Portal:African cinema/Selected anniversaries/27
The 2024 Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) announced the nominees for its 20th edition, taking place on the 2nd of November in Lagos, Nigeria. Leading the nominations is Daniel Oriahi’s psychological thriller The Weekend with 16 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director, and Achievement in Cinematography. The Queenstown Kings, a South African sports film follows with 15 nominations, also vying for Best Film, Best Director, and Cinematography. This is Lagos, Kenneth Gyang’s crime drama; Under The Hanging Tree, a supernatural film noir from Namibia; and Obi Emelonye's Out of Breath, a Nigerian historical drama, each received 9 nominations
British Zambian Rungano Nyoni’s On Becoming a Guinea Fowl took top honors at the 20th Zurich Film Festival on October 12, winning the Golden Eye for best feature film. A follow up feature to Nyoni's acclaimed 2017 debut I Am Not A Witch, the film is a family comedy drama about sexual abuse set in Lusaka, Zambia.
The Royal African Society is hosting its annual Film Africa festival in London from 25th October - 3rd November. Mati Diop’s award-winning documentary Dahomey, and Black Tea, a romantic drama by Abderrahmane Sissako will open and close the festival respectively. Film Africa 2024 will also showcase a lineup of features, documentaries, and shorts and award the Baobab Award for Best Short Film and the Audience Award for Best Feature Film.
The 28th edition of the Écrans Noirs Festival takes place in Yaoundé, Cameroon from October 19 to 26. A total of 139 films, series, and web series have been selected to screen. Among the films being screened are Enah Johnscot’s Half Heaven; Achille Brice’s thriller Smiling Masks and The Mystery of Waza, an archaeological adventure animation by award-winning director Claye Edou.
Happiness Is, the third installment of the female-centered Happiness is a Four-letter Word franchise, premieres on Netflix on October 18. It’s the follow-up to Happiness Ever After, which was commissioned by and premiered on Netflix in 2021and the sequel to the original 2019 Happiness is Four-letter film, a major box office hit in South African cinemas.
Naima Lamcharki, (b 11 July 1943) one of Morocco’s best-known actresses whose career spanned film, television, and theater, died on October 5th. Among her most recognized performances was in the comedy megahit In Search of My Wife's Husband (1993), for which she won the prize for Best Female Lead at Morocco’s National Film Festival.