The second Ghana Movie Awards (GMA) takes place on 25 December 2011 at the Accra International Conference Centre and preparations for this year’s event are underway.
The event was first launched on 30 September 2010 and the awards ceremony was also held on Christmas Day. This year’s call for entries opened on 3 August.
The objective of the awards is to recognise excellence by rewarding deserving actors, directors, writers and other key personalities in Ghana’s film industry.
Fred Nuamah, founder and CEO of Gollywood Productions which organises the awards in association with the Multimedia Group, says that the formation of the GMA was inspired by the tremendous performances by the Ghanaian movie industry this year and the need to encourage key personalities.
Nuamah elaborates that the local film industry is excited about the event as previously Ghana didn’t have its own industry awards. Ghana lagged behind film award trends in other countries such as Nigeria (African Movie Academy Awards; AMAA) and South Africa (South Africa Film and Television Awards (SAFTAS).
“Nominations for the Ghana Movie Awards for 2011 sees movie releases screened by a locally selected committee which looks for good acting, directing, pictures, sound quality and so on. Submitted films are short listed, then shown at a nominee release party,’ states Nuamah.
He emphasises that the categories adhere to international standards such as the lead role, supporting role and best directed movie, among other categories.
Nuamah is upbeat that this year’s awards will be keenly contested as more nominations are expected. There will be the same 27 categories as last year and four additional categories have been introduced. These include cameo role awards for best actor and actress, best picture and best television series.
Since launching the GMAs have influenced the local movie industry, says Nuamah, as filmmakers strive for quality and impressive work has been produced in terms of acting, directing, editing and other areas.
The second GMAs include improvements such as additional prizes (two cars) for the founder’s merit awards plus prizes such as cloths, cellphones plus other consolation prizes. The gold plated statuette weighs 2.5kg and will be awarded to each category winner.
The awards ceremony will be televised by the national operator Ghana Television (GTV) and private broadcaster Multi TV for about three hours. “The GMA has come to stay. We are looking at celebrating our golden jubilee in the future,’ says Nuamah.
