NAFTI gives awards to staff and students

Accra, March 11, GNA - The National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) on Friday gave awards to two members of staff and Mr Fred Amugi, a seasoned Ghanaian actor, at the closing ceremony of Film and Television Festival in Accra.

The Institute also gave awards to 15 students, who distinguished themselves in various academic fields.

All recipients received certificates of merit and undisclosed amounts of money.

Donors and sponsors of activities of the Institute were also given certificates.

Mr Kofi Middleton-Mends, Deputy Director of NAFTI, said the awards were to encourage the students to pay particular attention to the quality and content of their films as people had been expressing concern about the quality and content of most of the films shown on television. "These young film makers have got what it takes to make good films and hence the need to give them the financial support." He said filmmaking was an expensive business and financial support in the form of investment in their films was the only means by which they could fill the screens with indigenous production and capture the market in other African countries.

Mr Middleton-Mends announced that the institute had acquired a well-equipped film-dubbing centre, where films in English language could be dubbed into French and exported to neighbouring francophone countries.

Films could also be dubbed into Ghanaian local languages, he said. Prof. Kofi Kumado, Chairman of NAFTI Board of Governors, in a speech read for him, said in the past year, the institute received new equipment in the areas of animation and sound from donor organizations, and these had contributed immensely towards the quality of production. He urged other organizations to contribute in terms of equipment to enhance the training programme at the Institute. The Institute was set up in 1979 to offer three-year Diploma programmes. Students from 14 countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa have benefited from the programme.

In 1998, the University of Ghana granted a Special Relations Status to NAFTI under which the Institute introduced first-degree programmes.