Held at the Conference Centre, the Awards ceremony was a lush black-tie, designer-gown event, complete with a red carpet for all the notables who make the Ghanaian movie industry what it is. Spirits on the red carpet were very high and excited with most of the celebrities thrilled to meet many of their friends gathered in one place, as well as looking forward to a great night. Fashion was seriously kissed up to! There were the classy, gorgeous gowns and suits: Jackie Appiah showed up in a gorgeous shiny gown, Martha Ankomah in a brown, flowered, above-the-knee cocktail dress, John Dumelo in a fitting suit, Prince David Osei in a glossy similar with his ever-present shades, Shirley Frimpong looked gorgeous in a black, above-the-knee tube dress, made even more fashionable with a red flair on one sleeve, Pascaline Edwards veered off the uniform of the night to coming out dressed as an Indian, complete with short blond hair and a sari. Then there were points when wardrobe turned costume: one man came up with a wig that covered half his face! Ghana’s very own Fashion Police, Fashion 101, was present to give ticks and x’s. The Awards ceremony also attracted powerful personalities from the Nigerian Movie industry such as Olu Jacobs, President of the Actors’ Guild, who was also honoured at the ceremony, Ramsey Noah and Desmond Elliot.
Nana Aba Anamoah and Afare Attoh were MCs of this glamorous ceremony held to recognize and support the work of all in the movie-making industry. The night commenced with a comedy session by Legend. After which, Vodafone’s babies, RnM performed two of their single. One member was missing from the three-girl group, however, the other two held their own very well with their formation dances and danceable beats. MzBel is the final performance to set the tone of the night with her bevy of dancers, dressed in black tights and shiny tops. Her performance was on point as usual, however, the audience seemed eager to get into the business of awarding. During an interlude, Nana Boroo singing “Too much of everything is bad” stole his audience’s attention by including a heavy set woman, who danced incredibly!
The CEO of Multi TV, set the tone for the speeches the night, wishing everyone the best of the evening and highlighting the benefits of Multi TV. David Dontoh, President of the Ghana Movie Awards, stressed on the importance of an award ceremony in his speech, to acknowledge and support the hard work of everyone in the industry. Funnyface was then called on stage by Nana Aba Anamoah to azonto to his latest single, “Aponkye pum33”. His performance drew the first rousing, energetic applause for the night.
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| Leila Dzansi |
Presentation of the awards began at this point. The night seemed to be a battle between, arguably, Ghana’s best two directors: Shirley Frimpong-Manso and Leila Dzansi. Between them, they virtually swept any award that nominated Adams’ Apples or Ties That Bind, pushing aside male Directors such as Frank Rajah, Pascal Amanfo and Samuel Ofori. It was indeed the crowning night for the hardwork of these two female directors who have made their marks in the industry in different ways by bringing a marked increase in the quality of filmmaking.
Another interesting occurrence of the night to note was the difference between the English-speaking award winners and the local-language award winners. Whereas the English-Speaking award-winners came up, mostly alone, or with one other person, to deliver their speeches, it became quite typical of the Local language award winners to come up on stage with a whole entourage. Agyaa Koo came up with about eleven supporters. This time Agyaa Koo’s speech was not peppered by jokes but serious anecdotes of wisdom. Kyeiwaa, by far the most interesting award winner of the night, did a little dance on the walkway, drawing cheers and laughter, before going up on the stage. Instead of going straight to her award before the mike, she went straight to the mike to ask, “Me nananom wo he?”, and she waited till all her family members, including children, were on the stage with her before she went for her award. A powerful way of acknowledging the support of family before anything else in her success.
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| Ramsey Noah |
Highlights in the speeches made that night by the award winners were Joseph Osei, winner of the best supporting actor in local language, saying, “I thank God for won this award”, which drew quite an amount of mirth from the audience. Majid, after winning best actor in leading role (English) said most heartily, “I’m going to my wife tonight, I would hold her in my arms and we would sleep tight!” This drew the expected roar from the men in the audience. One presenter of an award for the night cracked a few very dry jokes: To follow “Merry Christmas”, it should, in the light of “Merry”, be “Joseph New year”. Also, to respond to “Afehyia Pa”, instead of “Afe nko meto yen”, it should be “Akoko nko meto yen”. Funnyface announces during his speech to Nana Ama Mcbrown, “I love you in my mind for now!” Martha Ankomah becomes teary during her Thank you’s and begins to preach to her audience about the power of God. Kyeiwaa, coming up to receive an award for Vivian Gem, says what she has learnt in English that night was “Oh, boy!”, which had everyone going home with that gimmick to recite. Ramsey Noah, in response to a comment passed by Majid that Van Vicker could play Obama in a movie, said Van could not play Obama. Instead Dumelo could play Obama while Van played Qaddafi. One can imagine the laughter that filled the Conference Centre! Sandra Thomson was hugged for a tremendously long period by Funnyface when presenting his award for best TV series. The long hug proceeded to Funnyface going down on his knees and hugging her still. Did it draw crazy laughter!
