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Nollywood actress and filmmaker Funke Akindele lost the Best Supporting Actress award at the 12th edition of the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards to Linda Ejiofor for her performance in the movie The Herd. The announcement was made during the awards ceremony held on Saturday night, ending weeks of online predictions that had tipped Akindele as a favourite in the category. 
Linda Ejiofor secured the award for her role in The Herd, a satirical drama that explores insecurity and social tensions in Nigeria. In the film, she portrayed the wife of a kidnapped man played by actor Daniel Etim-Effiong. Although the movie had a more modest cinema performance compared to Akindele’s project, it gained strong streaming attention and earned several nominations at this year’s AMVCA. 
Funke Akindele was nominated for her role in Behind The Scenes, a commercially successful film that reportedly grossed over ₦2 billion at the Nigerian box office. Her performance as Adetutu Fernandez generated major conversations online ahead of the awards ceremony, with many blogs and movie enthusiasts predicting she would clinch the category. However, the final decision rested with the AMVCA jury headed by veteran actress Joke Silva. 
Other nominees in the category included Bisola Aiyeola for Gingerrr, Sola Sobowale for The Covenant, Nadia Dutch for Aljana, Amal Umar for The Herd, Juliebrenda Nyambura for MTV Shuga Mashariki, and Olamide Kidbaby for Oversabi Aunty. In the Best Supporting Actor category, actor Bucci Franklin emerged winner for his role in To Kill A Monkey. 
