Ama K Abebrese
Ghanaian filmmakers have been called upon to consider shooting more festival films and take advantage of the opportunities that abound in that sector of the film industry.
Celebrated actress Ama K Abebrese, who made the call, indicated that there are great potentials for filmmakers to tap into in the festival industry.
Speaking to NEWS-ONE on Thursday, she explained that taking films to festivals is one of the important steps to getting international exposure and connecting with others as a filmmaker.
“If we want to get our films on international platforms, then we need to step up to the play. I know right now there are a lot of filmmakers across Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa among other countries. The whole of Africa is stepping up. There is also the internet revolution and we have to catch up. People are no longer buying DVDs anymore so we need to catch up on the internet. You don’t always have to get your films on Netflix, there are other places on the internet like Amazon you can go to,” she stated.
“Also take your films to film festivals, which our new film ‘The Burial of Kojo’ has been doing. It is important that when we make films now, let’s do films that we can take and we can travel with,” Ama K added.
Ama K is arguably one Ghana’s best actresses who gained international prominence through attending festivals. Most of the films she has shot in the past have travelled some major festivals across the world.
She revealed that ‘The Burial of Kojo’, which is her latest movie, has also been enjoying some attention from festival circles.
She is one of the producers of the film, and they partly raised $78,000 online to complete the film.
‘The Burial of Kojo ’is currently one of the films that is projecting Ghana at the festival level. The film was an official selection of the 2019 Pan African Film Festival and the 2018 Urbanworld Film Festival Best Narrative Feature winner. It was also selected for Luxor Film Festival in Egypt, where it won Grand Nile Prize for Best Long Narrative (the Golden Mask of Tutankhamen).
This week, the film will also be available on Netflix from March 31 for those who are yet to watch it.
According to Ama K, she and her team are very proud of how far their film has come and advised more Ghanaian filmmakers to also take advantage of the opportunities that come with film festivals.
By Francis Addo