It is about time

Without a shadow of a doubt, the Oscars are among the most prestigious film awards in the world. It is a pinnacle of an actor, director or filmmaker’s career to be nominated let alone win an Oscar.

Although primarily an American award, the Oscars has certain categories reserved for international films as well. 

For the first time since the inception of the Oscars about 90 years ago, Ghana has a chance to submit a movie to the Oscars, specifically in the Best Foreign Language Film Award. The feature which makes the Best Foreign Language Film Award a must-win is the fact that the award is presented not to an individual filmmaker but the submitting country as a whole. 

For a country which touts itself as among the pioneers of filmmaking in Africa, it is a shame that not a single Ghanaian movie has ever featured at the Oscars. Filmmaker, Leila Djansi, has spearheaded the formation of a 14-member committee to oversee the submission of a Ghanaian film to this year’s Oscar awards. 

Considering the fact that this is the first time Ghana will be attempting to submit a movie to the awards scheme, there is the possibility that the movie we eventually submit might not make the final list of movies. 

This, nonetheless, still presents an opportunity for us to step up our game for future awards.  We now know the standard and quality the Oscars demands and there is no reason why we cannot make our movies competitive. 

It is about time Ghana puts herself on the map with regards to filmmaking because the days when Ghanaian movies were produced solely for Ghanaian viewers are long gone.