Historically, the AMVCA Trailblazers have been newish or breakout talents who generated a buzz in the eligibility year and who are expected to have even more success in the years that follow.
By Vivian Nneka Nwajiaku
When I opened up my notepad to jot my thoughts for this somewhat deep dive into one of the most controversial categories of the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards’ 2025 edition, the Trailblazer category, my intended opening sentence was “What exactly is the AMVCA Trailblazer Award?” I typed the words into Google, with the faintest hope that I might find an actual answer from the organisers or some authority in the know. Instead, I found another essay asking the same question, in almost the same words.
Yet, it did not surprise me one bit. Questions about the AMVCA tend to be questions that we have to ask on a yearly basis, maybe in different words but with the same essence. This question is no different. It has been asked and asked again, and even on the eleventh occasion of the AMVCA, we still do not know what the AMVCA Trailblazer Award is.
One thing we do know is that the Trailblazer Award is one of the most valuable recognitions that can be earned at the AMVCA, the film and TV award show that has become the most popular in Africa. Even the Industry Merit Award, the other honorary award given at the AMVCA, does not feel as special as the Trailblazer Award.
If the Trailblazer category were not an honorary category, nominees might have fought on stage a few times, as has been the case with the controversial Next Rated category of the Headies Awards (Nigeria’s top music awards), a category that the Trailblazer has been likened to. But, thankfully, the organisers of the AMVCA, in all their wisdom, have never published nominations for the category. So, every year, we follow the awards with little to no certainty around who may be awarded.
Sometimes, the winner turns out to be a pleasant surprise, like in 2024 when Chimezie Imo was awarded—an actor with multiple credits that go back to 2018 but who made quite a splash with Prime Video’s Breath of Life in 2023. Other times, like this year, the award has unfortunately been marked by controversy and confusion.
The AMVCA 2025 Trailblazer is Kayode Kasum, a young director and producer who has achieved much success in the industry over the course of about a decade, with over thirty projects as a director. Anybody who watches Nollywood has likely watched multiple Kayode Kasum films.
But the reactions to his win have been largely negative and sometimes brutal. Strangers to the contradictory phenomenon that is the AMVCA Trailblazer might consider the averse reactions to imply something negative about Kasum’s merits as a filmmaker. However, in reality, the general perception held by naysayers is that Kasum is bigger than that award and placing him in that category is an insult to his current status as a filmmaker.
But why would anybody think that? What is so wrong about a young filmmaker, who at only thirty-three years has contributed more to African cinema than many filmmakers who have put in triple the time that he has, being called a trailblazer? Who is a trailblazer? Does he not meet the criteria for that title?
Ideally, when there are questions about the criteria for an award category and what eligibility rules apply or do not apply, publicly available rule books have the answers. But in this part of the world, we don’t quite deal with such frivolities. If you scrubbed AMVCA’s online platform (which is actually just a portion of DSTV’s website and Africa Magic’s social media), you would not find a comprehensive document that could be useful in times like this.
So where does one start? Perhaps, the English dictionary is a good place. For this, permit me to take the old-fashioned route and pull out an Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the 8th edition that has been sitting on the shelf of my very physical library. It defines the word “trailblazer” as “a person who is the first to do or discover [something] and so makes it possible for others to follow.”
In this sense, Kasum is clearly a trailblazer. His first feature film, Dognapped (2017) is widely credited as Nigeria’s first live-action animation film. His second film, Oga Bolaji (2018), was very well received, screened at multiple film festivals, and made its way to Netflix in 2021. He has at least two films on the list of the highest grossing Nollywood movies of all time, one of which is the 2019 star-studded Sugar Rush. And he was very successful in the eligibility period, with his 2023 film Áfàméfùnà: An Nwa Boi Story topping the list of the most watched films on Netflix Nigeria in 2024.
But the AMVCA has never really seemed to rely on the literal interpretation of “trailblazer” in the previous ten years of bestowing that award on actors and filmmakers. Historically, the AMVCA Trailblazers have been newish or breakout talents who generated a buzz in the eligibility year and who are expected to have even more success in the years that follow.
The first Trailblazer was Ivie Okujaye, awarded in 2013, the same year that the AMVCA itself began. Okujaye was a promising new face in the industry, having emerged as the winner of the latest Amstel Malta Box Office at the time, starred in the reality show’s resulting award-winning film Alero’s Symphony (2011), and earned Best Young Actor at the 2012 Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA).
Okujaye was followed by Michelle Bello, a director whose first feature film, Small Boy (2008), won two AMAAs in 2009 and premiered in Nigeria 2010. However, it was her second film, Flower Girl (2013), one of the defining romance films of New Nollywood, that really brought her into the limelight in the industry and earned her that 2014 Trailblazer win.
In its third year, director C. J. “Fiery” Obasi’s internationally rated debut feature, a zero-budget zombie thriller titled Ojuju (2014), earned him the coveted Trailblazer title. Kemi Lala Akindoju won the honour in 2016 after her first feature film leading role performance in Dazzling Mirage (2014) which had its theatrical release in 2015.
Somkele Iyamah-Idhalama took home the Award in 2017 after playing primary supporting roles in three acclaimed 2016 films that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)—93 Days (for which she also earned an AMVCA nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama), The Wedding Party and The Arbitration. Prior to that remarkable feat, she had only featured in a couple of films and less than a handful of TV series between 2013 and 2015.
