Popular Nollywood actor Ramsey Noah on Saturday emerged the Best Actor of the year at the African Movie Academy (AMAA) Award held in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.

The award was for his spectacular performance in the flick, The Figurine, which also emerged the best film of the year.

The sixth AMAA award was witnessed by an array of movie stars from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and the Diaspora. Two American movie stars, Ms C.C.H Pounder and Glynn Turner, also attended the event.

Nollywood acts alone carted away nine of the twenty-four awards handed out including Cinematography and Visual Effects of the year won by the film The Figurine.

Ghanaian, Ugandan and Kenyan movie industries also proved that they had a considerable acting and production talents as they carted away awards in eleven categories including the Best Actress of the year won by the duo of Ashaku Mensa-Doku and Lydia Forson in a movie The Perfect picture.

In his speech, Governor Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa said though the economy of the state and indeed the nation needed all the revenue that could be accruable, his administration is convinced its investment in the AMAA is not wasted as the award has shown to the world that the state and the Niger Delta is safe and ready for tourism, which is the new forte for Bayelsa.

Sylva noted that the continued hosting of the event would encourage the anticipated investors to come to the state to invest and also come into a Public-Private Partnership initiative with the state government.

“This administration places huge importance on arts and culture for the promotion of the African values. We will encourage home grown talents.

“Beyond the glamour of the award, it is expected that the talents discovered would be used to correct the wrong impression about the African continent. I hope they would be used to switch the paradigm from the negative to the positive story of the African people and culture.

Use it to tell the story that Bayelsa State is safe for investors to come,” he said.

The Chairman of the state Hosting Committee and Director-General of the Tourism Bureau, Mr. Nathan Egba, said the state shares a mutually benefiting relationship with the AMMA organization, which has helped to promote the fielding tourism industry of the state over the years.

Addressing the huge gathering of movie stars, producers and politicians, the representative of the Group Executive Director, Communications of the United Bank of Africa (UBA), Mr. Charles Aigbe, said the relationship between the bank and AMAA award had hit three years and the partnership was in furtherance of the firm belief of the bank in the promotion of the African culture through the movie industry.

In her comment on the noticeable developments in the African Movie industry, the Chairperson of the Award Jury Committee, Keith Shiri, said though the number of entries for the awards for 2010 increased with over 280 entries received for 24 categories, the harsh economic condition grossly affected the industry with a reduction in film production and exit of professionals from the industry.

Shiri, however, noted that the few movies produced and submitted for entry for the award showed an improvement in technical and production expertise and increased number of the involvement of the women behind the cameras

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