Lilongwe turned into a hive of celebration for the creative sector in the arenas of film and music on Saturday when artists were draped with awards in the Maso, Uzimu Vibes and Malawi Film Festival.
Their clash, happening in the same city, same night and within the same vicinity was not healthy for the arts realm as the three events divided art lovers nonetheless they still went on as scheduled.
Maso Awards in its fifth edition debuted at Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) having raced with its previous editions in Blantyre.
Maso Awards Chief Executive Officer Augustine Mkisi bemoaned the clash of the awards but was pleased that the red carpet event went on successfully.
“We keep growing and next year we will be there,” Mkisi said.
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Some of the top winners included Zeze Kingston and Temwa, who claimed Best Male and Best Female Artist of the Year respectively whereas the Song of the Year went to ‘Loss’ by Kell Kay featuring Eli Njuchi and Hyphen with Tay Grin’s ‘Tcha’ bagging Video of the Year.
The other recipients included Sir Paul Banda (Lifetime Achievement) and Pemphero Mphande (Humanitarian Award).
At Uzimu Vibes at Golden Peacock, a few kilometres from BICC, the recipients included Times Radio and Television presenter Stevie Muliya, who collected the Best Media Personality and Best Music Video for ‘Hallelujah’, Song of the Year went to Free for ‘Lero’ and Best Album went to Princess Chitsulo for Nsembe with Apostle Chitheka Lewis receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award.
At Crossroads Hotel, the Malawi Film Festival which kicked off on Friday, the awards saw Mitekete which airs on Times Television scooping the Best Television series with one of the actors Black Nina bagging the Best Actor through the People’s Awards whereas the Best Actress went to Sangie.
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The Achiever’s Awards included recipients such as Thlupego Chisiza (Producer’s Achiever) and Maria Chidzanja Nkhoma (Actress Achiever) posthumously , Edwin Chonde (Actor Achiever) and Peter Mazunda, who was also one of the judges (Achiever in Cinematography).
Film Association of Malawi (Fama) President Ashukile Mwakisulu said they still need to do more in terms of investment.
“The corporate sector needs to come in and partner with us. This is the only way the industry can thrive,” he said of the two-day event which was patronised by Deputy Minister of Local Government, Unity and Culture Owen Chomanika and US Embassy Ambassador David Young
