AMVCA Becoming More About Fashion Than Films- DGN President
The National President of the Directors Guild of Nigeria, Uche Agbo, has expressed concern that the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards, AMVCA, is gradually becoming more associated with fashion conversations than filmmaking and award-winning performances.
According to him, more effort should be devoted to promoting nominated films and performances with the same energy currently invested in fashion publicity surrounding the awards.
“The amount of efforts put into promoting the fashion part of it should be tripled to promote the nomination part of it,” he said.
“Beyond the nomination party, there should be deliberate efforts both from the organisers and filmmakers themselves to sell those nominations to the world. Let it become an iconic event that is primarily about what it is supposed to be, the film.”
The filmmaker lamented that discussions after the award ceremony now rarely focus on acting performances or filmmaking achievements.
“We are not talking about the acting prowess of the actors, we are talking about what they wore to the AMVCA,” Agbo stated.
Using online search trends as an example, he argued that fashion conversations now dominate the public narrative around the award show.
“If you Google AMVCA now, the first thing that pops up is not the winners of the awards, it is the fashion,” he said.
“The question is that? Is it helping the filmmakers, the actors or the fashion industry? If it is helping the fashion industry, is it a fashion event or a film event?”
Agbo, however, stressed that filmmakers themselves must also take responsibility for changing the narrative instead of leaving all promotional duties to organisers.
“The filmmakers that are being nominated must also hire their own publicists and PR team to highlight their own films so that we do not just sit down here and drop the entire work at the doorstep of the organisers,” he explained.
According to him, celebrities intentionally wear attention-grabbing outfits to dominate conversations, while filmmakers often fail to create similar publicity around their productions.
“We are not here saying the AMVCA is not doing right, we are here saying the filmmakers need to think differently because it is a burden on you as a filmmaker to find means to be the trending conversation and take it away from what people wore to AMVCA because people would deliberately wear what will call attention to them. So, you as a filmmaker, what are you now doing to call attention?” he queried.
Speaking further, Agbo also blamed Nollywood’s lack of financial accountability and transparency for the difficulty in attracting foreign investors into the industry.
“The reality if we are talking about budget is that no Nigerian producer as of today can actually tell you his or her actual budget,” he said.
“It is a thing of culture but this is my personal opinion. I will say two things. I think that a lot of Nigerian producers do not pay their tax, that could be a reason. They do not need to say the actual price so that the government do not come for them.”
He added that the industry’s informal production structure also contributes to the absence of verifiable budget figures.
“Another reason is the perception that we do not have enough budget so most times, it is always ‘my guy, my guy’, so you end up not getting the actual budget out of it,” he stated.
Comparing Nollywood with foreign film industries, Agbo noted that movie budgets abroad are publicly accessible because of stronger accountability systems.
“Normally, if you Google some movies abroad, you can see the budget and it is not a hidden thing because their system will not allow you to spend without accountability but here I do not know of any Nigerian movie you can put on Google right now and you will be able to get the budget,” he said.
According to him, the lack of publicly identifiable financial figures continues to discourage investors from committing funds to Nollywood projects.
“That is also where it is hard for investors to put their money because for someone to invest, there has to be some public identifiable figures,” Agbo added.
“We do not have those numbers so for me, I would say it is that lack of trust to one another, in the system and in the industry. There is just this death of trust making producers not to reveal.”
