Abraham Attah has won the ‘Best Male Lead’ award at the 2016 Independent Spirit Awards held on Saturday at Santa Monica Beach, United States of America.

It is the third major award for the young actor who won Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor at Venice Film Festival 2015.

He also won ‘Rising Star Award’ at the Black Fim Critics Circle (BFCC). The award scheme called Attah’s role as “one of the strongest and most phenomenal we have ever seen” and added that he had “a very bright future ahead of him”.

His cast mate Idris Elba won ‘Best Supporting Male’ award for his role as commander of the mercenary unit that recruited child soldiers.

The awards scheme, originally known as FINDIE or Friends of Independent Awards was founded in 1984, and dedicated to independent filmmakers. In 1986, it was renamed Independent Spirit Awards.

Abraham Attah played the lead role of Agu, who when civil war tears his family apart, is forced to join a unit of mercenary fighters and transformed into a child soldier.

Based on the 2005 novel of the same title by Uzodinma Iweala, the movie was shoot in Ghana and also stars Ama K. Abebrese, Fred Amugi and Grace Nortey. It was directed by Emmy Award-winning Cary Fukunaga, and the first fictional feature produced and distributed by Streaming Service Netflix.

The movie was premiered in Ghana last year. Before that, it premiered on Netflix and in selected Theaters in The United States of America on October 16.

It was screened at number of prestigious film festivals including Venice, BFI London and Toronto International Film Festival.

< Watch Abraham's speech below