Ama K. Abebrese
‘The Burial of Kojo’, the directorial debut from Ghana’s Blitz Bazawuke, is officially in the run for a Golden Globe nomination.
This makes it the first-ever film from Ghana to be considered for a Golden Globe nomination.
“Oh my God. @theburialofkojo made history for Ghana. The first from Ghana is eligible for a nomination for the @goldenglobes Best Foreign Language Film,” the film’s co-producer and actress Ama K Abebrese said on Instagram when she broke the news on Friday.
“WHAAAAAAT!!!! [The Burial of Kojo] is up for a Golden Globe Nomination. First ever for Ghana. Just Wow!!!” director and co-producer Bazawuke also tweeted.
Golden Globe is one of the world’s most celebrated award platforms. The upcoming event is the 77th edition Golden Globe Awards and it would take place on January 5, 2020.
Ninety-five films from 65 different countries are being considered for nomination in the category, including Cannes favourite ‘Atlantics’ from Senegal and ‘The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind’ from Malawi.
Fingers are crossed for ‘The Burial of Kojo’ to further make Ghana’s movie industry proud out there.
The film tells the story of Kojo (Joseph Otsiman), who is left to die in an abandoned gold mine, as his young daughter Esi (newcomer Cynthia Dankwa) travels through a spirit land to save him.
The film was produced by Blitz Bazawule, Ama Abebrese and Kwaku Obeng Boateng.
It had its world premiere in New York on September 21, 2018, at the Urban World Film Festival, where it was recognised as best narrative feature (World Cinema). It is distributed by ARRAY and was released on the popular streaming service Netflix on March 21, 2019, making it the first Ghanaian film to premiere in selected countries worldwide on Netflix.
It also picked two awards at the 2019 edition of the Africa Movie Academy Awards in Nigeria, including best director-first feature film for Blitz and best young/promising actor for Cynthia Dankwa, who played Esi in the film.
By Francis Addo