My 2026 AMVCA takeaways — by Olubukola Olanrewaju
But Bovi and Nomzamo? Crazy combination.
Bovi brought that lighter, humorous unserious energy. The Toyin and Funke Akindele joke caught me off guard. I laughed like mad. Nomzamo on the other hand hosted like she came to remind everybody she’s not just fine and famous. She was sharp, smooth, coordinated and very present.
If you’ve seen Tell Me Something Sweet, Isibaya, Coming 2 America (with Eddie Murphy), Assassin (with Bruce Willis), or Shaka iLembe, then you already know Nomzamo is a brilliant actress. But yesterday she unlocked another level entirely. Together, both of them somehow recreated that balance IK usually delivers alone. That’s not easy at all.
- Bucci Franklin winning Best Supporting Actor for TKAM was fully deserved. I’m very happy for him.
- I was personally rooting for William Benson for Best Lead Actor because of how insane he was in TKAM. But Uzor Arukwe winning for Colors of Fire didn’t upset me at all. That’s the annoying thing about this year’s acting categories. Too many deserving people. You’d almost feel bad for whoever lost because the margins were so close.
- Linda Ejiofor deserves serious flowers. Winning Supporting Actress and Lead Actress in the same night is not beans. That’s not “she looked pretty in the role” type of winning. That’s total dominance. I totally love it for her.
I haven’t seen the film that won her Best Lead Actress yet (The Sargent’s Gift), but that movie has entered my watchlist immediately. She must have really done something special in it.
- Uche Montana hive, please make some noise!
She won the Trailblazer award and got to give a real speech.
Olumide and I have been talking about this girl since Hush days. How we loved her. How we saw the potential in her. I remember years ago when I posted that she’s an excellent actress, people argued in the comments session. They said she couldn’t act like that, that she was just enjoying beauty privileges. Apparently once a woman is very pretty in Nollywood, SOME Nigerians immediately assume she cannot act.
Same thing happened when I praised Shine Rosman before TKAM. Same reaction. As if beauty and talent are sworn enemies.
Now these women are forcing everybody to sit down and respect their craft properly. You love to see it.
- Sola Sobowale winning something made me genuinely happy. Nollywood Merit Award. Some people are not legends because social media said so. They are legends because decades later they still enter scenes and command everywhere without breaking a sweat. Or with breaking too much sweat, as it could be in mama’s case.
- My Father’s Shadow must be an insane movie, because with that number of awards, curiosity wan finish me. I need to watch that film urgently.
- Ginger really broke my heart sha. Imagine carrying 9 nominations and going home empty handed. That’s football heritage level pain.
Sending love to Kiekie and the entire team because that’s rough. But at the same time, being nominated that many times already says the project resonated heavily.
- I actually liked Sanwo Olu’s speech. The man is extremely articulate. Whether you like him politically or not, you can’t deny he speaks well and sounds informed when he addresses creative industry conversations.
- Big respect to Kanayo O Kanayo for mentioning xenophobia during his speech too. I kept waiting all night for somebody to touch that topic because pretending it doesn’t exist won’t solve anything. Maximum respect sir.
- One thing nobody can deny this year is that Nigerian designers went absolutely crazy. Cultural Day was fire. Main awards night was fire too.
Everybody came prepared.
The fashion this year looked expensive, intentional and globally competitive. Nigerian designers honestly don’t get enough credit. They’re one of the best in the world, if not the best.
- Kanaga winning an award made me smile. The guy has been in that “almost there” space for a while now. Sometimes one award is all an actor needs to fully believe they belong in the room. Hopefully this opens more doors for him.
- Happy for Soso too. She’s been everywhere recently, back to back roles and she’s consistently good. Nice seeing hard work translate into recognition.
- Please nobody should fight me, but Buju disappointed me again live. Sometimes, we gas dey have honest conversations. He’s an amazing studio artist, but live performances? Hm hm.
I’ve defended him enough.
Fave and Tiwa on the other hand understood the assignment. Clean performances. Presence. Control. Confidence. They delivered.
- Finally, production quality. Multichoice sabi. Clear audio. Smooth transitions. Proper stage management. Camera work made sense.
Headies need to lock themselves inside one room with AMVCA production team for one week. If they wan charge them, make dem pay the money, and learn.
Because every year Headies gives us one unnecessary problem that could’ve been avoided by simply planning properly.
