Azali actresses Akorfa Edjeani and Asana Alhassan
‘Azali’, a Ghanaian movie about child marriage, is the movie of the moment, leading with 15 nominations at the 2018 Ghana Movie Movie Awards (GMA).
This year’s GMAs will take place on Sunday, December 23 at Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast, Accra.
Nominations for the award were released over the weekend with a number of Ghanaian movies and filmmakers making the list. Yvonne Nelson, Jackie Appiah, Ama K. Abebrese, Regina Van-Helvert and Adjetey Anang are among movie stakeholders who got nominations.
‘Azali’, directed by Kwabena Gyansah, had the most nominations while ‘Bad Luck Joe’ followed with 11 nods and ‘Silence’ taking the third place with nine nominations.
‘Azali’ was nominated in lead actor, lead actress, editing, original song, cinematography, visual effects, directing, original score, writing adapted or original screenplay and production design.
The nominations have come at a time stakeholders have been praising the movie for its quality.
Months ago, the movie made Ghana proud at the 2018 edition of African International Film Festival (AFIFF) in Lagos Nigeria by emerging the best feature film at the festival.
It also picked two additional awards at the ceremony for best screenplay and best actress award; won by lead actress Asana Alhassan for her great performance.
The Ghana movie award nomination comes as no surprise to those who have seen the movie.
It’s a story about 14-year-old Amina (Asana Alhassan) from Northern Ghana, who is thrust into the slums of Accra by circumstances and must find a way to get back home. Amina has her life going well until her mother makes a decision that changes all that. Faced with a choice of perceived hopelessness, marrying Amina to a much older man or sending her off to work in Burkina Faso, she chooses the latter. But unknown to her, the man is part of a child smuggling syndicate.
Produced by Ananse Entertainment, ‘Azali’ stars Akofa Edjeani, Adjetey Anang, Mohammed Halfiz, Ama K. Abebrese, Strika, Peter Ritchie, among others.