From Linda Ejiofor-Suleiman to Genoveva Umeh: The 8 Women Defining the 2026 AMVCA Best Lead Actress Race

The leading ladies of 2026. This collage highlights the Best Lead Actress nominees, including Scarlet Gomez (Behind The Scenes) and Genoveva Umeh (The Herd), representing the pinnacle of Nollywood’s box office and critical success this year.

The Best Lead Actress race at this year’s AMVCA is, to put it simply, a collision of generations. The 12th edition, scheduled for 9 May 2026 in Lagos with Joke Silva serving as head judge, has assembled a category that reaches back decades and stretches forward to the freshest faces in Nollywood. The field is staggering: a celebrated theatre director making a revelation of a screen debut, a rising star proving her mettle beyond digital screens, a veteran whose command of power remains unmatched, and a screen icon who has defined Nigerian storytelling for over thirty years.

What distinguishes this field is not simply talent, but the sheer variety of the human experience on display. We see a woman navigating a marriage curse rooted in generational secrets; a First Lady whose obsession with control is her ultimate undoing; a survivor piecing together a life she once walked away from; and a widow fighting to exist in a legacy determined to erase her. Eight women. Eight distinct journeys. One gold trophy.

See the nominees below:

Linda Ejiofor — The Serpent’s Gift

“The Serpent’s Gift” is the film that gave audiences Linda Ejiofor in a full leading role, and it is safe to say she arrived. She plays the central figure of a story rooted in Yoruba tradition, cultural identity, and the weight of inherited secrets, carrying the film with a presence that is both grounded and commanding. The film earned six AMVCA nominations including Best Movie and Best Cinematography, and also earned Ejiofor a Best Supporting Actress nomination at this year’s ceremony for her performance in “The Herd,” making her one of the double nominees in the acting categories.

Ejiofor won Best Supporting Actress at the 2015 AMVCA for “The Meeting,” a win that announced her as one to watch. More than a decade later, she returns not in a supporting role but as the face of one of the year’s most talked-about films.

Bimbo Akintola — To Kill A Monkey

In “To Kill A Monkey,” Kemi Adetiba‘s Netflix hit that held the number one spot upon release, Bimbo Akintola plays Inspector Mo — a law enforcement agent haunted by her own losses, closing in on a cybercrime syndicate with the kind of focused intensity that makes every scene she occupies feel higher-stakes. Inspector Mo is not the emotional centre of the film, but she is its moral spine, and Akintola plays her with a combination of sharpness and restraint that makes the character unforgettable.

Akintola has been a fixture of Nollywood for over three decades, and the AMVCA has recognised her across different genres. Her previous nominations include Best Actress in a Drama for “93 Days“ (2017) and Best Actress in a Comedy for “Wives on Strike“ (2017). This nomination feels like the latest chapter in a career that refuses to plateau. For a woman whose work helped define an entire generation of Nigerian storytelling, being here again in 2026 is a reminder of just how much she still has to give.

Close-up of veteran actress Bimbo Akintola looking intense and focused while holding a phone to her ear in a scene from the Kemi Adetiba series To Kill A Monkey. Photo Credit: Bimbo Akintola/Instagram

Ifeoma Fafunwa — The Lost Days

The most unexpected name on this list is also one of the most compelling. Ifeoma Fafunwa is not primarily known as an actress. She is a celebrated playwright, director, and activist, the creative mind behind HEAR WORD!, one of the most important theatre productions in Nigeria’s recent history. “The Lost Days” is her screen acting debut, and the jury clearly felt her performance was worth placing alongside some of the most experienced women in Nollywood.

She plays Chisom, a successful businesswoman in remission from lymphoma who leaves her city life behind and travels to Abeokuta to reconnect with the man she once loved and the son she left behind. Hidden truths from her past make the journey far more complicated than she anticipated. Director Wingonia Ikpi has spoken publicly about knowing from the moment they sat with Fafunwa that the role was hers, describing her as having the specific energy and presence the character required. This is her first AMVCA nomination, and what an entry point.

Ariyiike Owolagba — Something About The Briggs

“Something About The Briggs,” directed by Bukola Ogunsola, is a film about love, marriage, and the generational wounds that shape both. Ariyike Owolagba plays Sophie Briggs, a successful lawyer who turns down a marriage proposal because she is convinced that a curse has destroyed every relationship in her family before hers. Her partner, Chuks Obi, refuses to accept the rejection and begins to unravel the family’s buried past — forcing Sophie to confront the fears and secrets she has spent years running from.

