Joke Silva, Nkem Owoh, Patience Ozokwo Clinch AMVCA Icon Awards

Veteran Nollywood actors Joke Silva, Nkem Owoh, Patience Ozokwo and Afeez Oyetoro have been honoured with the AMVCA Icon Award at the AMVCA Icons Night. The ceremony formed part of activities lined up ahead of the 12th edition of the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards scheduled for Saturday at Eko Hotel and Suites.

The Cultural Night, another event in the AMVCA lineup, went down on Friday as guests continued preparations for the main awards ceremony.

This year’s AMVCA features 32 categories, including 18 jury-decided awards and 11 audience-voting categories.

Among the productions leading the nominations this year are “Gingerrr” and “The Herd” with nine nominations each, followed by “To Kill A Monkey” with eight nominations and “My Father’s Shadow” with seven.

WOW.

Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in The New York Times. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition for the term, which has made it a subject to several controversies.

The origin of the term “Nollywood” remains unclear; Jonathan Haynes traced the earliest usage of the word to a 2002 article by Matt Steinglass in the New York Times, where it was used to describe Nigerian cinema.

Charles Igwe noted that Norimitsu Onishi also used the name in a September 2002 article he wrote for the New York Times. The term continues to be used in the media to refer to the Nigerian film industry, with its definition later assumed to be a portmanteau of the words “Nigeria” and “Hollywood”, the American major film hub.

Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, and marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries – each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents. However, there is the English-language film industry which is a melting pot for filmmaking and filmmakers from most of the regional industries.