Bisola Aiyeola might have finished fifth on the 2008 edition of the MTN Project Fame and served as one time host of Billboard Nigeria on Silverbird TV, but her 2018 Trailblazer win came after only a short period in acting. What really did it for her as an actress were her lead performances in Picture Perfect (2016) and Ovy’s Voice (2017), and as hinted by a brief note by the AMVCA, her time as a housemate in the 2017 edition of Big Brother Naija, which is now known for minting actors of different qualities.
In 2020, Jide Kene “Swanky JKA” Achufusi earned the AMVCA Trailblazer plaque with his AMVCA-nominated, breakout lead role in the 2019 sequel of Living in Bondage subtitled Breaking Free.
When Teniola Aladese won the award in 2022, she had just started to make waves as lead in the popular web series, Little Black Book (2021), major supporting characters in feature films from name directors (including Kayode Kasum), and a co-lead in a TIFF and Sundance-nominated short film, Egúngún, despite a small number of earlier roles including Africa Magic’s Jemeji (2018) and an almost decade-long career behind the scenes.
And in 2023, the AMVCA Trailblazer was Angel Unigwe, an incredibly fast-rising teen actor, only about eighteen years old at the time.
Armed with this history, if I had a say in the interpretation of what the Trailblazer Award is, I’d call it a recognition for a rising star showing promise. But it doesn’t matter what I say or what we–social media AMVCA organisers–say. The only say that matters is that of the people with the power to make the rules. So, what have the actual AMVCA organisers said?
When Gloria Young Anozie took the stage to present the Trailblazer Award last Saturday night, she found herself reading words that did more to advertise one of the event’s sponsors than to actually describe the award being presented.
At first, she was able to get in a few vague words about celebrating “a creator who is redefining what it means to be a modern filmmaker in Africa. Someone who didn’t wait for doors to open…” But then, she became shifty with discomfort when it devolved into a product ad, and she decided (reasonably) that she’d just wing it.
“Oh boy!” she said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I think I’m here to present the Trailblazer Award”. She proceeded to announce this year’s controversial winner, Kayode Kasum. And there went the opportunity to hear from the organisation themselves on their intentions for the award.
But they have been clearer in the past. In 2022, when American actor, Tasha Smith, presented the award on the eighth AMVCA stage, the words she read from the teleprompter were as follows: “The Trailblazer Award recognises, affirms and encourages rising stars who have been demonstrating strong work ethic, creative innovation and exceptional talent.”
Well, I couldn’t have put it better myself. But to be sure that I wasn’t imagining the meaning of “rising star”, I embarked on a quick Google search. Unsurprisingly, the general consensus, including from English dictionaries, is that a rising star is someone who is starting to do very well and who people think will soon be very successful, a person or thing that is growing quickly in popularity or importance in a particular field. The Merriam-Webster Thesaurus even volunteers a synonym: “up-and-comer”.
I say this with the utmost respect and good faith: Kayode Kasum is not an up-and-comer. He is not rising; he has risen. He is already an established director, one of Nollywood’s most prominent filmmakers. Frankly, I would go as far as lobbying for an Industry Merit Award for Kasum.
After all, even the Industry Merit Award is not set in stone. There may be an almost unanimous understanding that it recognises lifetime contribution to the development of African cinema, but that understanding only exists because of the nature and status of the people who have won the award. Just as the Trailblazer Award seems to have been tweaked this year, why should the Industry Merit Award be any different?
The literal English translation of an industry merit award does not presuppose a lifetime of contributions, nor does the word “lifetime” automatically translate to a requirement for an awardee to be elderly. In the absence of express, publicly accessible eligibility rules that have a cap on the age of an awardee or the length of their time in the industry, I see no reason why an industry merit award cannot be handed to Kasum.
Besides, if we were to go by English translations, then filmmakers like Funke Akindele and Mo Abudu would be capable of recognition in both categories. Who has blazed a clearer trail than Akindele at the African box office? Who has literally built doors where none existed for African cinema more than Abudu? And who can deny the astronomical contributions of either of these women to the African film industry?
This is the problem with not having clearly defined rules: anything goes. The refusal to set clear rules—and improve on those rules as is necessary—can only result in chaos. And if rules do exist, the refusal to publicise them makes accountability and transparency impossible. We cannot continue to freestyle the biggest film and TV award on the continent. Would it really be that difficult to have a proper, publicly available rule book that marks the boundaries of the AMVCA categories?
At this point, it feels deliberate. Maybe the idea is to have an annual controversy that keeps the awards on the lips of the audience, or to keep this hallowed and secretive recognition strictly within jury discretion.
But if controversy matters more to the AMVCA than structure and certainty, or if a fundamental decision like who wins the Trailblazer Award is completely subject to the discretion of a jury with guiding principles that either do not exist or are unknown to the public, then it is neither a merit award nor a viewers’ choice award.
And if Africa’s biggest film and TV award is neither a merit award nor a viewers’ choice award, isn’t that one big, hairy cause for alarm?
Vivian Nneka Nwajiaku is a writer, film critic, TV lover, and occasional storyteller writing from Lagos. She has a master’s degree in law but spends most of her time reading about and discussing films and TV shows. She’s particularly concerned about what art has to say about society’s relationship with women. Connect with her on Twitter @Nneka_Viv