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| Van Vicker |
Below is the list of award winners:
Award: Best Story
Presented by: Ekow Smith Asante
Winner: Adams’ Apples
Award: Best Writing Adapted on original screen
Presented by: Miss Buari, Miss Ghana 2002
Winner: Adams’ Apples
Award: Best Art Direction
Presented by: RnM
Winner: Ties That Bind
Award: Best Cinematography
Presented by: Stacey Boateng
Winner: Ties That Bind
Award: Best Visual Effect
Presented by: Confidence
Winner: Graveyard
Award: Best Editing
Presented by: Jefferson Sackey
Winner: Ties That Bind
Award: Best sound Editing and Mixing
Presented by: George Gyimah
Winner: Ties That Bind
Award: Best Music
Presented by: Samual Dartey
Winner: Agyaa Koo Gbengbentus
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| Martha Ankomah |
Award: Best Music, Original Score
Presented by: KKD
Winner: Adams’ Apples
Award: Best Directing, local language
Presented by: Akosua Adjapong
Winner: Agyaa Koo and Augustine Abbey
Award: Best Directing, English Language
Presented by: Lexis
Winner: Ties That Bind
Award: Best Picture
Presented by: Ben Asamoah
Winner: Ties That Bind
The awards above were decided by the jury alone, without public votes.
Award: Best Cameo Actor
Presented by: Samini and Ama K.
Winner: Kofi Adjorlolo in Somewhere in Africa
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| Nadia Buari,Jackie Appiah |
Award: Best Cameo Actress
Presented by: Alex
Winner: Grace Nortey in Adams’ Apples
Award: Best Actress in Supporting Role, English
Presented by: Ekow Blankson
Winner: Nadia Buari
Award: Best Actress in Supporting Role, Local Language
Presented by: PY Addo Boateng
Winner: Kyeiwaa
Award: Best Actor in Supporting Role, English
Presented by: Kwesi P.
Winner: Majid Michel for Somewhere in Africa
Award: Best Actor in Supporting Role, Local language
Presented by: Pascaline Edwards and Uncle Chester
Winner: Joseph Osei Osofo
Award: Best Discovery
Presented by: Bennie Blanko
Winner: Kweku Mainoo
Award: Best Actor in Leading Role English
Presented by: Funnyface and Okyeame Kofi
Winner: Majid Michel for Somewhere in Africa
Award: Best Actor in Leading Role, Local Language
Presented by: Nii Clark
Winner: Agyaa koo
Award: Best Actress in Leading Role, English
Presented by: Ameyaw Debrah
Winner: Kimberley Elise
Award: Best Actress in Leading Role, Local Language
Presented by: Derrick Boateng
Winner: Vivian Gem
Award: Best Actor, Africa Collaboration
Presented by: David Dontoh
Winner: Ramsey Noah for Memories of my Heart
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| Yvonne Okoro |
Award: Best Actress Africa Collaboration
Presented by: Ken and Chris Attoh
Winner: Omotola Ekeinde for Ties That Bind
Award: Best Costume
Presented by: Fusena
Winner: Samira Yakubu
Award: Lifetime Achievement Award
Presented by: David Dontoh
Winner: Olu Jacobs
Award: Best Actor for TV series
Presented by: Honourable Minister for Transport
Winner: Funnyface for Chorkor Trotro
Award: Best Actress for TV series
Presented by: Honourable Minister for Information
Winner: Aunty B for Effiewura
The next set of awards are the Cineafriq Special Awards.
Award: Favourite Actress
Presented by: Ben Egan, Secretary to the Cabinet of Ghana
Winner: Martha Ankomah
Award: Favourite Actor
Presented by: Representative of MultiTV
Winner: Majid Michel
Award: Favourite TV series drama
Presented by: Sandra Thomson
Winner: Chorkor Trotro
Controversies of the night lay with Kimberley Elise winning the award for Ghana’s Best Actress. Many argued that the message this was trying to imply was that Ghana’s very own best actress is not even Ghanaian! Also, Majid Michel winning Best Actor in supporting role and leading role for one movie is unheard of.
What is such an event without controversy!
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