burnett, filmmaker Los Angeles USA