Ugandan film, The Girl in The Yellow Jumper has won Best Film (East Africa) in the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards.
The awards gala took place Saturday night in Lagos Nigeria.
The Girl in The Yellow Jumper beat five other films including A Grand Little Lie, Just In Time and Ugonwa Wa Kifo. Two other Ugandan films, My Husband’s Wife, directed by Mariam Ndagire and Beautiful Ashes (by Steve Ayeny) were nominated in the category.
Uganda’s Daisy Masembe also won the Multichoice Talent Factory category for her short film Engaito. The 10-minute comedy short film (which premiered on Showmax in May last year) follows an uptown kid who joins a local school in a very deep village where shoes are considered as a bad omen.
This year, Uganda got only 4 nominations down from 8 in the 2018 AMVCAs.
Ndagire received the accolade on behalf of The Girl in The Yellow Jumper cast.
Directed by Ugandan film producer and cinematographer, Loukman Ali, The Girl in the Yellow Jumper became the first Ugandan production to feature on global streaming entertainment giant, Netflix.
Starring Rehema Nanfuka, Philip Luswata, Michael Wawuyo Jr., Michael Wawuyo, Gladys Oyenbot and Maurice Kirya, the story follows a man who escapes a hostage situation and returns home with a story to tell.
It was Loukman’s first film project to produce. He has since made Blind Date and the latest, Sixteen Rounds which came out in October last year.
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Saturday’s win is a significant affirmation in the strides that Uganda’s film industry has made in the recent past.
Uganda has had to wait 9 years for another Africa Magic Viewers Choice award after Mathew Nabwiso won Best Supporting Actor In A Drama (A Good Catholic Girl) in the 2013. Nabwiso was the first Ugandan to win an Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice award.
Organized by MultiChoice, the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice awards are the most prestigious awards that reward outstanding achievement in television and film in Africa.
In November last year, Loukman told Plugged; “When I was doing The Girl in the Yellow Jumper, my ambition was… ‘I hope this can make it to Netflix’. But during the time I was doing Blind Date and Sixteen Rounds, I kind of changed. My ambition is more on independent local routes. How I can get my movie to be watched by as many Ugandans as possible and how I can get them to pay for it.”
However, The Girl in The Yellow Jumper’s success didn’t come without shortcomings.
He has previously revealed how many people walked out on him while filming it, because they had no patience.
“That is why we ended up with a mask in the film. It was never intended to be like that. Whoever was available that day, wore a mask and did the work,” he revealed.
This year, Loukman was one of the six African filmmakers who won the ‘African Folktales Reimagined’ Short Film Competition, a Netflix and UNESCO initiative aimed at discovering some of Sub-Saharan Africa’s rising filmmakers.
Winners will produce short films that will eventually premiere on Netflix as part of ‘An Anthology of African Folktales’ later this year.
Loukman is currently collaborating with Nigerian producer and entrepreneur Jade Obesiru and her production house GREOH Studios on Brotherhood, a crime-action thriller about twin brothers on opposite sides of the law.
It features names like Basketmouth, OC Ukeje, Sam Dede, Ronke Oshodi-Oke, Falz, Omawunmi, Tobi Bakre, Toni Tones, Jidekene Achufusi, Deyemi Okanlawon, Mercy Aigbe, Dorathy Bachor, Dianne Russet, Seyi Awolowo and Boma Akpofure.
“I hope this film opens up doors for more partnerships between African filmmakers. This is the beginning of many firsts for African cinema. We are taking risks and hope to excel,” Loukman said of the project.
