Organisers of the Ghana Movie Awards have welcomed this year’s Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) nominations in which Ghana picked up 17 nominations.

The jury of the annual awards announced nominations for this year’s 24-category awards at a glitz and glamour event at the Kamaira Beach Hotel, Banjul, Gambia on Saturday, March 17.

In all, Nigeria received 52 nominations followed by South Africa which had 45 nominations. Ghana had 17, Kenya 14, Uganda 5, Tanzania 3, while Algeria, Cameroon, Guinea, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe received a nomination each.

Ghana’s nominations included reigning Best Actress in a Leading Role Ama K Abrebrese – her second in a row, Majid Michel vying the Best Actor in a Leading Role and Martha Ankomah for AMAA 2012 Best Young/Promising Actor and while Leila Djansi was nominated in the Best Director category.

Director of the Ghana Movie Awards (GMA) Prince Tsegah told Hitz Entertainment News in an interview that his team, the Ghana Movie Awards committee, is very excited about the nominations.

According to him, “it shows they are really in competition with their counterparts elsewhere talking about the West African Sub-regions. I believe it’s a good incentive to them, they will know their worth and they will definitely put in more in order to gain international recognition.”

He added that they also noticed the AMAA jury also introduced a new category, Best Make-Up artist which the Ghana Movie award already has in its categories.

The GMA believes that the introduction of that category goes a long way to show that at least they are in line with standards and have what it takes to match some of these other awards that preceded the Ghana Movie Awards.

On behalf of the organizers of the GMA, Prince Tsegah congratulated all the nominees for the upcoming AMAAs. He noted that Ama K Abebrese is being recognized across Africa and believes this is due to her good work.

Prince added that the nomination shows that it’s about one’s performance and not how long you have been in the industry.

The annual awards is aimed at honouring and promoting excellence in the African movie industry as well as uniting the African continent through arts and culture.

This year’s awards ceremony will be held in Lagos, Nigeria on April 22 and it will be hosted by Heroes and Sinking Sands star Jimmy Jean-Louis.