AMVCA explained: how the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards work

The AMVCA, short for the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards, is the biggest annual night for Nollywood and African screen talent. Despite the name, viewers don’t pick every winner: most trophies are decided by a jury. This guide explains how the AMVCA works, from entries and judging to public voting, along with the 2026 winners and past Best Movie winners. Current as of September 2026.

By Editorial Team

The short answer

• Who runs it: MultiChoice’s Africa Magic. Africa Magic describes the AMVCA as MultiChoice’s initiative to celebrate African film and television talent. The 2026 show ran under the “evolving partnership between Canal+ and MultiChoice”.
• Since: the first ceremony was held on 9 March 2013.
• Who decides: the 12th edition had 32 categories. A jury decided 18, the public voted on 11, and three were special recognition awards, according to Africa Magic’s nominations announcement.
• Voting: free on the Africa Magic website and mobile site for registered users, with up to 100 votes per user.
• 2026’s big winner: My Father’s Shadow, with five awards including Best Movie.

How the AMVCA works, step by step

1. Entries

Filmmakers submit their own work. For the 12th AMVCA, entries were open from 11 January to 15 February 2026 for content broadcast or publicly screened between 1 January and 31 December 2025, according to Africa Magic’s official FAQ. Feature films qualify if they were shown in cinemas, on linear TV or on streaming platforms. Entries go through an online portal, must be submitted exactly as they were broadcast or screened, and can be disqualified if they break the guidelines.

2. Judging and nominations

A panel of judges reviews the entries and chooses the nominees. The veteran actress Joke Silva was head judge for the 12th edition, succeeding the filmmaker Femi Odugbemi, BellaNaija reported. The 2026 nominees were announced live on Africa Magic channels on 29 March 2026. Gingerrr and The Herd led with nine nominations each, followed by To Kill A Monkey with eight and My Father’s Shadow with seven.

3. Public voting

Voting opens straight after the nominations show. To vote you register on africamagic.tv/amvca with your name, phone number and email, then confirm with a one-time PIN sent by SMS. Votes are limited to 100 per user on the website and 100 on the mobile site. Voting is free, but data charges apply. Africa Magic runs BBNaija voting through a similar web-based system.

4. Jury decisions

In categories not open to the public, the FAQ says winners “will be determined by the AMVCA panel of judges, with the judging process monitored and verified by an independent auditor”. The FAQ gives Best Overall Movie as an example of a jury category.

5. The ceremony

The 12th AMVCA was held on Saturday 9 May 2026 at the Eko Hotel and Suites Convention Centre in Lagos, hosted by Nomzamo Mbatha and Bovi. Previous editions were hosted for more than a decade by IK Osakioduwa.

A note on numbers: Africa Magic’s January FAQ said there were 29 categories (11 public and 18 jury, counting the recognition awards among the jury’s). Its March nominations release gave 32 (18 jury, 11 public and 3 special recognition). We use the later figure.

AMVCA categories explained

The AMVCA covers both film and television. The main groups are:

• Top awards: Best Movie, Best Director, and the lead and supporting acting awards.
• Craft awards: writing (movie and TV series), cinematography, editing, art direction, costume, make-up, sound design and score.
• Television and digital: Best Series (Scripted and Unscripted), M-Net Original awards, Best Documentary, Best Short Film and Best Digital Content Creator.
• Indigenous language awards: one each for West, East, Southern, North and Central Africa. The North and Central Africa awards were new in 2026, added, the FAQ says, to improve representation and preserve local languages.
• Recognition awards: the Industry Merit Award and the Trailblazer Award.

AMVCA 2026 winners: the highlights

Source: Africa Magic’s results report (10 May 2026) and BellaNaija’s full winners list.

My Father’s Shadow also won for writing, sound design and score. The film had already made history abroad. It was the first Nigerian title in the Cannes Film Festival’s official selection, and the UK chose it as its entry for the 98th Oscars, Punch reported. That came weeks after Nigeria’s own committee decided to send no film, a story we cover in our guide to the Nigeria Oscar entry.

Box office success doesn’t guarantee AMVCA wins. Behind the Scenes, the highest-grossing Nollywood film, was nominated for Best Movie but lost to My Father’s Shadow.

Past AMVCA Best Movie winners

Source: Wikipedia’s AMVCA ceremonies list. No ceremonies were held in 2019 or 2021, and the award’s name has changed over the years (Best Overall Movie, now Best Movie). The 2020 winner is the sequel to the film widely credited with launching Nollywood; see our history of Nollywood.

AMVCA vs the Oscars and the Headies

The AMVCA’s jury-plus-public model differs from the Oscars, where only Academy members vote (see how Oscar voting works). It is closer to music’s Headies awards, which also combine fan votes with an industry panel.

What to watch

For the 13th edition, watch for Africa Magic’s call for entries (the 12th edition’s opened in January), then the nominations show and the voting window. More in Nollywood and Movies & TV.

Sources

• Africa Magic: FAQs, AMVCA 12th edition (10 January 2026)
• Africa Magic: 12th edition nominees (29 March 2026)
• Africa Magic: AMVCA 12 results (10 May 2026)
• BellaNaija: AMVCA 2026 full winners list (10 May 2026)
• BellaNaija: AMVCA 12 nominees and voting guide (30 March 2026)
• Punch: UK picks My Father’s Shadow for Oscars (14 October 2025)
• Wikipedia: Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (ceremonies list)

Featured image: Photo: MediaMOF / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0