The West African Regional Manager of African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), Judith Oluwole Kuwornu, has explained that Ghana’s failure to impress at the recent AMAA held in Nigeria was due to the quality of movies that were presented for this year’s awards.
She told BEATWAVES that even though West African countries like Ghana came out with good movies, the award ceremony was a field day for South and North African movies because their movies were of better qualities than their West African counterparts.
She said, “looking at the movies the South and North African countries presented, there was no way the jury was not going to give them the nod. One Kenyan movie titled ‘From A Whisper’ which explores the 1997 bombing of the American Embassy in Nairobi, took not less six awards.”
She disclosed that besides the good storyline and other technicalities involved in producing ‘From A Whisper’, the quality of the movie depended a lot on sophisticated equipments used in shooting it, and compliment the Kenyan government for that.
According to her, North and South African film makers getstate support when it comes to funding movie equipment. However, it is a different ballgame in Ghana. She thus partly blamed the Ghana government for the country’s failure at the AMAA.
“In Ghana, the state has neglected the movie industry. They are not supporting in anyway, that is why there are all these lapses. We cannot blame government entirely. We can only ask for their support because the moment they make sure that all the equipment is in place, I am sure the movie industry would also strive for perfection,” she noted.
By Francis Addo