What Makes The #AMVCA Different This Year, and Why It Still Matters

There’s a lot to discuss regarding this year’s Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA), and you can begin from any angle. As a journalist who has covered African events over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to evaluate the quality of event execution across the continent. The Nigerian events tend to be the most consistent, largely due to our large population, which attracts attention from various places.

From my observations, there is something different about the execution of this year’s AMVCA. While the event spans three days—Icons Night, Cultural Night, and the Red Carpet and Award Show—most attendees focus primarily on the award show, where their favourite celebrities have the chance to win an award or two. I am particularly not concerned about the awards, not because anyone or film who wins does not deserve it, but because it is not just enough to hand out plaques and call it an award. It needs to sit side by side with excellence.

Let’s start with the hosts. IK Osakioduwa has carved out a name for himself as one of the veteran hosts in Nigeria. But this year, he began the process passing on the baton by co-hosting the AMVCA with a young talent, a teenager, David Oke, who brought on the girls of the Dream Chasers Academy to open the award night. I loved the intergenerational merge of co-hosting the event with a teenager and opening the show with young girls. It shows that the organisers understand the purpose of inclusion and talent grooming.

In a Nigerian context, the organisation of major events like the AMVCA  is somewhat of an illusion. The organisational execution of this year’s AMVCA, from the outward outlook, was impressive. No long delays. No missing of award plaques. From the outside, everything appeared as anyone would have wanted. It doesn’t matter if the red carpet was too packed or if there was no internet connection inside the venue; what matters more is what airs, where thousands, probably millions, would be watching.

This shouldn’t have been a point, but considering how nonchalant Nigerian celebrities have been about what belongs to them, I am always impressed by how the Nollywood industry really rates the AMVCA, and every filmmaker almost attends. When nominated or announced as winners, they show genuine appreciation publicly and let the organisers understand how much they cherish the recognition. I think this reflects how the organisers have packaged the show, and the hope now is to witness it become better every year.

What really ticks off the boxes for the AMVCA is the magnificent display of fashion and style on the red carpet, as if the AMVCA were a fashion show. The fashion has become so impressive that people have started to compare it with the Met Gala, coining the phrase “Like Met Gala, Like AMVCA.” This year was particularly remarkable as the international audience got a chance to see the incredible talent of Nigerian designers. Essence, the international magazine for Black people, showcased slides highlighting the fashion at the event, and a foreign content creator even compared the red carpet to the Met Gala in a video. He noted, “This is not the Met Gala.”

The importance of the AMVCA lies in how it keeps the film culture alive and public. It encourages excellence, it validates hard work, and it inspires the next generation. You see a young actor win an award or a first-time director walk on that stage, and you realise you’re not exempt from dreaming. As long as it continues to centre African stories, reward great work, and give room for new voices, the AMVCA will remain a powerful symbol of where we’ve been and where we’re going.

The show has grown beyond being just an award show. It has become a key moment in the year that reminds us of how much the film industry in Nigeria, and by extension, Africa, has evolved. It brings together veterans, newcomers, and audiences under one roof to celebrate progress, creativity and dreams that have come true through film. The gathering, the applause, the wins, and even the outfits all feed into the larger culture we are building, one that says African stories and storytellers matter.

And maybe that’s what makes it special; the fact that every year, we gather to say our stories are worth telling, and our storytellers are worth celebrating.