This is Owolagba’s cinema debut and her first AMVCA nomination. Earning a spot in the Best Lead Actress category alongside veterans of Bimbo Akintola and Sola Sobowale’s standing is a statement in itself, and it signals the kind of arrival that does not happen by accident.

Genoveva Umeh — The Herd

The Herd, directed by Daniel Etim Effiong and one of the year’s most discussed films, follows a couple and their best man who escape their wedding only to be intercepted by bandits. The groom is killed. The bride, Derin, played by Genoveva Umeh, and the best man are abducted, setting off a desperate scramble for ransom from those left behind. Umeh plays a woman thrust into the most terrifying moment of her life with no preparation and no control, navigating grief, fear, and survival in the hands of people who see her as nothing more than leverage.

This Best Lead Actress nod marks a significant graduation for Umeh, who took home the Best Supporting Actress award in 2024 for “Breath of Life.” With a second nomination this year in the Best Digital Content Creator category, this full AMVCA cycle confirms that her range, spanning from gritty dramatic leads to viral digital performance, has made her a force that is now, clearly, impossible to ignore.

Behind the scenes of “The Herd” with director Daniel Etim Effiong and lead actress Genoveva Umeh. Umeh plays Derin, a bride whose wedding day turns into a nightmare, a role that earned her a 2026 Best Lead Actress nomination. Photo Credit: Genoveva Umeh/Instagram

Genoveva Umeh smiling and holding her 2024 AMVCA trophy for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Anna in the film “Breath of Life.” Photo Credit: Genoveva Umeh/Instagram

Sola Sobowale — Her Excellency

If there is a face Nollywood reaches for when it needs to put power on screen, it has long been Sola Sobowale’s. In “Her Excellency,” a political drama set in the fictional Salim State, she plays Moyeni, the First Lady — the woman behind the throne, the real force in the room, whose obsession with control and paranoia about her husband’s loyalty sets off a chain of chaos that touches everyone around her. It is familiar territory for Sobowale. And yet, as with everything she does, she finds something new in it. In two scenes where Moyeni speaks alone, pacing the room as though haunted by her own thoughts, Sobowale reveals a fragility underneath the fury that is genuinely arresting.

She is also nominated for Best Supporting Actress at this year’s ceremony for “The Covenant,” making her one of the double nominees in the acting categories. Sobowale’s relationship with the AMVCA stretches back years, with nominations across multiple editions. This nomination, in a year where she is producing some of the most compelling work of this phase of her career, feels particularly well-earned.

Scarlet Gomez — Behind The Scenes

“Behind The Scenes” is Nollywood’s highest-grossing film of 2025, crossing ₦2.1 billion at the box office and becoming the first Nollywood film to surpass the ₦2 billion mark. At the centre of that film is Scarlet Gomez, playing Aderonke “Ronky-Fella” Faniran, a wealthy real estate mogul whose generosity toward family and friends has become her greatest burden. Ronke is the family’s financial backbone, selfless to a fault, and slowly running on empty while the people around her treat her success as their personal resource.

This Best Lead Actress nod marks a major milestone in Gomez’s career, serving as her second AMVCA nomination to date. Building on the momentum of her 2023 recognition for her powerhouse performance in “Wura,” this latest honour solidifies her evolution from a television icon to a record-breaking box office queen.

Scarlet Gomez as Aderonke “Ronky-Fella” Faniran and Tobi Bakre on the set of the record-breaking “Behind The Scenes.” The film became the first Nollywood production to surpass ₦2 billion at the box office in 2025. Photo Credit: Scarlet Gomez/Instagram

Gloria Anozie-Young — Mother of the Brides

“Mother of the Brides” is a drama series built on a premise that is as old as it is cruel. When Erasmus, the patriarch of the Sylvia-White family, dies without a will, his widow Mai Sisi, played by Gloria Anozie-Young, is left to fight for the right to simply remain within the legacy she helped build. Once the daughter of a maid who climbed into respectability through sheer will and performance, Mai Sisi is now a matriarch whose strength is real but whose hold on everything she has earned is suddenly precarious. She is fierce, calculating, and afraid, and Anozie-Young plays all three at once.

That she is here is one of the more meaningful moments of these nominations. Gloria Anozie-Young is a veteran whose decades of work are woven into the fabric of Nigerian cinema and television. Seeing her name in a category alongside nominees four decades her junior is not a surprise to anyone who has watched her work. It is simply an overdue acknowledgement.

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