The nomination list for this year’s Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) was announced by Hon. Steve Oluseyi Ayorinde, the President of the jury. Kenya film ’40 Sticks’ is among the list of films with the most nominations.
In first place is South Africa’s ‘Knuckle City’ with 12 nominations. Nigeria’s ‘The Milkmaid’ and Kenya’s ’40 Sticks’ follows with 8 nominations. ‘The Ghost’ and ‘The House of Truth’ each scooped 7 nominations.
The Kenyan film which is currently on Netflix was nominated for Best Film award, Award for Achievement in Sound, Award for Achievement in Cinematography, Award for Achievement in editing and Award for Achievement in Screenplay. Victor Gatonye was nominated for Best Director. Actors Robert Agengo, Mwaura Bilal, Andreo Kamau and Xavier Ywawa were nominated for Best Actor in a leading role and Arabrun Nyyeneque was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
Other Kenyan productions nominated are ‘The Letter’ for Best Documentary and animations ‘From Here to Timbuktu’ and ‘The Legend of Lwanda Magere’ for Jubril Malafia AMAA 2020 Award for Best Animation. AMAA ceremony will be held on 20th December 2020.
It was indeed yet another big milestone for the Kenyan film industry after the locally-produced film premiered on the global streaming platform, Netflix. The feature film, dubbed ’40 Sticks’, a 95-minute Kenyan thriller premiered on Friday November, 20, 2020.
’40 Sticks’ became the third Kenyan film to feature on Netflix, hot on the heels of ‘Poacher’, ‘Sincerely Daisy’ and ‘Disconnect’, all which were received warmly. ’40 Sticks’, based on a fictional story created by Frank G. Maina, was written by Voline Ogutu, with Fakii Liwali as Executive Producer. Victor Gatonye, directed the film and has also previously directed
‘Dreamchild’ (Kenyan feature film), ‘Kina’ (TV series on Maisha Magic+), ‘Sunrise’ (TV series on Showmax), East and ‘Women of Obiero’ (both TV films on Showmax).
The ’40 Sticks’ thriller revolves around eight death row inmates trapped in a crashed prison bus striving to stay alive while a mysterious killer lurks in the shadows. The film was shot across 5 locations in Nairobi over a 16-day period in February 2019 and was produced by SensePlay in partnership with Kenya Film Studios. Bingi Media, Ogopa Inc. and the Kenya Film.
Classification Board (KFCB) officially rated the film 16 and it has been trending in Kenya on Netflix ever since it’s debut on the platform.
This article was written by Josephine Njoroge.
