Golden movie awards explains criteria

Organisers of the 2017 Golden Movie Awards Africa (GMAA) have said it will accept film entries from the diaspora if the film is produced by an African or by an African production house.

According to the Director of GMAA, Mimi Andani, “If the film is by an African or is an African production then it qualifies for the Golden Movie Awards. It doesn’t matter where you are. If you are an African and you are producing a film in America, as long as you are an African, your film qualifies. And don’t categorise it as diaspora…No! Your film is African and it is African. Period! It qualifies to be nominated for all categories. We don’t want to streamline it to a particular category and push all the others to one particular corner.”

“If there is film by an African and it features Arnold Schwarzenegger, yes we will accept it as long as the producer is an African and the production is African. If you are African and you used A-list actors from Hollywood we will accept it because we are encouraging you being an African. You are our primary aim and not who is in the film. We want to encourage our filmmakers to do better. We want better productions so it’s about you the producer and the production house, not the people in the film,” she further explained.

In 2015, international movie, ‘Beasts Of No Nation’ made headlines in Ghana after it was nominated at the 2015 Ghana Movie Award. Some industry persons went up in arms against the organisers of the awards ceremony over the nomination of the movie with arguments that it didn’t qualify to enter the Ghana Movie Awards’ scheme because it wasn’t produced by a Ghanaian.

But organisers came up with the defence that the movie had Ghanaian producers. There were also complaints about budget that it was unfair to allow the huge budget movie to compete with Ghanaian movies. Rather an international category should have been created for the movie so it competes with movies of its kind.

Golden Movie Awards, therefore, made their point clear on the issue. They said they would accept any production by an African or African production irrespective of actors in it and where it was produced.

This year’s GMAAs which will be the third of its kind will be held on July 8 in Accra, Ghana, at a yet-to-be announced venue.

Submissions of entries for the award ended on Tuesday to pave way for other activities ahead of the main event.

The annual GMAA is an initiative by NMJ Ghana and its Ghanaian and international partners to reward excellence in filmmaking on the Africa continent and among Africans in the diaspora.