For twelve years, the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards has described itself as a celebration of African storytelling. The 12th edition, set for May 9 in Lagos, is the first time that description has come close to being structurally true.
When the nominations for the AMVCAs 2026 were announced on March 29, the headline numbers were predictable enough: Gingerrr and The Herd leading with nine nominations each, To Kill a Monkey close behind with eight, the familiar scramble of Nollywood heavyweights across the acting categories. But tucked into the list, almost quietly, were two new additions that carry more weight than any of the frontrunners. For the first time in the AMVCA’s history, there are dedicated categories for “Best Indigenous Language Film in North Africa” and “Best Indigenous Language Film in Central Africa.”
Alongside the existing West, East, and Southern Africa categories, the awards now cover five African regions in their indigenous language recognition. That is not a small thing.
North Africa’s nominees include The Omnipresent, The Delivery, The Hidden Voice, This Is Portsaid, and Artal Alhanin: Our Memories — five films from a region whose cinema has a rich, distinct tradition and almost no presence in mainstream pan-African awards culture. Central Africa’s contenders are Mabanda, Safou: A Gift From Nature, and Golden Spoon, representing countries like Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo. These are not supplementary nominations. They are an acknowledgement, long overdue, that African film does not begin and end in Lagos.
The frustration with the AMVCA’s pan-African branding has always been that the rhetoric outran the reality. Critics have pointed out, correctly, that the awards have historically been Anglophone in character and Nigerian in orientation. Last year’s 11th edition drew pointed commentary for the continued marginalisation of Francophone, Lusophone, and North African cinema, even in an event that brands itself as the continent’s premier film celebration. One critic writing at the time noted that the continued underrepresentation of those cinemas “undermines the supposed continental feel of the AMVCA,” observing that non-Nigerian entries tended to win only in technical or peripheral categories, with almost no expectation of breaking into the major races.
The organisers have not pretended otherwise. In their own language, MultiChoice acknowledged that North and Central Africa have “historically been underrepresented in continental award circuits,” framing the new categories as part of a commitment to a “more equitable and regionally balanced framework.” It is candid in a way that institutional communications rarely are, and it matters because it sets a baseline against which future editions can be measured.
What the expansion does not resolve, at least not yet, is the question of whether representation in dedicated regional categories eventually translates to presence in the main races. The AMVCA still remains predominantly Nigeria-focused, with Nollywood continuing to dominate the key categories including acting and technical awards. Kenya’s Julie Brenda Nyambura earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination for MTV Shuga Mashariki, competing alongside Sola Sobowale, Funke Akindele, and Linda Ejiofor in what is, by any measure, an extremely difficult category to win. The structural goodwill is visible; whether it produces substantive outcomes is a different conversation.
But the value of this moment is not only in the winners it produces. It is in what the AMVCAs 2026 signals to filmmakers in Casablanca, Kinshasa, and Tunis about whether their work belongs in the same room as Nollywood’s biggest productions. Creative industries in countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Chad, Cameroon, and the Congo are experiencing rapid growth, and the industries developing in those countries need continental platforms that see them before they are already famous. An awards body that waits until a national cinema is undeniable before acknowledging it is not really being pan-African. It is just catching up.
Since its first edition in 2013, the AMVCA has issued over 267 awards and, according to its organisers, invested over nine billion naira into the African film industry through its operations. That investment has shaped careers, elevated productions, and made the awards a meaningful benchmark for the industry. Extending that influence to regions that have been largely outside the conversation is not a cosmetic adjustment. It is the AMVCA beginning to match the size of the ambition it has always claimed.
The AMVCAs 2026 ceremony is still a month away. The voting window closes on April 26, and the real test will come on the night itself, when the trophies go home and the continent takes stock of what was actually celebrated. But the fact that a filmmaker from Tunis or Douala can open the nominations list this year and find their work named, in a category built for it, is worth something. It is the kind of thing that does not make the loudest noise, but tends to matter for a long time.
By Oluwadamilola Alade
