Tag: amvca

Anis Halloway, a Sierra Leonian born Artiste cum Creative Director, on Saturday said that his wife encouraged him to embrace directing as a profession in spite of his initial pursuit of music.

He made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

NAN reports that Halloway won the 2020 Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Award (AMVCA) for Best TV Series Drama/Comedy for “Truth”, a crime drama series available for streaming on Showmax.

He came into limelight as a contestant on the second season of the Project Fame and then went on to release several singles like “Speechless” and “Gimme Something” after his run on the show.

Halloway had since directed shows like “Hustle”, “Unmarried” also on Showmax and the award-winning “Truth” which was his first personal project and starred veteran actress, Sola Sobowale, amongst others.

He told NAN that he had always been passionate about films, which saw him dabbled into a couple of projects, saying that he met his wife who further reaffirmed his desire to pursue filmmaking.

“In spite of my initial pursuit of music, I have always had interest in films.

“I met my wife and sometime you go through the transition where you have a partner and you’re not just thinking selfishly about everything because with the passion of music, anything you make, you want to put it in music.

“You’re actually very talented. I’ve seen what you do, I’ve seen how you creatively interpret things and I think you should really direct.

“ When I was growing up I was really fascinated by films.

“I wanted to do films but when I was growing up in the eighties in Sierra Leone, there was really no facility to do that. So I kind of naturally gravitated toward music because my mum was also a guitarist,” he said.

Speaking on getting Sobowale on board his film “Truth” and accommodating her busy schedule, he noted that his previous working relationship with her on “Hustle’’ made things easier.

“We had a good rapport with her because we had worked with her for two and half to three seasons on “Hustle” so we had access and were able to approach her and convince her to star in our own project.

“There was nobody that really stuck out like a sore thumb like she did to deliver a certain range of emotions. So for us it was whatever it takes for us to get her.

“She was willing to work with us to shift things around as much as we could. It wasn’t always a straight up shoot but we pushed it around and to God be the glory we were able to get her to complete her episodes,” he said.

Speaking on his AMVCA win, Halloway told NAN that while he was hoping to win, he was rooting for Uche Odo who was nominated for her show “Life As It Is” to win.

“I was actually rooting for Uche Odo to win because I have known her since I was a presenter at Nigezie all the way back in 2009.

“She was a model then; she hadn’t started film nor was I directing or producing film. I was really just doing presenting then.

“So in our category, if I wanted anybody to win, it would have been her. I was actually even thinking she was going to win and they called my name and I was like `Oh my God`’,” he said.

Halloway revealed plans to drop a single next month and an album later on in the year.

He also added that there were plans in the pipeline for a cinema-targeted crime thriller movie as well as putting his home country Sierra Leone on the map.

“When I won this award, everybody was calling me.

“My Facebook was hot and the phrase that I got was ‘oh you’ve put Sierra Leone on the map’ and it’s an amazing mindset.

“It meant so much to them that I would celebrate the fact that I’m from this country (Sierra Leone).

“So, it would be a letdown for me to forget where I was born and bred till I was 20 years old, to not go back there and contribute my quota to the film industry,” he said.