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Showbiz Reporter
NOMINEES for the National Art Merit Awards (Nama) 2018 awards will be unveiled tomorrow on the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) Facebook page during a live stream.

The awards ceremony that was meant to be held on February 16 was postponed and will now be held on March 23 at the Harare International Conference Centre.

Voting is expected to begin this weekend, just after the nominees are announced.

The theme for Zimbabwe’s premium arts awards event is African Royalty. Official hash tags for use when posting about the event on social media have been released and are #AfricanRoyalty, #NAMARoyalty and #ILoveNAMA.

NACZ acting communication and marketing manager Catherine Mthombeni said regardless of the postponement of the awards, preparations were on course.

“The preparations for the 18th edition of the National Arts Merit Awards are on course. The initial date as per the NACZ usual calendar was 16 February and the ceremony was moved forward due to logistical planning,” said Mthombeni.

She said this year’s theme was meant to encourage artistes to eye the African and global markets.

“This year’s Nama theme is “African Royalty” and it speaks to the quality and competitiveness of art products from Africa. The world is hungry for Zimbabwean works of art from film, visual arts, music, dance, literature and these should be packaged and marketed accordingly.

“The theme also speaks to the idea of our artistes producing work that tells the ‘Proudly Zimbabwean’ story in a quality and global standard,” said Mthombeni.

She said over 1 400 entries were submitted for the awards’ nine categories.

“There are nine Nama categories that are Music, Literary, Dance, Visual, Film and television, Theatre, Media, Special Awards and Spoken Word. A total of 1 436 entries were submitted for this year’s Nama edition. Those who submitted include production houses, studios, stables, galleries, organisations, associations, groups, artistes, monitors and/or the public.”

For the Special Awards, Arts personality of the year and National arts service awards have been added to that category.

Part of the adjudication process, Mthombeni said, was conducted throughout last year.

“Some of the entries were identified by monitors who were appointed by NACZ and kept an eye on excelling artistes throughout the year.”

Nama is a platform where the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe recognises excellence in creativity and talent. The major aim of the awards is to stimulate artistic creativity and originality.

The inaugural awards ceremony was held in 2002 to honour artistes who excelled in 2001. Since then, Nama award ceremonies have been held annually to recognise artistes who would have excelled in the previous year.