Uganda’s wait for her first Academy Award goes on. This comes after Bobi Wine: The People’s President lost out to 20 Days in Mariupol for best documentary feature at the Oscars on March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood, USA.
In the aftermath of the result, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine was quick to talk up the merits of Uganda basking in the glory of a rare Oscar nomination. The documentary film tells the story of the popstar-turned-politician’s political persecution.
The documentary makers, who followed Bobi—as Uganda’s opposition leader is fondly known—for five years, also had few regrets. They include Moses Bwayo who worked on the project as a director and director of photography. Bwayo is a Los Angeles-based Ugandan filmmaker known for shooting and co-directing the award-winning feature documentary Bobi Wine: The People’s President (2023).
Born in the village of Bududa on the slopes of Mount Elgon in eastern Uganda, Bwayo was introduced to filmmaking by peeking through cracks in the walls of local kibandas, bootleg movie theatres housed in wooden shacks. Wrapt in the exciting camerawork and storytelling of Hollywood’s martial arts films, Moses immediately fell in love with cinema.
At 19, he moved to the capital of Uganda, got a job as a portrait photographer, and began studying at Kampala University. In 2013, he graduated with honours with his Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication. Bwayo went on to earn a postgraduate diploma at the Kampala Film School, the nation’s top film and television conservatory, and started working as a production sound recordist and cinematographer.
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