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’18 Hours’, Shiro of ‘Auntie Boss’ scoop top AMVCA awards – PHOTOS


18 Hours, a Kenyan film which was inspired by a true event, was on Saturday night voted the Overall Best Movie at the 6th annual African Magic Viewer’s Choice Awards (AMVCAs), becoming the first Kenyan production to ever do so.

The glamorous event, which took place at the Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos, also saw the film taking home two more awards as Kenya dominated at the awards.

Kenya scooped six awards out of nine that they had been nominated.

One of the night’s surprises was Nice Wanjeri who won the Best Actress in a comedy and TV series in the popular sitcom of Auntie Boss.

Popularly known as Shiro, Nice topped her category by beating big Nollywood names. A thrilled Nice moved the audience her emotional acceptance  speech.

“Oh my God! Fast of all God ni mso and I want to thank everyone who voted. This is my first time to board a plane and I came to Nigeria and from being nominated for the first time to winning an award is beyond my wildest dreams,” she said to a wild applause from everyone.

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Lokarion Wainaina, Njue Kevin, Phoebe Ruguru, Nice Wanjeri, Mark Maina and Dennis Waweru display their trophies during the 6th AMVCAs in Lagos, Nigeria. PHOTO | HILARY KIMUYU

FIVE NOMINATIONS

She however reveled to Nairobi News that despite winning she will no longer be in the show anymore.

“I don’t know what to do, I won but people will no longer see me in the show after my contract was not renewed,” a teary Wanjeri said.

Nice, who plays a house help in the sitcom, added that she was more than happy to have been given a chance by the show’s producers, Eve de Souza and Lucy Mwangi.

The two, she said, gave her lifetime chance to be in the series which airs weekly on NTV.

The movie 18 Hours, which follows a rookie paramedic who spends 18 hours in an ambulance to save the life of an accident casualty, had been nominated for five awards and ended up taking home three with Phoebe Ruguru winning two of them for Best Movie in East Africa and Best Overall Movie.

Mark Maina took home the Best Picture award while Kevin Njue and Jacktone Okore missed out on the Best Writer and Best Sound Track awards respectively.

In her acceptance speech, Ms Ruguru said, “Even with all our diversity “we can all speak one language and we can understand that language to be film.”

Ruguru was nominated alongside Hassan Mageye (Devil’s Chest), Kizito Samuel Saviour (The Forbidden), Mathew and Eleanor Nabwiso (Rain) and Math Bish (Bella).

Lokarion Wainaina, Njue Kevin, Phoebe Ruguru, Nice Wanjeri, Mark Maina and Dennis Waweru display their trophies during the 6th AMVCAs in Lagos, Nigeria. PHOTO | HILARY KIMUYU
Lokarion Wainaina, Njue Kevin, Phoebe Ruguru, Nice Wanjeri, Mark Maina and Dennis Waweru display their trophies during the 6th AMVCAs in Lagos, Nigeria. PHOTO | HILARY KIMUYU

OTHER WINNERS

Dennis Wanjohi Maina emerged tops in the Best Documentary category for his documentary The Flesh Business.

Maina said the hour long documentary, which sheds light on the rampant underage prostitution in Mombasa and the Coast region, was self-funded and it took him and his crew a year to finish filming it.

“There were days that we did not have any money to shoot and we had to put it on hold, but I am happy that we finally managed to finish it and this are the results,” he said.

The documentary follows the story of three ladies who take the audience through the challenges of their profession.

Supa Modo, a film that is set in the village of Maweni, is a movie about a little girl who suffers from a terminal disease also won in its category with Likarion Wainaina bring home the award.

Nominees were competing across 27 categories, seven of which were open for viewers to vote and choose the winners while 20 winners were decided by the AMVCA panel of judges.

The AMVCA is the biggest celebration of film and television talent across Africa since the first edition which was held in 2013.