By Genevieve Nkiwane

MORE than 40 years ago the FEPACI was established in an all out mission to create platforms for Africa to tell her own stories.
As the founding fathers of this grand and noble institution came together from all corners of the continent the bi-annual FESPACO was launched as the only Pan African film festival on the continent.
Since then we have had the FESPACO held in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso every two years as the biggest and largest gathering of African film makers and African films on the planet.
Some of our renowned founding fathers include, Idrissa Ouedrago, Kwaw Ansah, Ousman Sembene, Lionel Ngakane Souleman Cisse, and many others.
One wonders what some of these elders would have to say now about the state of African cinema and where we are at right now on the global stage. Would they be proud or would they say we have not even told half of it?
Indeed in their defence as individual film makers some amazing stories have emerged out of Africa; films like Love Brewed in An African Pot – Kwaw Ansah, Heritage Africa – Kwaw Ansah and our very own Neria.
Ten years ago this April 2014, the African Movie Academy Awards – AMAA will celebrate their 10th anniversary. Today Hollywood has had to accept that there are other players in the world of cinema now, Bollywood and Nollywood have really made the rest of the world look up!
And while some of us are struggling to plant the seeds for a Zollywood and a Sollywood, we must face the reality that we are so far away from touching the three major players.
Nollywood in particular has put African cinema on an almost even keel with the cinematic world and despite the shortcomings on quality of the production, the bottom line is that African cinema has taken pride and place in the quest to promote Africa and Africans.
The Africa Film Academy – AFA is a non-profit organisation that uses the medium of filmmaking as a tool for community development to train aspiring artists in all aspects of filmmaking – acting, writing, directing and producing motion pictures all across Africa.
As an annual celebration of the brightest and the best in African movies, the AFA hosts the AFRICA MOVIE ACADEMY AWARDS (AMAA) which is the biggest gathering of movie makers across Africa and the Diaspora.
AFA is the curator of the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), Film in a Box and other sub – brands which was set up ten years ago to promote African film and cinema locally and internationally.
Many of the films produced to date continue to tell our stories and have served as a shared collective experience and reminder that Africa is a vibrant continent with, colour, energy and endless possibilities.
Their profile will show that it has remained the AFA’s vision to see film and cinema elevated to international levels, in terms of both production quality and profitability and to explore film as a vehicle for development.
African filmmakers have worked hard and continue to work hard with very little and have not through serendipity but through sheer audacity managed to build the 3rd largest film industry in the world, and are poised to take poll position beating America and India.
It’s clear to us that the world is interested in what Africa has to say and it is this drive that AFA wishes to tap into and leverage.
The driving force behind this grand and noble vehicle for the overall promotion of Africa in its entirety is a dynamic and strong young Nigerian woman, named, Peace Aniyam-Osigwe.
Peace Aniyam-Osigwe, MFR, is a Nigerian film maker, film critic, producer, author and film festival organiser. She is the chief executive officer/founder of the African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA). Africa’s only real red carpet event for the film industry.
She worked in the late 1990s at Sun, Sage and Net Novell and London Borough of Barnet. One of the most influential persons in the African film industry, she set up the Africa Film Academy (AFA), which organises the successful African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) and trains filmmakers from all parts of the world. She is the creative director of the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) and is a recipient of the UNESCO African Vision Award for Innovation at the 60th edition of Cannes Film Festival in France.
In 2013, she was recognised as one of Africa’s most influential and innovative leaders and trailblazers. She was honoured as a Trendsetter! Every year, a select group of pan-Africa’s most influential and innovative leaders and trailblazers are honoured as the Fascinating Africans Committed to Excellence (F.A.C.E) List Awards in New York City.