Ghana movie industry’s quest for world domination is close to getting a mainstream stage ready to launch it to the world. The 2020 Academy Awards is taking films made outside the U.S. for a final shortlist of nominees to make up the best foreign language category.
Going through the submission process for the very first time, Ghana has selected ‘Azali’, a locally produced film, which stars Gollywood A-listers, Adjetey Anang, Ama K Abebrese, Akorfa Edjeani and the debut lead actress Amina Alhassan.
The storyline tells the journey of a 14-year-old (played by Amina) from a village in Northern Ghana to the slums of the bustling capital of Accra. Amina escapes her upcoming marriage to a 70-year-old farmer but finds herself on a truck being trafficked to Burkina Faso. A cruel twist of fate sees her rescued from the truck but flung into the bustling city of Accra. Amina is now left to choose between surviving in Accra and returning to her village and marriage.
Throughout the 91 years of Oscar happenings in the world, this is the first time Ghana has decided on a picture worthy of an Oscar submission. Professor Linus Abraham, chair of Ghana’s Oscar selection committee disclosed of the submitted film, “‘Azali’ is a consciousness-raising film and we are very honored that for the first time, Ghana has found a film worthy enough to represent it at the 92nd Oscars. This has been a long time coming and it is a testament to the growth of the Ghana film industry. We believe this will enhance the image of Ghanaian films and encourage more co-productions and quality filmmaking.”
‘Azali’ is written by Gwandellen Quartey and directed by Kwabena Gyansah. Ananse Entertainment produced it alongside Motion Revolution.
Aside Ghana making their name available to the Academy board with ‘Azali’, other countries namely; Kenya, Ethiopia, France, Albania, Philippines, Montenegro and Kyrgyzstan have all submitted films titled; ‘Subira’, ‘Running Against the Wind’, ‘Les Miserables’, ‘The Delegation’, ‘Verdict’, ‘Neverending’ and ‘Aurora’ respectively.
The 92nd Academy awards is slated to take place on February 9, 2020.
