The Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA) returns for its 12th edition with an expanded, week-long lineup of events under the theme “Honouring Craft, Celebrating Culture.” This year’s edition is set to spotlight the richness of African storytelling, recognise industry excellence, and celebrate the continent’s vibrant creative spirit.

Scheduled to take place from May 6 to May 9, 2026, AMVCA 12 will bring together filmmakers, actors, creatives, and culture enthusiasts from across Africa for an immersive celebration of film, television, and cultural expression.

The week kicks off on May 6 with Young Filmmakers’ Day, a platform dedicated to nurturing emerging talent and fostering the next generation of African storytellers. The event will feature masterclasses, panel sessions, and networking opportunities designed to equip young creatives with the tools and insights needed to thrive in the industry.

On May 7, the spotlight shifts to Icons Night, an evening dedicated to celebrating industry veterans and trailblazers whose contributions have shaped the African film and television landscape. This night underscores the “Honouring Craft” pillar of this year’s theme by recognising the legacy and excellence of pioneers in the creative space.

The celebration continues on May 8 with the much-anticipated Cultural Night, a vibrant showcase of Africa’s diverse heritage through fashion, music, food, and performance. As a true reflection of “Celebrating Culture,” the event highlights the beauty, identity, and traditions that define the continent.

The week-long festivities will culminate on May 9 with the prestigious Awards Night, where outstanding achievements in film and television will be recognised across multiple categories. The ceremony promises an unforgettable evening of glamour, entertainment, and recognition of excellence within the African entertainment industry.

The AMVCA 12 Awards Night will air live across all Africa Magic channels from 7:00 PM (WAT), bringing the excitement of the celebration to audiences across the continent.

With this expanded format, AMVCA 12 continues to evolve beyond an awards show into a dynamic platform that honours craftsmanship, celebrates culture, and amplifies African voices on a global stage.

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

One of Nigeria’s leading telecommunications and connectivity providers, ipNX, successfully powered the Queen Esther Musical, presented by the Society for the Performing Arts in Nigeria (SPAN).

The event, held on April 10, 2026, at the Guiding Light Assembly, Parkview, Ikoyi, Lagos, reinforced ipNX’s role as a key enabler of innovation across industries through reliable, high-speed connectivity, as it served as a powerful demonstration of how telecommunications infrastructure can elevate creative expression and redefine audience engagement.

The Queen Esther Musical delivered a captivating blend of music, drama, and visual storytelling to a packed audience.

Behind the scenes, ipNX’s advanced fibre-optic infrastructure played a critical role in ensuring seamless execution, supporting the production’s extensive technical requirements, from synchronised audiovisual systems to real-time digital enhancements that enriched the overall experience for the audience within the auditorium and on digital platforms.

As sophisticated technology integrates into live performances, the demand for stable, high-capacity bandwidth to deliver this experience to online audiences has become essential. ipNX provided technical support, delivering uninterrupted connectivity that enabled production teams to coordinate effectively and execute a technically complex show without disruption.

“Our involvement in the Queen Esther Musical reflects our commitment to powering experiences that matter. This production broadcast required precision, speed, and reliability, all of which our network is designed to deliver.

“Beyond telecoms, we see ourselves as partners in progress across sectors, and this collaboration with SPAN highlights how our solutions can seamlessly support the creative industry just as effectively as we do small enterprises and critical services,” the Head of Sales for ipNX Retail, Akintunde Taiwo, stated.

Also commenting, the founder of SPAN, Ms Sarah Boulous, said, “We were proud to collaborate with ipNX on the Queen Esther Musical. The scale and ambition of this production required a technology partner we could rely on completely as we wanted the audience to enjoy seamless streaming on the Zaia app.

“ipNX delivered exceptional bandwidth and stability, allowing us to integrate digital elements seamlessly and create a truly memorable experience. Their support played a significant role in bringing our creative vision to life.”

There’s a bigger truth at the heart of every award season: an entire industry can’t be neatly packaged into a list of winners and nominees.

It’s just not that simple.

There are too many moving parts. Too many stories. Too many people are doing the actual work on screen, behind the scenes, in rooms nobody sees, on sets that don’t trend, on projects that don’t always make the final cut of conversations.

And yet, that’s what most award shows try to do. Wrap everything up in one night. Hand out plaques. Roll credits.

But the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA) approaches it differently, and that difference shows in how the entire week is designed.

Because instead of compressing the industry into one moment, AMVCA stretches it out. It creates space. It acknowledges that different parts of the industry need different kinds of recognition.

Take Young Filmmakers’ Day, for example. This is not about who has “arrived.” It’s about who is coming. The ones still figuring it out, still building, still trying to get seen in an industry that doesn’t always make room easily. This day shifts the focus from applause to access. It says the future of the industry deserves its own spotlight, not as an afterthought, but as a starting point.

Then there’s Icons Night, and this is where memory comes in. Because long before the current wave, before the buzz, before the visibility, there were people who held things together. Who created, contributed, and carried the industry in ways that don’t always translate into award categories. AMVCA makes room for that kind of recognition, too, the kind that isn’t about competition but about contribution.

Cultural Night does something else entirely. It reminds you that beyond the films and the series and the technical credits, there’s identity. There’s heritage. There’s a deeper layer to the work being celebrated. It’s expressive, it’s vibrant, it’s fun, but it’s also grounding. Because storytelling doesn’t exist in isolation; it’s shaped by culture, by language, by lived experience. And this night leans fully into that.

And then, finally, Awards Night. The part everyone shows up for. The glamour, the wins, the reactions, the moments that will dominate timelines. It’s the culmination, the high point.

But when you look at everything that happens before it, you start to realise something important:

The awards are just one piece of the puzzle.

What AMVCA gets right is understanding that the industry is not one story; it’s many stories happening at once. Some loud, some quiet. Some celebrated, some overlooked. And if you’re going to truly honour that, you have to go beyond a single night.

So instead of trying to make everything fit into one frame, AMVCA expands the frame.

And in doing that, it doesn’t just celebrate winners. It celebrates the work, the people, and the layers that make the industry what it is.