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What’s Up!

Some people might say they do what they do because it is what they want to do and getting an award or not does not matter. Do not listen to them. When this year’s Oscars nominations were announced, Carey Mulligan got her third nod and she told interviewers that getting nominated matters like nothing else.

“Actors that say awards don’t matter are 100% lying,” she said. “The Oscar nomination is the coolest thing.”

Fellow actor and nominee Jeffrey Wright, who got his first nomination for American Fiction, agreed with her.

“Anyone who does this work, who says they have never considered winning an Oscar is absolutely lying to you,” he told the media. “I’ve thought about it, sure. I’m thinking about it more than it is healthy.”

The Grammys were held last weekend and the biggest talking point is not who won what, but who didn’t win, or even get nominated. When accepting the Dr Dre Global Impact Award, rap mogul Jay-Z hit out at the Grammys for not giving his wife, Beyoncé, the biggest of them all — the Album of the Year award. Beyoncé is the most awarded musician, with 32 Grammys, but has never won the Album of the Year.

“Even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work,” Jay-Z said on Sunday during the live show, with their daughter Blue Ivy beside him, all grown up. “Think about that. The most Grammys never won album of the year. That doesn’t work.”

Another complaint, to go with Beyoncé being snubbed, was that no black woman musician had won that award since Lauryn Hill in 1999 for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. By contrast, Taylor Swift has won it four times. Cries of racism then abounded all over social media.

Beyoncé was expressionless when her husband made the comments, but I bet they discussed it before his speech. So, if Beyoncé, arguably the most influential artist of our time, feels slighted when not given an award, who are we to pretend that awards do not matter?

In my career as a writer and a photographer, I have often been told that I am one of the best there is. But because I was a features writer and could write and did write about anything and everything, I never specialised.

And most awards are for specialised fields. So I would smile and say thank you every time someone said I was the greatest writer there was, but when the awards season came along, other less ‘talented’ writers would scoop the awards. But the awards eventually came and I could finally put ‘award-winning writer’ on my CV.

I still remember the first photography award I won when the Face of Africa model talent search was in full swing. I was starting out as a fashion photographer, and several photographers from all over Africa had been nominated for the M-Net Africa Photographer of the Year award.

When we got to the finals night in Windhoek, Namibia, some M-Net official joked how some other guy from South Africa had won it. I didn’t know it was a joke, so I went to see what kind of photographs the guy had taken, thinking to myself how it was yet another missed prize. So, I missed the awards ceremony and didn’t know the lady who was supposed to keep an eye on me was frantically searching for me.

That is how I missed the photo opportunity and being all over the Namibian papers the next day, but the prize included a trip to New York to cover the new Face of Africa winner as she began her modelling career.

There was also a ‘professional’ photographer who was paid $3,000 (sh11.4m) a day, while mine was the all-expenses-paid trip and a small per diem. But in the end, it was my pictures they used for all the billboards that went up. And that South African lady, who was supposed to have kept eyes on me? We became very good friends after that, and are still friends up to now. Big shout out to Nopsi.

So, as Carey Mulligan said, don’t listen to those who claim awards don’t matter, they do, very much so.

For some reason, the first three months of the year make up the busiest awards season in almost all sectors of the I recently saw my friend’s husband out with another woman. They were dining at a restaurant and appeared to be very cosy. Though I am not exactly sure what was going on, it just didn’t feel right. Should I tell my friend what I saw? entertainment industry. This year’s Oscars will take place in March, two months after the Golden Globes which were in January. The Cannes Film Festival happens two months later, and these are all very prestigious awards in the international film industry.

So, I don’t understand Ugandans when they hear about an awards project, and they go “… but it has already been done.” Duh!

Talking about awards, the music industry seems short-changed. We have several local film awards, and awards for almost every other thing, but music. Ever since the PAM Awards folded, there is really been nothing to replace them.

Maybe because some people thought it was a money-making venture, which it isn’t. If you don’t believe me, ask Isaac Mulindwa and his team.

They were really burnt and quite never recovered. Somebody should really take that up, the industry needs it. Fashion is another sector that needs as many awards as it can get, and of course fashion weeks to go along with them.

Twitter: @KalungiKabuye