Stop Killing The Ghana Movie Awards!

Officially, the Ghana Movie Awards which is held annually will be four years on December 30. As usual, winners for this year�s edition would be announced, rewarded and celebrated at the Accra International Conference Centre, the venue for the awards. As actors, producers, directors, Ghanaians and other stakeholders gear up for this year�s edition, a lot of questions have been asked and are still being asked with regards especially on preparation for this year�s event which many on the quiet side have described as not being good. A lot is also being asked about how serious the awards should be taken. Questions are being asked about the credibility of the awards and whether it is living up to its expectations. All these questions are being asked because of the happenings that took place few days to the grand announcement of this year�s nominations. As has been the case over the past three years of the awards, a special ceremony is held for the announcement of the final list of the nominees for the awards. This year was no different. A well planned soiree had been put together for announcement to be made to the Ghanaian media. Media personnel were in anticipation of who the nominees to be unveiled were but the nominations were shamefully leaked by someone among the organisers. The leakage consequently defeated the purpose for the well-organised-soiree for the media. Since its inception the Ghana Movie Awards has been bedeviled with one problem or the other. The problems, over the years have however not been solved. Yet problems continue to pour in. In fact, some of the mistakes shouldn�t have come up in the first place. They were avoidable. But the anomalies keep showing their ugly head year after year. If organisers of the awards will leak information before their scheduled release, it shows the direction the awards is pointing and why people are doubting its credibility. Surely, for several years to come the Ghana Movie Awards would want to be mentioned and seen as one of the most credible award schemes for movie personalities in Ghana. Yet there are several errors that keep occurring and which have not been dealt with. It is amazing how new sets of problems are deliberately added to the already existing ones. Existing problems In the first edition, there were four actresses who were adjudged by the awards� jury panel as befitting of the Best Actress award because of the role each of them played in Alhaji Salam Mumuni�s movie 4Play Reloaded. The four actresses, namely, Jackie Appiah, Yvonne Okoro, Juliet Ibrahim and Roselyn Ngissah were presented with one of the biggest awards on the night. They won Best Actress in a Lead Role and were consequently given one SUV car to share among themselves, aside the statuettes that were presented to them on the night. To give a car to someone for becoming Best Actress is not a bad idea, but it turned out wrongly because four people were given the nod and therefore had to share one car. This created tension, pressure, hatred and enmity among the actresses involved. Awards are supposed to unify and bring people in a particular field together. However, words on the streets indicate that the Ghana Movie Awards is doing otherwise. Up until now, Ghanaians do not know the whereabouts of the said car. We do not know whether it has been sold and the money shared or if it is packed in the garage of one of the actresses or being used by someone else. Shouldn�t answers be given before new sets of problems are introduced? Was The Leakage Necessary? Another thing that when continued will kill the awards concerns the leakage of information before it officially comes out. Was the leakage of the nominees for awards before they were unveiled necessary at all? What purpose does it serve? Copying other awards schemes to help you grow yours is normal practice but must it be done with disdain? A week before the nominations for Oscars, the Oscar website leaked vital information which had to do with the nomination of Quentin Tarantino�s epic adventure film Django Unchained. I stand to be corrected, but before that leakage, I had not heard or read about leakage concerning nominations before they were made officially public. That is why I believe the idea of leaking information from the Ghana Movie Awards before its grand release was �stolen� from the Oscars. And why must it be so? Even before the leakage of that information, many still found it difficult to see the awards as being credible. Now after the leakage, we can all predict what will be happening in coming years. Awards events are organised by human beings. What this means is that people are always privy to some information, but it does not mean such information which sometimes are vital should be leaked? Charter House has organised the annual Ghana Music Awards for 14 years and there has not been any leakage of information particularly concerning nominations before they are officially released? How can counterparts in foreign movie awards schemes which have been held close to a decade or more, respect and see the awards as serious and credible? Must we joke with everything because we are in charge? Preparation for this year�s awards has been poor and it has not been perfect in the previous years either. CEO of the awards scheme, Phred Nuamah must know that the Ghana Movie Awards like any awards event needs a serious and dedicated team to make the awards triumph. A team to organise the event must be put in place long before any scheduled ceremony. In fact, there should be a team that is supposed to function all round the year. It is important that awards ceremonies are taken as serious events, and as such standards ought to be upheld. Faltering every year as well as delays with the process are not helping the scheme. The movie industry is a vibrant and serious one that needs serious minds to organise and implement to the satisfaction of the industry players. I bet Phred is not waiting for the time when players in the industry will boycott the awards because things have not been done correctly. Merry Christmas to you all!